Fashion Slow Lane!

I just had dinner in Bologna near Plazzao Maggiore with four amazing women from the handbag industry. One works for Ellie Tahari in NYC, the other is a shoe designer from Firenze and the other is a handbag and accessories designer from Bel Air, California. How fun! Nothing better than meeting amazing women from around the globe that love fashion! We had a great dinner...Oh and to the haters out there, one of the women I met with for dinner who has her own brand is a mother to three children, small children in fact, so to all the haters that trash amazing women...enjoy, they rock! What can I say!

Tomorrow going to look at the leather in Italy at the Linea Pelle show. It will be interesting to see what the new colors are. I need to restock my swatches, it has been 18 months and all my swatches are old. I hope its a nice trip.

In the fashion industry on the side of the fence I am on, trade shows are a typical traditional part of the business. We have blind faith as we pay the large fees to set up our little 10 x 10 booth and our sales samples and then we hope that the buyers will show up. Sometimes we can send out postcards or flyers about the trade show, but mostly you just hope the right buyers are at the show and stop by your booth. Its really like a game of rolling the dice for a young brand. Sometimes you are lucky if you break even, its partly because as a new brand, buyers are not familiar with your brand, they have to see you a few times to try you out, or place a small order and see how it does for their shop and then come back later and place a larger order. Its a game of dice. You don't always break even at a trade show, but you just have to have blind faith as you show up for another one. There are other ways to reach customers, you can cold call buyers and try to make appointments or