fahsion expert Vincent Djen

Vincent Djen

 

Chat With Vincent Djen

 

Last month I wrote a brief introduction regarding my passion of wanting my own clothing line. It has been a passion of mine for a long time, however, I don’t have fashion experience.  What better way to learn about the process through speaking to someone with experience!

Vincent Djen is accomplished and has a wealth of knowledge in both the fashion and manufacturing industry.

I was introduced to Vincent through a beta group I joined on Facebook in June 2017.  I’ll share more of that hook up soon under the motivation section of the blog.  I’m thankful for the opportunity. My interview with Vincent is just another example of the power in opening yourself up to meet others, networking and asking for help.

Vincent has 11+ years experience in the fashion industry. Vincent not only has experience in manufacturing but founded his own clothing line “Black Eye Rags” in the UK. He is actively involved with multiple fashion organizations.

Vincent is the founder of  The Fashion Knowledge Network. Vincent has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the fashion world. He has lived in different parts of the world and speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Shanghainese.

What I love about Vincent’s website is that he offers educational articles and interviews with other fashion designers and influencers, available for those interested in learning more about the industry.  It’s a great way to learn as you go. You can find out more about Vincent and the services he offers on his website.  Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of Vincent’s page for the “The 8 Golden Rules of Product Development And Production”.

I had the pleasure of speaking to Vincent Djen in July 2017. Vincent is currently residing in Shangai. That’s a 12-hour time difference from the East Coast. Vincent was gracious enough to afford me some time to pick his brain. We conducted the interview over Zoom conferencing.

Provided below is the written interview.

 

I read about your history and working for your family business Shanghai Garments, after college. Would you say that impacted your decision in entering the fashion manufacturing industry?

The Family business is over 40 years old. We mainly manufacture for premium European brands. After I graduated college, I entered the company to help out. So, the decision was really based on my parents getting old. It’s a pretty good business and they needed someone to keep it going. I just graduated at that point and so I had to go for it.

I had really little experience in manufacturing, so I  learned a lot of it while I was working there. While I was in college I had a very big interest in reading about companies in retail, fashion brands, and tech companies and so on. In college, I read a lot of things like the Wall Street Journal and even company annual reports, to learn about what these businesses do and what their business models are and so on.

I would say before I entered the family business I had some knowledge about the industry like the key brand, some of the up and coming brands, what kind of sales numbers they were doing, some of the strategies and so on. The really hard core manufacturing was really learning as I go.

 

Has your living in Shanghai affected your business ventures in other parts of the world?

Shanghai is a great Metropolitan city. It’s also a big important fashion hub. It shows both the styling trend but also the whole supply chain. Because a lot of textiles like fabrics and garments are manufactured around the Shanghai area.

Every year we have the Intertextile Shanghai Show. It’s one of the most important fabric shows in the world right now. So it has its advantage of course. Also, in terms of our business, Shanghai is like a window for China. So a lot of people, when they start, are going to do business with China and they will come to Shanghai for us. So, it actually has a lot of opportunities and local Shanghai has a very vibrant entrepreneurial spirit.

 

I see you have your own clothing line called “Black Eye Rags”.  Is it typical for manufacturers to get involved in the process of owning their own clothing line? Do you see that lot?

Yes, actually, Manufacturing is really the top part of the food chain. It’s also less glamour and it’s a low margin business. So, all manufacturers want to have their own brand too. We only want to do it with like-minded people, like-minded entrepreneurs, and like-minded partners. We found a couple of partners in the U.K. We are all like-minded. We’re both passionate about the industry and passionate about what we do. So, that’s how we got started.

 

Can you discuss some of the barriers to starting your own clothing line or brand?

Starting a clothing line is actually a clothing brand. It’s a risky business. It’s not like opening a restaurant. You have a lot of people coming in buying food and you can change things and what not. Fashion is a very seasonal business. You have spring and summer season, which is a lighter season and people, in general, buy less.  In the fall winter season, people buy more.

Then usually, people do about two or four collections a year. So you don’t have to maximize for chances to get your products out to show your audience. Then if it’s out of season the product is really not in tune with the trend and so on. Then you have to a have a big markdown and then dissolve the whole thing.

Then you are stuck with the inventory. It’s a risky business. Fashion is really about wanting to start a brand that has emotion so that your audience can really feel real passion. What is the passion behind it? What is your emotion about it? That’s really the main key to a successful brand.

Without that, it’s really hard to have such a strong sustainable brand. So that’s one key. Other things that are kind of the barriers are on the manufacturing side.  When you’re starting a small brand you have very low volume. Talking and convincing manufacturers to work and stick with you is not easy.

Also, manufacturing is about building products.  You have to have some money to pay your suppliers. You have to have a decent amount of money in the bank that you feel you are ready to take a risk with it and become an entrepreneur. So that’s very important.

The last thing is having an open mind and also being persistent because successful fashion brands don’t happen overnight. It takes time. As I mentioned earlier you only have two to four chances per year to show your collection to the consumer. Then you have to take a long time to really build it up. That requires a lot of money actually.

 

Speaking of money, what is your recommendation for people that don’t have access to a lot of money?  Do you feel like this is something that they should take a loan out for, save for, or find investors that are really passionate about their idea that is willing to invest?

 

I think all of the above can be a source of funding, even crowd funding can be one too. I think once you have the money you have to be lean. You have to make sure you start with your story first. What is your brand all about? What is so special about it and so on.

Then you want to test the market before creating a huge collection out of it. Make a small collection that is just the right size to speak for your brand and to speak about your story. Do this instead of investing in a big collection because you may end up stuck with a lot of inventory.

Also, you have to be smart with the money and how you use it. How do you source smartly? Maybe use the money to cover the minimum for fabric so that you can get the better prices. It’s all about how you use funds you have in a smart way.

 

 

taking notes. thigs to remember

As a newcomer that doesn’t know anything about the business are there any recommendations you could suggest that a person can take who has no experience in the fashion industry?

 

It depends. There are a lot of Fashion incubators in the United States. They are in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Boston. My friend up in Toronto helps to kick-start brands for innovative apparel fashion products for people.

There’s a community that will help coach you and guide you through that whole process. These are people who don’t really have any fashion, or apparel industry background. Another good source is having mentors. I don’t mean just one mentor.

To be a successful brand you need these four ingredients: production, sales, marketing, and design.  If you have a mentor that can help you on these four areas, I’m sure you will do quite well.

 

What would you say to someone who’s just setting out on their journey but are faced with self-doubt?

I would say set a goal first. Set a 4-5 year plan. What is your end goal in this in five years? Or you can make a bigger goal. Once you have this one big goal and then you cut it into smaller goals and these smaller goals will become a milestone. These milestones should be quantifiable. When you reach each quantifiable goal, you’re on the right path.

 

What is one of the first things you do when you meet with a fashion designer that probably needs your assistance with manufacturing? 

First, I learn more about the person. I learn about their background, where they are from and their story. Second, I learn their obstacles, what their biggest needs are, what is keeping the designer (him or her) up at night. This is what I want to know first.

From there maybe I can see how I can help them. It could be just a small thing. It could be a full-blown scaling of the production or it could be just a few guidance here and there. So, I need to understand what the obstacles are to see how we can help them.

 

clothing manufacturing

 

 

Now could you tell us a little bit about your website The Fashion Knowledge Network?

The Fashion Knowledge Network is where my coaching program is. We want to coach people who want to scale up their productions in China. Whoever has start-ups or designers who are having a problem scaling up their production. That’s where I can come in and help by coaching and potentially how to source, how to talk to suppliers and manage the supply chain.

I think it’s helpful that you bring on business owners; different people from across the world that are fashion designers or they are involved at some point in the fashion industry. Do you find that there are other people doing the same thing as you are?

I am sure there are. Forbes will feature some designers and there are great questions that they ask entrepreneurs. Mine (The Fashion Network) is a little more hands on and the more tool-kit like. I’ve been in this industry 10 years now, so I see this lot.

I have seen a lot of designer friends go through that period of struggle. So I want to share how they went through the period of struggles, how they solve these problems and use that as an inspiration to other designers or entrepreneurs out there. So that’s what I want to do.

Also, the article on the branding, the contracts and law, I feel like this is something that every brand owner should know. This is something that can help them along the way because everybody who started a brand should have in-depth knowledge about branding and contracts. So it’s really about sharing the voice of each fashion entrepreneurs, some insights, and tools to help.

What’s your take on sustainable clothing? Do you feel like this is something that the fashion industry is moving to or this is just something some people are doing?

Sustainable clothing is an inevitable trend because the fashion industry is a very dirty industry. Dyeing fabrics use quite a lot of energy and especially water. If we are not aware and becoming more sustainable, it’s going to affect our next generations.

We cannot keep doing that. I’m really happy to see that brands and all the mills are really taking serious actions that are improving on this part. I can see it in China because I go to mills and factories. I can see compared to a few years ago, there are serious improvements there.

People are using more water treatment systems and all these things to really help decrease the impact on the environment. Sustainable materials like recycled polyester are really ok. We already created polyester instead of dumping it. We are reusing it instead of just throwing a way.

Even though people argue that the process of recycling these things into fibers and fabrics actually requires a lot of energy and resources, I don’t disagree with that. I agree it’s true but then we don’t have a hundred percent perfect sustainable solution out there right now.

Every little step we’re taking is better than before. We are taking a lot of good steps forward in the right direction to help minimize the impact on the environment. So it’s the trend and these big brands that are committing to it. There’s this organization called The Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC).

ZDHC’s founding members are a lot of the big brands in the world, like Adidas and Nike. They are all committed to making our environment better. It’s more sustainable than the use of materials and also the design process. It’s not just only the materials that are becoming sustainable, even the decision process.

Now we have this 3-D virtualization software like CLO3D, that helps you to create the look and feel of a garment in the front of a computer screen so you can see how your design looks. Even though it’s not very efficient right now but it’s a step in the right direction. It helps to decrease making samples.

So, all these little things out there are really helping the entire industry go towards becoming more sustainable.

How do you think speaking four different languages has been beneficial when communicating with other vendors in your area versus other people in the U.S.?

My other three languages are Chinese, Mandarin,  Cantonese, and Shanghainese. It’s really all just different forms of the Chinese dialect. For me, the four different languages is really a tool for me. The key is that I use this to help me understand my clients and understand my suppliers. Even though you speak Cantonese doesn’t mean you understand them totally.

You have to really sit down, listen carefully and understand the culture. So it’s really a tool that helps me to understand each party and where are they coming from, what their concerns are, the culture and the mindset. I understand these languages; I speak and I use them every day. It also helps me to talk to people friends in Shanghai.

In Shanghai, I use Shanghainese a lot to talk to the local people. It makes me feel closer to them. Also, by watching shows on TV or on my iPad, it really helps me to understand the culture and everything better.

I was not born in China. I was born in Hong Kong and my family is originally from Shanghai, so I can speak and understand Shanghainese but I’m not a local Chinese. So, there’s still a difference. So I spent a lot of time trying to understand the culture and understand people so that I can better understand them and make fewer mistakes really.

 

productivity hacks

The last few questions I have is based upon my site growthmotive.com. I’m going to switch the questions up just a little bit if you don’t mind. It’s about motivation and accountability. What is a typical day like for you, regarding your business?

Vincent: During a typical day, I wake up and start checking email on my Ipad, check my phones to see if anyone left a message, have breakfast and then go to work. Then at work, I check up on some industry news, check up with my team for the status of all the ongoing projects and factories products that we’re manufacturing for other brands. I see if they have any questions or issues. If there are issues I see how I can help to tackle it.

Then I meet different people. I started this fashion accelerator with a couple of friends so we are meeting a lot of interesting entrepreneurs, people from different areas of the fashion industry and the tech industry. So, it’s very fulfilling and very busy. I like meeting people and learning a lot of things as I go and then also sharing with other people like you. I’m sharing with you right now.

What motivates you to stay productive? Do you have any special applications that you use? Any special regimens? Anything that you do daily that keeps you motivated productive?

I read a lot of industry news and sign up for a ton of newsletters. I go through them so that I can understand what’s going on in industries and talk to people. I think in order to be productive it’s really about understanding the person. If I’m in a meeting I really want to understand the story.

I’m actively listen to what their concerns are instead of listening to a long story. I try to really get down to the point of what their concerns are. WeChat is a great tool. Everybody’s on WeChat in China. Even 70 and 80-year-old people are on WeChat.

It’s a great productivity tool because you can conduct a lot of things. It’s not just simple messages. People pass along PDF and Excel spreadsheets on WeChat. So, it’s more efficient and quicker than email.

 

My last question is do you stick to any healthy regimen? How do you stay healthy?

I’m not that healthy. I’m not like a big exercise person but I like to walk. I try to walk as much as I can. My walking is really like speed walking. I walk quite fast. So a lot of people in my office are like “Oh I cannot catch up with you”. So that’s a way of me trying to keep active and not overeating and eating healthy.

I kind of stay up late at night. So that’s not very healthy. When I start reading or researching something, I just keep on going. Sometimes I forget that it’s very late at night.

Conclusion:

Like most aspiring fashion designers, I want nothing more than to jump into the fashion world with my ideas of what should be the next best clothing line.  I’m so thankful for this opportunity. I now have a better understanding of how challenging it is for people to get started in the fashion world. There are no promises and if you’re not willing to adjust to different changes you will not succeed.

Owning a clothing line is so much more than dope designs drawn out and the belief that others will buy into it. Clearly, it’s best if you take your time and gain knowledge about what’s trending in the fashion world and have a plan. Also, having a story behind your brand and building a community of believers before trying to get people to buy in is key.

I hope you all learned something from this interview. Please don’t forget to visit Vincent’s website for your consultant needs and educational articles about the fashion world.