FASHION EDITORIAL

by Moreen Littrell

In life, three things are certain: Death, Taxes, and Leather will always be trending. But the biggest trend of all - most noticeable in the Spring/Summer 2013 Ready-To-Wear collections presented during Fashion Week in NYC, London, Milan and Paris - is the one least mentioned: the anti-trend. What else could be deduced from the trend sprawl which took us from “Delft Blue” (Tadashi Shoji) to “Rainbow Metallic” (Burberry) to “Feminine Samurai” (Prada) to... “Postage Stamps” (Mary Katrantzou), and so on?

If such a variety of “trends” walk the runway can they be called “trends”? In this TREND ISSUE of FASHION ALERT we talk to the would-be trend suitors: the Stylist, the Designer, Forecasters, and YOU about trends and their significance today. What we find is that it is not so much the death of the trend as it is the birth of trend independence. In this Brave New Fashion World, the only trend allegiance required is the one you conjure yourself. And, as the Fashion Snoops’ Trend Report (sneak peek below) will attest, the options are many. Peplum anyone?

####

Published: Fashion Alert, Trend Issue #3 October

by Moreen Littrell

Diana Vreeland’s famous quote “Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world, made no distinction between fashion apparel and fashion media. Nor do we. In this issue of FASHION ALERT, we highlight a few brands that are employing media to release us from the banal. Be it Rebecca Minkoff’s use of the Fashion GIF to animate her Spring 2013 Resort Look book, to James Franco’s short films for 7 For All Mankind (to Levi’s forthcoming magazine on Flipboard, to Emporio Armani’s playlist on Spotify), brands are becoming evermore creative in their use of media to create an “experience” and entreat a loyal following of customers. Still, one may wonder:

Do these efforts veer too far from “fashion” and into “media”? Put another way,shouldn’t Franco be showing the jeans more? Not necessarily. As ninety-oneyear-old legendary fashion icon, Iris Apfel, will tell you “Fashion is not just fashion,” and in this 24/7 global fashion market, it is not enough to be just about “the jeans.” Brands have got to ENTERTAIN. The Eye Must Travel...

####

Published in debut Fashion Alert, Media Issue October

by Moreen Littrell

The rumors are not true. Despite the “Olympic Wardrobe Malfunction of 2012” – the berets – American-made apparel is not dead. American manufacturing has not left the building. In this issue of Fashion Alert, we introduce more than fifty brands that are MADE IN USA and will be seen at MAGIC this August 20 –23 in Las Vegas.

####

Published in debut Fashion Alert, Made in America Issue August

by Moreen Littrell

“One late summer night, I was thinking…” invariably begins the tale of a brainstorm, a wild hair that could revolutionize everything. In the fashion industry, examples of such superlative imagination abound. Coach Bill “Nike” Bowerman grabbed a waffle iron, Sara “Spanx” Blakely took scissors to control top pantyhose, and one late summer night in 2009, British architect of bridges, Julian hakes, put down his mojito (the beverage), grabbed his foot, tracing paper and a scalpel.

The resultant drawing of a bridge-less shoe with a curvature resembling a lime peel, became an overnight viral sensation and a reality just three weeks ago when it became available for purchase online. This is the viral power of creativity. Be it born of frustration or inspiration, or the fine line therein, creativity is the impetus that can solve everything and excite everyone.

“I never thought I’d get into shoes,” says Julian Hakes. And not unlike the poetically fluid and seemingly cosmically- engineered Mojito shoe, so begins the tale of how Mr. Hakes, an architect of bridges, “got into shoes”.

“I think it is impossible to separate design from the culture you are in,” says Julian embarking into his story from his vacation home in the south of France. Sporting a white t-shirt, white shorts and white flip flops, he’s just enjoyed a barbecue with his family and his kids are playing. He is readying for business trips that will include MAGIC trade show in Las Vegas in less than a week. In his own words, he’s “chilling out on the beach”. And, no, he’s not drinking a mojito. He’s drinking a Pimms.

“You see a movie, take a walk, read a book, hear something on the radio - all are socially and culturally conditioning,” continues Hakes. “There are lots of different ideas all the time, and sometimes things kind of stick. Those things influence you in a certain way, so all those things come together. I guess there is also quite a lot of being in the right place right time.”

By way of saying “right place, right time,” Julian is saying that the idea for the Mojito shoe did not come in a sudden flash after drinking a mojito. The concept took serpentine shape - literally - over the span of perhaps 10 years, the last three in testing.

His first “departure” into shoes, as Hakes called it, took place in 2003. His wife was not only in the “right place” - she was just around the corner. United Nude, the brand founded by a Dutch architect, was launching with a shoe and had a design studio just steps away from Hakes’ studio. They were having their sample sale. Hakes’ wife returned home with the Möbius shoe. ”My wife bought quite a lot of their shoes,” confesses Julian. The shoe not only proved auspicious for United Nude - their brand is now sold in over 40 countries - it made an impression on Julian.

“I had just designed a Mobius bridge in Bristol (going into construction this year). At the same time, someone in Amsterdam had designed a Mobius movie house “but I didn’t know about any of those things at the time.” This is just an example of things around you and how you pull things out of the air for making different products. “I knew people had tried to make shoes with gaps but haven’t solved problems. So I started thinking about process.”

The Process

In 2003, designing with “real fluidity and form, and singularity of design was only possible with the CAD,” says Hakes. In other words, the very hallmark of Hakes’ design sensibility could only be sketched, not built.

Fast forward to 2009.

“I was in my studio in London. All the office doors were open, the ground floor door was open. The team had gone home and I made a few mojitos. It was one of those moments. I thought, I should try it, see what happens. I don't know what it was that possessed me to pick up the tracing paper. I got a marker and a scalpel, which is dangerous (after mojitos). (So dangerous, in fact, he could have been saying moji-toes if not careful.) It was like having a big bandage around my foot. That's how many classically trained shoemakers design prototypes. That's how many lasts are made but for me it was just the material available."

"I spent 10 years designing buildings and bridges all over the world that required some poetic sculptural piece of engineering,” says Hakes. “Bridge design work is always quite fluid. It's an expression of focused play of structure with an emphasis on fluidity and a single expression of line which gives something efficiency and poetry of shape. Every bridge I've ever designed - always site specific - if you remove it from that part of the city - it doesn't mean the same thing. It's the same thing with the Mojito shoe. Without the foot, the shape wouldn't exist. So it was designed around and for the foot. This is not as designers would do.

They would select shape and form and apply aesthetic afterwards. Architects design the same way: first triangles and geometry and then consider function and materials.”

“I ask myself,“ says Hakes, “First, what does it have to do, then what do we have to make it from? I wasn’t thinking who is going to buy it, just ‘let’s see if this works’. I knew I had to be able to make it in an efficient way. Materials had to be efficient. So it wasn’t just about things to decorate it with. I take aminimal approach, which is not to say I reject decoration. I think it has a very important function but decoration needs a framework and foundation.”

Hakes wasn’t the first to attempt a bridgeless shoe. He knows from extensive research that many attempted but says, “No one had solved it (the issue of support) with a band coming around to the front of the shoe. When you look at footprint in sand, there is no load going to middle part of foot,” pointing out that required foot support is less a foregone conclusion and more a matter of logistics.

The Mojito Hits the Viral Motherlode

“Friday after we put it (early concept images of the Mojito) on a design blog (Dezeen.com), I received a call from the site’s editor saying it had “gone viral” and I should google my name.” He did and was prompted to “buy Julian Hakes designed footwear?” A few hours later, more than 100,000 viewed it on Gizmodo.com. By Monday, Hakes got a call from a well known model asking for it. “We said to ourselves that we need make this happen if it’s caught people’s attention that quickly,” said Hakes. Press agencies called from around the world, and Forbes Asia picked up story. “After that we did nothing (to get press),” added Hakes. Instead they created low resolution graphics that only bloggers used. “It wasn’t planned but felt right. We loved that the message was being spread through underground, not mainstream.”

They weren't ready for mainstream then but now they are. Two weeks ago, the shoe became commercially available on Cloggs.uk.co.

Next up

Hakes is working around 4 to 5 designs and still soaking up the 3-year process of the Mojito. “I know we've got to let this first one out but there are so many more ideas that I want to bring out. “ And he’s hearing a lot of ”what next?” and “which celebrity?” But Hakes says he’s not sure he wants to go after celebrities. “I almost prefer getting fifteen people on Facebook. Let those people wear it. those are the people who've been there from the start. I don't want to have to sit down what celebrity is the right one is to wear my shoe. If those people online first liked it, then they are the right people to wear it.”

“One of my starting points for this has been to make ”democratic couture” -the idea that something could be seen on catwalk and celebrities not able to get it but a regular customer who could normally never afford it, would be able to get it. It opens up access. To me great design, shouldn't cost more. It should cost less because it’s more efficient, more sustainable, fun, beautiful - and that's because you are thinking about the problem.

And boy has he thought about the problem. And solved it. We personally can’t wait for the Pimms Shoe.

####

Published in Fashion Alert, Creative Issue August

by Moreen Littrell

Has Maurice Malone of Williamsburg Garment Co. – his one-man premium denim operation in Brooklyn – cracked the nut on how to cut costs associated with manufacturing in the USA?

“When I started this brand, I wanted to do something as groundbreaking and as radical as some of the tech companies, like Facebook and Apple,” Malone explained to Brooklyn Magazine. “So I took a hard look at the market and came up with a formula for success that no one has tried before.” And that formula is “cash only to the Trade”.

“Cash only to the trade” means Williamsburg Garment Co.’s selling price to the Trade is so low, they use a “cash and carry” business model. In so doing, they don’t incur costly expenses such as finance charges, late or unpaid invoices, and returns. As a result, Malone is able to keep costs down at the wholesale level without sacrificing quality. And it means that his premium denim jeans, which are named after local streets in Brooklyn, get to be MADE IN AMERICA.

Not only does Malone keep a focus on quality through a cost-savings business model, he does so in the design process. He does not decorate the WCG jeans with outer branding logos and labels. Instead, WCG branding is a unique coin pocket and quality of fabrics and construction and washes that are clean and refined.

Malone expects the wholesale savings to be evident at the retail level. “When the consumer picks up our jeans and then looks at a jean priced at $200 or more, we want the consumer to find our style is probably better made with a great fit at ½ the price.

“That’s the formula. Malone calls it “Small Time Operation and & Cash Only to the Trade.” And if you forget it, it says so on the jeans – literally, in the hangtag and inseam.

####

Published in debut Fashion Alert, Made in America‰ Issue August

by Moreen Littrell

What does a man whose footwear designs have grossed $1 billion worldwide do next? The answer: start his own school.

D'Wayne Edwards is one of those American Dream stories paid forward. Defying his own well-intentioned "set-your- sights-to-match-your-community-stereotype" high school teachers who recommended he go into the military upon graduation, Edwards instead listened to his encouraging mother and forged his own path from the low income community of Inglewood, California to footwear design director for the Jordan brand, a division of Nike Inc., where he was for the past 11 years until leaving in April of this year.

Edwards illustrious 23-year career began auspiciously at age 19 when he was a temp file clerk at L.A. Gear, and, more importantly, a daily contributor to the company suggestion box.

This habit would eventually get him called into Robert Greenberg’s office, the then-CEO. “OK, kid, whaddya want?” asked Greenberg from behind his desk which was topped off with more than 180 of Edwards’ shoe designs.

"I want to be a shoe designer,” said Edwards. In fact, it had been his dream since age 11.

Within four years, at age 23, Edwards became L.A. Gear’s head designer. In 1992, he followed Greenberg to Skechers. While Greenberg remains Skechers CEO to this day, Edwards left in 2000 to take a job as a senior footwear designer with Nike in Portland, Oregon.

More than 30 patents, and 500 styles later – created for many of today’s premier athletes, including Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter - Edwards found that of all the accomplishments, it was mentoring kids that he says “stuck with him.”

“I started getting more enjoyment from seeing a kid that I mentored from high school, get a job.” By this time, Edwards had mentored 40 kids since he was 24 years old. “So I said, OK I want to do this because it’s a lot more gratifying. This is the way I was when I was young. So I had this idea and thought let me try it.

The Idea: PENSOLE

“The idea was to create the first footwear design school in the U.S. that, I would hire from as a design director and that other people would actually want to go to,” says Edwards.

“Because I was a design director (of the Jordan brand), I would see 400 portfolios every year from kids trying to get jobs, and I just saw the lack of skills that the schools were teaching.

These kids were spending all this money on these design schools but they were not really leaving with solid work to get them employed. So for me I thought well I’ve always had the idea, let me put it down on paper.”

And so a pilot program was born. Named after the Number 2 pencil, the instrument that Edwards credits with “designing his life,” Pensole Academy was conceived in 2010. Like all things Edwards had put down on paper, it was a winning idea.

“Pensole is the school I wish I could have attended,” says Edwards. “I teach the way you work. It’s called “learn by doing. That’s how I learned so this is how I teach.”

In Oregon, a state that is regarded as the footwear capital of the world, (Oregon was responsible for more footwear patents than any other between 1990 and 2010), Pensole is a veritable “master class” in footwear design.

“We do condensed programs where a kid can come to me for three weeks and get the same amount of work as they would get in 16 weeks a semester at a regular school. So they work like it’s an internship - working 12 to 14 hours every day, no excuses for anything. This is a job interview. I have over 35 students working professionally at companies that include Nike, Stride Rite, Under Armour, Adidas, New Balance and JORDAN.”

The opportunities for Pensole students in terms of training and networking have been endless. This past August at MAGIC, ten Pensole Academy students vied for the 2012 PENSOLE

FUTURE OF FOOTWEAR by FN PLATFORM.

In this unprecedented contest hosted by FN Platform, North America’s most comprehensive footwear market, the students showcased their designs and were judged by noted industry experts and attendees. From this, five Pensole students won the chance to have their designs sold nationwide on Zappos.

Asked then if he had any plans to take Pensole to other cities, Edwards gave a hint of things to come. “I’m actually working with Two Ten Footwear Foundation in Boston. I’m going to do programs in Boston and then here in downtown Las Vegas working with the Stitch Factory.”

________________________________

SHOEPEOPLE HELPING SHOEPEOPLE:

Two Ten & Pensole Join Hands for Footwear

True to his word, it was recently announced that starting next year, Pensole will begin teaching footwear design courses in the Boston area in collaboration with Two Ten, a 73-year old nonprofit firm whose tagline is “shoepeople helping shoepeople.”

Back when shoe salesmen were making $60 a week in 1939 in Boston, then the shoe manufacturing center of America, Two Ten originated in the form of a Wednesday – aka “Leather Day” – hat collection among employed shoe salesman. The money raised would go to help footwear brethren that had fallen on hard times. Despite being competitors in the industry, when it came to their community, they were united. And shoepeople were their community.

As a kickoff to the partnership, Two Ten and Pensole have also joined forces to produce the “Two Ten Shoecase”, a chance for 10 amateur designers to win a scholarship to complete Pensole’s 4-week program in Portland, Oregon. Moreover, two hundred students will be selected to take the course online. All 210 students will have their work on display in February at FN PLATFORM at MAGIC.

“This is a huge game changer for us, and we’re very excited about the possibilities,” said Two Ten President Neal Newman about this venture that targets newcomers to the shoe business instead of the pros. “Every year, we’ll be creating a pool of new talent with Pensole that will be an asset to the entire industry.”

To that end, Two Ten donated more than $700,000 in scholarship money for 2012 and plans to multiply that amount in 2013.

“Right now Two Ten focuses heavily on people already working in the footwear industry, and I work with people before they become professionals,” said D’Wayne Edwards. “It’s a great opportunity to educate students on what Two Ten is all about because this program aligns perfectly with its mission of helping shoe people. For me it’s a dream come true to see [Pensole] happening and come to life,” continues Edwards who has also personally provided scholarships to worthy students.

Had it not been for his mother, who passed away in 1993, and her message of “Believe” as encapsulated on a greeting card she gave him when he was young (a copy of which, he carries to this day), he might not be one of those shoepeople helping shoepeople. But he did “Believe” and his one-of-a-kind school is fast becoming a chosen model for many communities, such that we may see many more cities battle to be shoe capital of America.

“My Mother gave me the card during the same week that my high school guidance counselor told me to give up on being a footwear designer, Reebok telling me I was too young to work for them and the one year anniversary of my older Brother’s (who taught me how to be a better artist) death. Not a good week. It cost about twenty-five cents but it is the most valuable item I own. I thought I lost it once and I was sick (seriously ill) for a few days only to find out my wife put it away for me. :) it has been put away ever since.”

####

Published in Fashion Alert, Community Issue #5 Nov; this is the modified online version (to include Two Ten update)

by Moreen Littrell

For the insatiable shoe fetish and art collector, here is the gift that keeps giving: Pop Art high-heeled shoes – for the wall.

Described as “screaming sex” and “whimsical” by the artist himself, the high-heeled illustrations by Mark

Schwartz – a Roger Vivier-apprenticed, Andy Warhol-endorsed, Julliard-trained (for drums and percussion, of course) – are fantastical, geometricalabstractions of high fashion shoes in vibrant watercolors and drippy inks. Effused with the jaunty esprit of Jackson Pollack and Warhol, sexy stilettos are forever immortalized. Schwartz has completed over 500 paintings in 20 years, and spent the last 30 years designing shoes for Christian Lacroix, Gucci, Barney’s, Bergdorf Goodman, and private labels. Today, his “high heeled art” – inspired by Christian Louboutins, Manolo Blahniks, Walter Steiger and Vivier – retails between $300 to $3000.

This is the unlikely career of a Julliard-trained drummer who – thankfully - didn’t go into TV. We’ll explain…

How The Drummer Got into Shoes

Banging on drums since the age of six, Mark Schwartz was admitted to Julliard in the late ‘70s where he continued his musicianship in drums and percussion. Upon graduation, he, naturally, went to work in sales at a Madison Avenue shoe store. Soon after, he traded up in shoes and location when he “fell into a job” with Roger Vivier, the iconic French designer and creator of the Stiletto. “I got very lucky. I knew a couple of people associated with him,” says Mark.

Fortuitous indeed, for up to this point, Schwartz’s entire life’s collection of sketch notebooks consisted of cars and motorcycles doodling. Read: No Shoes. And now he was to be Vivier’s assistant working from an office a bit more uptown on Madison Avenue.

“I always did have an art interest but I never ever pursued,” says Mark. “I never ever even thought about drawing a shoe or anything fashion related. He (Vivier) was the one who got me sketching and drawing.”

After six years with Vivier, in which Mark would fondly recalls many late nights finding Vivier asleep face down on the desk with pencil in hand in the middle of a sketch, Mark felt the preternatural urge to start his own eponymous shoe line - but not before the Warhol seed of pop shoe art would be planted (some four years earlier).

It was 1984 and Vivier had invited his friend And Warhol to the office to meet Schwartz. “At that time I was really having fun with shoes with doodling and sketching and painting,” says Mark, “and Andy liked to do the same thing so he pointed me in the right direction. I didn’t know it at the time but it would have a profound effect on me doing it later.”

Warhol was, according to Schwartz, “pushing Interview magazine” at the time. “Andy used to come to my office with about a dozen Interview magazines in hand he was very proud of the publication. It was his baby,” says Schwartz.

Warhol had founded the publication, nicknamed “The Crystal Ball of Pop” in 1969. At these times, Andy would make his way around to Mark’s desk. “Andy loved to watch and observe (my drawings) but he never gave me actual (artistic) guidance, he just commented on my drawings and paintings. He was big on observation. That, for me, was enough. He would say, ‘I love the color or the shape you are using here, make it more you, make it more fun!!’ That was his way!”

Warhol must have indeed seen the artistic merits of Schwartz’s work because only five years earlier, in the June 1977 issue of Interview Magazine, encouraging artists was, apparently, not his way. Then, when asked what advice he would give to a young person who wants to become an artist, Andy replied, “I'd just tell them not to be one. They should get into photography or television or something like that.” Fortunately for shoe lovers, Mark never veered into TV. And in Mr. Warhol’s defense, he simply thought art less likely to be profitable.

“When I spent time with Andy,” says Schwartz, “he was very supportive but back then I didn't take it seriously. It (Andy’s encouraging words) really didn't hit me until till much later.”

By “later,” Mark means the mid-nineties when he opened his own store in Soho. Not only would Mark sell his “Mark Schwartz” shoes for the feet but find an equally admiring clientele for his shoes for the wall, which, at the time, he wasn’t selling.

“When I opened the store, we had a lot of bare walls and I had some 15 framed pieces of my illustrations. I had a decorator and she said, ‘You have all these paintings that you did. Why aren't you putting these on the wall?’ And so we had them put up. I didn't price them. I had no intention of selling. I had mostly just given stuff to friends at this point.”

But then one day, a woman came in and bought a pair of shoes and said, “I'd love to buy that painting of the shoe on the wall as well.”

“No,” said Schwartz, “because if I sell it to you, I'll have to paint another shoe.” When she offered $300, he sold her the high-heeled shoe in a black frame.

Mark now gets a lot of repeat customers from around the world. He has a licensing deal for shirts with handbags due out next year. “I do a lot of commission work for clients who will call with their favorite pair of shoes and want something fun, like a collage or something,” says Schwartz. “I’m always looking for different ways to present the shoe. The process is similar to design – just trial and error, a creative flow… paper and pen and paint and go… and have fun.”

Have fun. These are the Warhol (and Schwartz) words to live and paint shoes by.

For more about Mark Schwartz and his work, visit his site here.

####

Published in Fashion Alert, Holiday Issue #7 December

by Moreen Littrell

How innovative can a button company be? You would be surprised.

Cited by the New York Times in 2002 as "the nation's largest maker of buttons - an old but little-known giant of the garment industry," Emsig Manufacturing is no ordinary button maker. Suffice to say that you don’t get to be a 4th generation American company – something only 9/10 of 1% of companies in America achieve – and have a place in the annals of Supreme Court Cases and in the very bedrock of the New Jersey Turnpike – without some creative thinking. And of course, there is Emsig’s longstanding “innovative” business strategy since 1928: To produce the highest quality products for their customers.

“Emsig” is the surname of a family that lived in Austria for over 400 years. In 1928, Max Emsig, a 44-year-old tinsmith who immigrated to the US in the early 1900’s, started doing business under “Emsig Manufacturing”. Innovation began in earnest immediately. Between 1928 and 1949, Emsig had produced many firsts among buttons, from the first enameled steel work shirt buttons to fire-retardant and colorfast melamine resins, as well as the world’s first sew-through shank button and automatic shank button feeder. Always acutely responsive to the times, they introduced buttons made 100% from recycled materials, and a bio-tech button that resists viral and bacterial organisms in 2009.

But, as innovative as they were in terms of manufacturing and their “quality strategy,” it is Emsig’s pivotal place as a landmark – literally and judicially – in American history that affords this button maker legendary status and a spot on our most innovative list.

SUPREME COURT: EMSIG v. PRICE FIXING

“When Roosevelt was President,” says Larry Jacobs, the president & chief executive officer of Emsig, “there was a law that limited what price you could sell for. You had to sell at a fixed price.” And so begins one of two stories that Jacbos will share from his Made in USA booth at the MAGIC trade show in Las Vegas last August. Jacobs, who will be 80 in February, married into the business of his wife’s family (Emsig), and by the time he is done telling two stories, one will never look at the New Jersey Turnpike in the same way again.

The “fixed price law” that Jacobs was speaking of, was instituted by Roosevelt as a “national remedy” during the Depression. In 1934, the law was challenged by Leo Nebbia, the owner of a New York grocery store. At this point in time, almost 20 million Americans depended on federal relief, and New York’s milk-control board had fixed the lawful price of milk at nine cents a quart. Nebbia, however, sold two quarts of milk and a 5-cent loaf of bread for 18 cents and was found guilty of violating pricing regulations and fined five dollars. Nebbia challenged the conviction, arguing that the statute and order violated the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court of the United States determined that the state of New York could regulate (set and/or otherwise control) the price of milk for dairy farmers, dealers, and retailers. Nebbia lost. Justice Owen Roberts wrote the majority opinion, upholding the New York law; declaring that a state may regulate any business whatever way, “when the public good requires it.”

Like Nebbia, Emsig would go on to challenge the law. “We needed money for payroll,” says Jacobs, “so we went out and sold buttons for a lower price,” says Jacobs. By doing so, Emsig found themselves sued by one of their competitors, Colt Firearms.

“Colt Firearms made buttons, and they also made plastic handles of the same sort for guns but they were a button competitor of ours,” says Jacobs. “We didn’t have lawyers and couldn’t afford them but we found someone we knew who had two sons who were lawyers and they took this as a class action lawsuit, and they brought it to the Supreme Court. Roosevelt lost,” continued Jacobs, “because our concept was, basically, that the buttons are our goods and we can give it away, throw it away, and sell it any price we want. Roosevelt, who was a very good President, was upset and tried to pack the Supreme Court which he couldn’t do. And now Colt is big in guns and we still make buttons.”

SEW BUTTONS ON YOUR TURNPIKE

A few years later, in 1940, Emsig began supplying buttons to the military. “The Government approached the company and said ‘Make buttons for the Russian Army,’” says Jacobs.

“Now, those buttons were shipped out on Liberty ships and the German submarines sunk most of those ships and most of those ships had a couple of cartons of our buttons. So now the war is over and we’ve got these buttons still left over from what the government bought and we asked the government, “What do you want us to do with them?” And they said, “Well, we are funding parts of the New Jersey Turnpike. If you ship them there, we can put them in the base underneath the cement.” Jacobs continues, “Now the reason I’m saying this, is that in the thousand years when they dig up the turnpike, no one is going to know how those buttons got there…”

Today, Emsig continues to make buttons from factories in Connecticut, India and China, and remains a supplier for the U.S. government. The class action suit is now discussed in law schools and textbooks. And the New Jersey Turnpike? Already considered iconic from all the heavy pop culture references in film, books and music, it is now the “most buttoned-up Turnpike in the World”. In 1000 years, we expect the expression “Sew Buttons on Your Turnpike” will be sweeping the nation, eventually replacing “Sew Buttons On Your Underwear” as the not-so- popular-anymore expression.

####

Published in Fashion Alert, Innovation Issue #6 November

by Moreen Littrell

Launched on July 4, 2012, TEROX is the first injection-molded footwear produced in the USA in over 25 years.

The new shoe on the block (pronounced “Tear-ux”) is the manifestation of one family’s 100-year-old American dream that began with the son of a cobbler, Francisco Azzarito, the moment he arrived Ellis Island.

Why not just build footwear in America?

“Yes, why not?” asked Rocco Azzarito Jr. a mere two years ago seemingly out of the blue. By then, Azzarito had been importing high quality footwear from overseas for five years under the name of RYN USA LLC.

So where did the self-described “spontaneous” epiphany to manufacture shoes in the USA originate?

Ninety-years earlier in the Spring of 1920, Francisco Azzarito, Rocco Jr.’s grandfather, landed on Ellis Island. It could be said that the epiphany was first his. Sixteen years old and the son of a cobbler, Francisco came to America yearning to build more fashionable shoes. With no knowledge of the English language or American culture, Francisco settled in Brooklyn, New York and soon after changing his name to Frank (because he wanted to be a “real” American), he went to work at the I. Miller Shoe Company factory.

Five years before Frank had arrived in America, Israel Miller, a Polish immigrant who got his start in designing bespoke shoes for the New York theatre performers, upgraded to a larger shoe store space at 1554 Broadway, an old brownstone just north of 46th Street. By 1926, Miller had added the building next door and completed a remodeling by Architect Louis H. Friedland. Frank would eventually become foreman of this now landmark building that has “The Show Folks Shoe Shop Dedicated to Beauty in Footwear” chiseled into the masonry complete with a TGIF’s at street level. Frank later became superintendent of the Fern Shoe Company in Los Angeles, California until his retirement.

The next generation of Azzaritos continued to follow in Frank’s footwear footsteps. His eldest son Rocco Sr. worked for the Barbour Leather Company, C.H. Baker in California, and went on to open numerous successful retail footwear stores. And then came along Rocco Jr. and ‘lo, Frank’s epiphany of 1920 became Rocco’s epiphany of 2010. Terox International was officially launched on July 4, 2012 into 120 stores across the country and the dream of making shoes in America became a reality.

“My Grandfather, Frank Azzarito, is truly the spirit that has moved us to rekindle the dream that America is a place where you can build footwear," declared Rocco Jr., CEO of Terox International. "Our mission is to build great footwear and to be part of restoring the American footwear infrastructure.”

The name “Terox” is the combination of the two co-founders names: Rocco Jr. and Terry Stillman. Stillman, like Frank, was living and working in Europe (albeit as an American expatriate), and came back to America for the opportunity to fulfill this dream.

“The easiest thing to do would have been to produce Terox sandals in Asia,” said Rocco Jr.. "The injection molding machinery is already there, the plants are ready to produce them and production could begin as soon as we deliver the molds.” But, the lure of “What Made in America Feels Like,” – now Terox’s slogan – was evidently irresistible. Despite the lack of footwear production infrastructure – which both founders cite as their main challenge in the United States –they imported and built the machines and tooling they needed, and hired and trained factory workers. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Terox sandals are made at a familyowned plant in Buford, Georgia, the very last plant of its kind in the United States that can make this type of footwear.

The upside (besides the availability of shoes that are precision-engineered for anatomical comfort and durability) is that by making footwear in the USA, Terox has been able to reduce their carbon footprint, sharpen their just-in-time delivery, speed up reaction time to the marketplace and become a part of supporting American industry and restoring American jobs. The company plans to introduce several styles of their next-generation elasto-polymer blended comfort footwear in the years to come, all made domestically, and eagerly looks forward to the next epiphany: What about Foggia? To have Terox sold in Foggia, Italy, Frank’s birthplace, would be bellissimo. It's certain that the next generation of Azzaritos are poised for the endeavor. Rocco Jr.'s son, Aaron (pictured right) is Terox's Marketing Director.

So that's what MADE IN AMERICA feels like.

####

Published in debut Fashion Alertm Made in America, Issue August

by Moreen Littrell

“The structures in Kyoto are beautiful,” says Coye Nokes, the high fashion footwear designer, recalling her recent visit to the island city in Japan, there to celebrate her husband’s birthday who was already there on business. “They’re ornate and intricate, but they look simpler from afar. And it’s amazing how color is used. A pagoda in gold was so striking.”

Kyoto, a city of 1.5 million and named #75 on Travel & Leisure’s (November 2012) “Top 101 Places Every Traveler Should Know,” has inspired many - perhaps none more evidently and consequentially than Henry L. Stimson, the former U.S. Secretary of War, who personally removed Kyoto from the atomic bomb target list (which it had headed). If Stimson had spent his honeymoon anywhere else, history would have been much different for Kyoto. And, if that doesn’t bespeak the transformative power of inspiration, we don’t know what does.

Fast forward decades later, Kyoto continues to inspire. Traveling to Kyoto in 2011 to meet up with her husband who was there on business, Coye Nokes not only celebrated his birthday in a whirlwind weekend, she took away the inspiration for her Spring 2013 Collection.

In a refreshing palette of Kyoto-bright fuchsia, red, and neon yellow, Nokes pairs neutral, elaborate leather cut-outs and accents of gold, and contrast white wooden D’Orsay heels. The collection is sophisticated, modern, and clean and architecturally sexy.

“I love to work with nudes and neutrals. they’re extremely flattering especially in footwear. From python, to patent, to hair calf, I like to interpret them across many different textiles. I love rich materials and textures.”

Nokes’ past inspirations (including “Cleopatra, Egyptian Queen” and, “Medieval Winter”) often come from her travels. And, as Coye tells it, there is a reward for following one’s inspiration: “It will set you apart from everything else in the market,” says Nokes. “This way they’re not gone in-a-day trends. They’re pieces you can wear for many seasons.” And who doesn’t want these color blocks of Kyoto for more than a season?

####

Published in Fashion Alert, Trend Issue #3 October

by Moreen Littrell

By melding minerals and metals into handcrafted curios, jewelry designer Angela Monaco makes Concrete Polish, the company she founded in 2009, a trove of chimeric treasures.

So inspired are the resulting rings and pendant necklaces that appear chiseled from the gilded, crystal- encrusted coffers of a primitive but decadent “Future” - that we can’t help but envision the fictional archaeological expedition:

Monaco, daring an inspired archaeological dig at night, alone, wearing biker boots – hiker boots would be too obvious a choice for her - carves out crystals and unearths molten rock from geodic formations. Later, back at her studio along Historic Jeweler’s Row in Philadelphia, she changes into over-the-knee Louboutins boots before firing up her metalsmithing blowtorch. After shoring up amalgamations of crystals under searing 18k gold, her mission is complete: she has produced the final amulet for her 2012 Carbon Future Collection*. She unwinds with a home brew of Apple Cider and a Cinnamon sprig or something stronger.

Well it could have happened that way.

Monaco, who studied metal-smithing at the Maryland Institute College of Art, has had a love of crystals since childhood. Her mother had decorated their house with them and Monaco, shall we say, “felt the power.” Years later, Angela evolved that imagery to an arguably “higher power” by marrying the sculptural qualities of crystals to the drippings of metals. And so, the aptly named Concrete Polish was born.

Monaco’s heirloom-quality jewelry is a revelation of contradictions in design and materials and point-of-view: Primitive yet modern. Tactile yet sensual. Edgy yet Delicate. Sinister yet ethereal. Enigmatic yet Defined. We love that the surface is complicated, mysterious, and of the earth – just like us.

This duality is not lost on the stylists for Pretty Little Things. The show’s characters, Emily, played by Shay Mitchell) and Hanna (played by Ashley Benson) are wearing the Silver Quartz Necklace (aired 10/16/12) and the Serpent Bangle and Split Crystal Ring (on 1/8/13) respectively. This is tactile glamour at it’s best. A few of our favorites: 1. Meteor Necklace from the Carbon Future Collection* ($170 retail) 2. Pineapple Cluster Ring ($160 to $260) 3. Butterfly Skeleton Ring ($155 to $230) 4. Quartz ring – Inspired by “raw crystal growth” the crystals are casted in bronze and plated in 18k gold, called “daring, rough but refined”. ($160 - $240) 5. Pyrite Crystal Necklace ($155 to $230) 6. Tourmaline Cluster Necklace ($135 to $155) To shop, click on Concrete Polish

####

Published in Fashion Alert, Holiday Issue #7 December

Wendy Bendoni is a a new breed of fashion trend forecasters: The Identity Huntress. Gone are the days of analyzing consumer trends based on demographics, psychographics and hemlines. Bendoni’s monitoring of the “digital zoo” for emerging trends is more personal, immediate and narrowcast as she sets out to identify your identity. Her process is tantamount to netting a few hundred butterflies for observation in which you are one of the butterflies and the “net” is the internet (get it?) from which Wendy is compiling Insta- grams of you and drawing conclusions about your likely brand consumption based on their online activities of the day. Did Butterfly “A” attend an Eddie Izzard comedy show? Coachella? Fashion Night Out? Find out what digital subcultures she’s caught on the net - spotted in the Zoo - and what that says about you.

Note: the rest of this article was published with photos and a feature by Wendy Bendoni.

“DO NOT ENGAGE. JUST WATCH.” - WENDY BENDONI (appears alongside a photo of Wendy with a butterly net)

“Identity Huntress”

“Retro Chic”

“Chic”

“Collegiate-Driven

“Festival Gal”

NEW TRENDS

In Female, Gen-Y Consumers

By Wendy Bendoni

As a forecaster, Digital tracking is my job. By monitoring every aspect of a subculture’s digital lifestyle which includes their digital engagement with music, brands, events and followers, as well as their mode of self-expres- sion (much of which is provided in real-time data) we can understand and forecast a subculture’s purchase behavior: specifically, the brands that they wear and the retailers from whom they purchase their apparel – now and in the future. It is by understanding the underpinning lifestyle of each subculture that we can identify the trends-to-watch. As buyers and design- ers, marketers and forecasters, it’s important to monitor the expressions of their lives and leverage the data therein in order to create products that sell and keep our brands relevant to their lives. With that said, here are three subcultures worth monitoring:

Digital Subculture #1: Festival-Gals

(photo)

Consumers that fall into this group have now become season-less; her quest is for the perfect seasonal look, it’s for the perfect indie concert and the experience that goes with it. These girls attend music festivals are risk-takers, world travelers, are “indie driven” and out spoken in the way they live their lives.

Brands & Retailers of Interest: Nasty Gal, Wildfox, ASOS, Unif, One Teaspoon, Brandy Hearts Melville, Urban Outfitters, Gypsy Junkies, Free People; Events of Interest: Coachella, Burning Man, Stagecoach; In Their Closet: Statement T’s, classic wardrobe pieces, little black dress, cropped tops, cut off jeans, barefoot , vintage boots, Toms shoes or combats boots. Social Media Outlets: Twitter, Insta- gram, Facebook, Foursquare

(photo of Audrey Kitching - an internationally-recognized (read: trending) style icon, blogger, designer and is the Style Editor of Buzznet. She
is also an established model and stylist. Her first book, “How To Live Like A Fashioni- sta On A Budget,” is due out this year. Photographed by: Diane Gaughan Styling: Audrey is wearing: Unif (dress), Top Shop (bangles), Urban Outfitters (earrings), Faux Japan (vintage flower and tails)

Digital Subculture #2: Retro-Chic

(photo)

Female consumers that fall into this group feel need to channel past decades into everyday lifestyle. They support sustainability through up-cycling and recycling vintage fabrics and trims. These women often sell their own crafts on Etsy, are driven by DIY subculture and believe that giving back to their local commu-nities is key; thus the brands they consumer must have similar interest. Brands & Retailers of Interest: Vintage House, Wasteland, Good- will, Modcloth, Etsy, Chictopia, Ebay, Betty Page, Local flea markets, Buffalo Exchange, Polyester. In Their Closet: One-of-a-kind is important, typically knows how to sew and alter their wardrobe. Classic shift and fit-flare dress in retro inspired print. Social Media Outlets: Pinterest, Lookbook.nu, Instagram

(photo of Alisha Gaddis - the Grammy- Nominated member of The Lucky Diaz Family Jam Band. Their latest album is “Potluck”. She is also an actress and writer. Photographed by Moreen Littrell )

Digital Subculture #3: Collegiate Driven

(photo)

Nicknamed the “Ivy Kids”, for female consum- ers who fall into this group, belonging to a University is the key to the look. True prep has been referred to as “The Official Preppy Handbook,” this is an academic approach to dressing with a way of announcing you are serious about education.

Brands & Retailers

of Interest: Tommy Hilfiger, Tory Burch, Kate Spade, J.Crew, Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, Burber- ry. In Their Closet: Polo shirts or button down shirts; shirts must be crisp, tucked in and well tailored. Socks are worn and shoes are of fine leather in a traditional loafer, oxford or simple conservative wedge. Social Outlets: Pinterest, Lookbook.nu, Instagram, “TheFacebook.com” is Harvard’s Facebook community that is still active for the Harvard class to be social on.

(Photo of Laurie Kilmartin, a Comedian, Staff Writer for Conan O’Brien and author of the book,
Sh*tty Mom. She is rocking Betsy Johnson argyle socks. Photographed by Moreen Littrell)

Each subculture group forms a certain style and follows a particular “dress code” that can be translated into a trend-to-watch as it spreads to the masses and creates a demand. Today, thanks to digital shar- ing, these communities very easily find those with similar interests and be- gin sharing opinions (opinions more persuasive in recommending product than any company’s ad). Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Polyvore, Lyst, Stylit- ics, personal blogs, bookmarking sites like Evernote and Pinterest, and mo- bile apps like Hispamatic and Instagram, have also enabled these subculture groups to integrate digital experiences into lifestyles. These subculture com- munities not only influence trend direction but also influence purchasing power.

And now, Here is Your Turn to Watch Her . . .

A Day in the Life of Wendy Bendoni

Moreen Littrell

(photos of Bendoni)

First things first...

by Wendy Bendoni

First, I have to wear heels to work successfully because I can’t think in flats. Prepping for my research requires my iPad for monitoring Pinterest, Poly- vore, Instagram, Twitter, Lookbook.nu and Pose.

Second, my iPhone never leaves my hand so I have to have not only one back-up but two battery backs up for my phone

Third, I have an assistant who LOVES to research ALL day long! Really. And now for the day...

6:00am: COFFEE....and then MORE COFFEE

6:15 to 8:30am: SKYPE to my photographers on the latest finds and key words we should focus on for our monthly analysis. EDIT, EDIT, EDIT. On a average I personally have to edit over 8,000 photos from photogra- phers from Tokyo, Kobe, London, Paris, Milan,

Florence, Rome, Dusseldorf, Koln, New York and Los Angeles. When RUNWAY season begins twice a year, add another 25,000 photos SCAN DIGITAL CONTENT, scan-analysis-deliver weekly projections on Style- Tribes to monitor

12:00pm: Have lunch or hike in Hollywood Hills (no phone allowed) OR my favorite SPA massage that I secretly attend to clear my mind.

1:00pm: READ...READ...READ looking for what’s TRENDING on the In- ternet in POP CULTURE and how it will influence your trend
direction in REAL-TIME

3:00pm: At least 3x a week you need to get out and monitor subcul- tures in their own environment. Don’t engage just WATCH.

See EVERY movie, know all the prime time tv shows (even the ones you HATE) and HBO shows really make a difference, study the Hollywood Reporter, go to at least 2 art exhibits a month and TRAVEL to observe all!!!!!

+ 8:30am (2X/week): I TEACH: To remain current in the industry RESEARCH is KEY!! I have taken on the role of researcher
(Professor of Fashion Marketing of ) in the area of monitoring digital media impact on influencing fashion communities and consumers behavior.