#fashinvest

[lovethatfit]

Customize It Love!!!

Recently our Founder Gina Mancuso pitched at FashInvest, held at The Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. There, not only did she score Big by Winning Two Tickets from AirFrance, Gina met a ton of Fashion Start Up Founders, like herself. One imparticular that stood out with us was a great team that started Flat Out Of Heels. Concept... Traveling in airports to run the streets, flag taxi's & catch subways all to make a quick meet & greet, pitch your concept to Fashion Houses as well as Investors... You aren't showing up in your sneakers. Flat Out Of Heels is a kiosk, one up & running in the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, that scans your foot, you choose your style of flats to match your outfit & Voila... Out pops a perfect pair of flats with a nice inconspicuous bag to place your heels in, while you run like a mad woman to make all those meetings! Such an amazing idea & since they are so comfortable & Tres Chic, you can also order them online!!!

Now onto another Amazing Shoe Concept... Shoe Customization! FashInvest recently had a great Facelift for their site & wrote about this Amazing Topic!!! When it comes to being able to Customize your wardrobe... Easy! We are able to shop for our body types in separates for anything these days. I mean who doesn't love the ability to Mix & Match Bathing Suits? But Shoes??? Can you customize Top Designer Shoes? Yes you can!!! And Stuart Weiztman is Jumping on it!!! No, this can't be true... So happy to announce that it is!!! Enjoy the fun, if your pocket book can, or just play around with it & save those pennies for your very own tailor made Stewies!!!

-LTF

[wantering-blog]

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I am originally from Detroit, Michigan. I always had a love for fashion. As a baby, going to the mall in my stroller made me happy. I always use to shop in my grandmother’s closet, I currently have some of her best pieces from the 50’s and 60’s. As a child, my mother always dressed me different and I hated it! Now, I can appreciate being different. I’ve always had a love for art (I’ve been drawing since the age of 6), I also love music and anything that has to do with the arts.

Which fashion accessory are you obsessed with right now?

Bracelets, lots and lots of bracelets.

How would you describe the Lolita Alford fashion style?

Different and sometimes over-the-top, vintage-inspired

Who are your favorite designers?

Alexander McQueen, the late Gianni Versace

Did you always have a passion for finance, or is this something you acquired after working with the FashInvest team?

I’ve always been good with numbers so I liked math. During the time that I was getting my MBA at LIM College, I developed an interest for finance and the business side of fashion.

What are some of the most challenging aspects of being the Director of Editorial Content and Outreach for FashInvest?

Taking our editorial to the next level. It’s great to give your personal opinion with data to back it up when writing. However, creating a possible prediction can be challenging. Although the interest in fashion and finance is picking up, it’s still pretty fresh, convincing some people that this is the next big thing, can still be a challenge.

Why do you think more people are becoming interested in news specific to the intersection of fashion and finance?

I think that people realize that it is difficult to receive funding for a fashion company. By keeping up with who’s getting funding, readers can trace a pattern which may help them when developing their own fashion startup. I also think that people want to know as much as possible about their favorite brands (as a consumer), by following funding news, they can achieve this.

What are your predictions for what’s to come in the fashion tech world?

Well, social media isn’t going anywhere. I feel like the fashion tech industry will continue to leverage social media as much as possible. We live in a society where consumers want everything now. Currently, we’ve seen more and more brands and retailers utilizing social media channels and updating and developing technology software to cater more to the consumer. In the future, I see a lot of fashion tech companies partnering with these retailers and brands (or creating apps and software for them) to provide the consumer with a flawless experience.

FashInvest is having its fourth annual Capital Conference this December in New York. Create an outfit from Wantering.com that would be fabulous for this exciting fashion-focused conference!

Alexander McQueen Flared Structured Coat Winter Kate Silk Crepe Geo Print Maxi Dress ModCloth Tights Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Closed-Toe Slip-On Proenza Schouler PS1 Medium Satchel

If you could give an advice to your 14 year-old self, what would it be?

Develop my talents more. I would have learned to sew sooner. I would have also told myself to embrace my individuality more when it came to my personal style

Follow Lolita on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. Ready to stay updated on the latest fashion and finance news? Get connected with FashInvest, and on their Twitter and Facebook. 

Loved Lolita's blue satchel pick? Discover more Proenza Schouler on Wantering.com!

[testpm]

Recapping the World’s First Fashion Hackathon

This past weekend I teamed up with four crazy smart teammates to compete in the first-ever Fashion Hackathon.

[modalyst-blog]

Editorial Scoop - Modalyst featured in FashInvest Today

Modalyst Launches in Private Beta, Eases Buyer’s Pain for Boutiques

One of the obstacles for independent boutiques is an in-depth buying experience. For many of these boutiques, they are taking a gamble when investing in new designers. This often results in them buying a small quantity of products just to observe the reaction of their consumer.

What if there was a way to enhance the buying experience so that boutiques could develop complete confidence in the product(s) and buy more? Well….this is now possible, welcome to Modalyst!

Modalyst is a curated, online marketplace connecting emerging designers and independent boutiques. Modalyst is creating an experience of collective buying, where boutique buyers can:

explore and test new brands with less restrictive minimums

increase their purchasing power collectively to compete with larger retailers

buy regularly rather than seasonlly to keep up with continuous fashion trends

Today, the marketplace announces the launch of their site in private beta. “My largest frustration as a buyer,” says CEO & Co-Founder Jill Sherman, “was the inability to buy enough stock to compete with larger retailers. Despite being a buyer for Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong, it was hard to compete with the larger department stores with more doors in a city highly focused on exclusivity rights.”

Now, with Modalyst, small-to-medium boutique buyers no longer need to worry about facing these challenges. Modalyst is teaming up boutique buyers into a collective buy, enabling smaller retailers to receive competitive wholesale pricing. “We help buyers reach minimums or receive wholesale discounts, collectively” says Jill Sherman. A store in Denver, Dallas, or Des Moines may have a similar demographic, and purchase similar brands. Through Modalyst, we match them so they can receive competitive wholesale pricing together. Through matching, Modalyst not only streamlines the discovery process, but also becomes a forum and meeting place for like-minded designers and boutiques.

This also means that with the same inventory spend, buyers can buy and test more designers before placing a large financial risk on high minimums with a singular brand. “Essentially, through Modalyst” says Alain Miguel, COO & Co-Founder, “smaller boutiques can alter their buying patterns to introduce product as often as fast fashion retailers such as Zara and H&M.”

The entire site is built from the buyer’s perspective and features virtual showrooms for them to peruse. “We feature an assortment of talented new accessories designers such as Mel Boteri, Jess Rizzuti, Sophie Blake, Bosie NY, Vivienne Kelly, and Shana Luther,” says Jill Sherman, “each excited to reach our selection of boutiques throughout 2nd and 3rd tier US cities – a market which is very difficult to reach for smaller designers.”

Modalyst is the world’s first collective buy wholesale marketplace. It boasts an array of features which will be rolled out to keep buyers enticed and visiting the site often. “We are positioned to be the go-to marketplace for buyers to purchase and discover cutting-edge accessories designers,” says Alain Miguel.

There are a number of future plans for Modalyst so stay tuned!!

By Lolita A. Alford

To access the original article click here: FashInvest

~Team Modalyst

[modalyst-blog]

Editorial Scoop - Modalyst featured in FashInvest

Top Blogs of 2012: Modalyst, the New Online Marketplace for Emerging Designers and Boutiques

Posted by Luyao on Dec 28, 2012 

Interview with Co-Founders Jill Sherman and Alain Miguel

Modalyst is a curated, online marketplace connecting emerging designers and independent boutiques. This is an exclusive community of buyers and brands that are tired of the traditional way of ordering inventory each season through trade shows and showrooms. Modalyst also creates an experience of collective buying, where boutique buyers can test new brands with less restrictive minimums, increase their purchasing power collectively to compete with larger retailers, and buy regularly instead of seasonally to keep up with fashion trends.  We had the pleasure of interviewing Modalyst co-founders Jill Sherman and Alain Miguel.

The Modalyst team is made up of CEO and co-founder Jill Sherman, COO/CFO and co-founder Alain Miguel, and VP of Engineering Omar Abudayyeh.  Jill has been working within the luxury sector of fashion for over 11 years, developing an acute understanding of retail and editorial environments.  She started her career as a fashion assistant at American and Italian Vogue. Then she worked at Harvey Nichols Hong Kong as the fashion resources manager.  Before starting the Modalyst, she was running the Miu Miu visual department at Prada USA. She also held a similar position at Prada/Miu Miu for the Asia Pacific region. Jill was educated at Tufts University and graduated Cum Laude.  In 2012, she received her MBA at MIT Sloan from the Sloan Fellows Program of Innovation and Global Leadership. She also attended the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.

Alain Miguel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Yale University and is currently a first-year MBA candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management.  Prior to Sloan, Alain spent four years as finance professional at JPMorgan Chase in New York City. In college, Alain launched a menswear polo line and understands the predicament of emerging designers as they attempt to manage production expenses, understand their target customer, and promote their brand.

Omar Abudayyeh is a recent graduate of MIT who double majored in mechanical engineering and biological engineering. He has recently been accepted into Harvard as an MD/PhD student, but is deferring due to his passion for Modalyst. Omar has been nationally recognized by Amgen, Intel, Siemens, Tylenol, Lowe’s, and the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship through Congress for his achievements. He was also selected as the best graduating engineering student from MIT (Henry Ford II Scholar) and for the MIT Arab Student Organization’s Science and Technology Undergraduate Student Achievement Award.

For Jill, the inspiration behind Modalyst was that she loved discovering new brands and scours the world for independent fashion. As a buyer, she desires to empower the people who discover the designers that her company carries. As for Alain, he reflected on his challenges as a fashion designer at Yale and thought of ways to alleviate the challenges faced by thousands of emerging designers. Jill and Alain met at MIT and they discovered that they share the same passion. They were intrigued by Kickstarter as a way to support emerging designers, but fashion was the worst performing vertical at the time. They interviewed many designers and boutique buyers before deciding that Modalyst is the right business model to help promote the next generation of independent designers to internationally established brands.

For marketing strategies, Modalyst is very active on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.  Rather than promoting themselves, they use social media to highlight their brands and boutiques. Their goal is to help these businesses grow, and hope to grow with them along the way. They also work with each party to personally cater services to their needs.  They find that social media has been great for inbound interests and leads.  However, Jill stated, “The high-touch process of direct personal interaction with boutiques and designers has been the most rewarding in growing our brand and business. It is important for us to incorporate their feedback into our product.

Modalyst was funded by family and friends, but they are working on getting in touch with investors. The funds would be used to hire new talent.  “We believe in surrounding ourselves with the best and people should be rewarded for their work,” said Jill.

Jill sees Modalyst as the go-to marketplace for independent boutiques and emerging fashion designers in the future.  They are currently working with accessories designers, but will soon expand into more categories. They are also building a community for boutiques on Modalyst.  Jill stated, “Our goal is to streamline the discovery and buying process through shared resources – whether this is participating in a collective buy with another boutique, or sharing the exploratory process of discovering brands. A boutique in Austin, Boston, and San Francisco may service the same demographic and sell similar brands, but they don’t know each other. Through Modalyst, not only can they introduce each other to new brands, but also they can either reach minimum order requirements or receive wholesale discounts together.”

By Luyao Li

To access the original article click here: FashInvest 

~Team Modalyst

[stylmee]

Fashinvest - Experience Shop-ertainment With Stylmee.

We recently attended the 2nd Annual Fashinvest Speed Dating event in NYC where we had a chance to sit down with 25 top fashion / tech VCs. 

We received some great feedback on our platform & we also managed to attract some interest from a couple of key VCs who attended.  

All in all, it was a great opportunity to meet new people, discover some great talent and ideas that are built for the fashion industry and have a chance to talk about Stylmee.

Fashinvest, the host of the event, which focuses on building financial connections for the fashion industry, wrote this post about Stylmee.  

http://www.fashinvest.com/experience-shop-ertainment-with-stylmee-founder-basil-farano/