Three Designers On What it Takes to Run an Independent Label in 2025
Digest
This podcast features an interview with three women who recently launched their own fashion brands. They candidly discuss the difficulties of being independent designers in a male-dominated industry, highlighting financial struggles, particularly cash flow issues and long payment terms from wholesalers. The lack of affordable studio space and presentation opportunities during fashion week is also a significant concern. They emphasize the importance of community and collaboration to overcome these challenges. The conversation also touches upon their personal values and how they incorporate ethical and sustainable practices into their brands, often subverting traditional fashion norms. The designers offer advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, stressing the importance of self-care, trusting their instincts, and maintaining open communication. They envision building sustainable and impactful brands that challenge the status quo and promote inclusivity within the fashion industry. They advocate for increased industry support, including grants and funding, to help independent designers thrive.
Outlines
Launching Independent Fashion Brands: Challenges and Triumphs
Three women discuss their experiences launching independent fashion brands, focusing on the challenges of navigating a male-dominated industry, financial hurdles, and the importance of community support.
Overcoming Obstacles: Financial and Systemic Barriers
The designers delve into specific challenges, including cash flow management, unfavorable wholesale terms, and limited access to presentation spaces during fashion week. They highlight the need for greater industry support, such as grants and funding.
Advice, Visions, and the Future of Ethical Fashion
The designers share advice for aspiring designers, emphasizing self-care, intuition, and open communication. They discuss their visions for building sustainable and impactful brands that challenge conventional fashion norms and promote inclusivity.
Keywords
Independent Fashion Designers
Individuals who own and operate their own fashion brands, independent of large conglomerates, facing unique challenges in funding and business management.
Subversion in Fashion
Challenging traditional fashion norms through design, messaging, or business models, often promoting inclusivity and challenging established power structures.
Cash Flow Challenges
Difficulties faced by small businesses, especially in fashion, in managing income and expenses due to factors like long payment terms from wholesalers.
Ethical and Sustainable Fashion
A movement focused on environmentally friendly materials and fair labor practices in fashion production.
Women in Fashion Leadership
The underrepresentation of women in high-level positions within the fashion industry.
Fashion Industry Support
The need for grants, funding, and improved wholesale terms to support independent fashion designers.
Funding for Fashion Designers
The challenges of securing financial resources for independent fashion brands and the need for increased access to grants and funding opportunities.
Q&A
What are the biggest challenges facing independent women designers today?
Securing funding, navigating wholesale relationships with long payment terms, and accessing resources like affordable studio space and showrooms.
How do these designers incorporate their personal values into their work?
By subverting traditional norms, focusing on ethical and sustainable practices, and representing diverse voices often excluded from mainstream fashion.
What kind of support do these designers feel is needed from the fashion industry?
Improved wholesale payment terms, increased access to funding, more affordable presentation spaces, and a greater emphasis on collaboration.
Show Notes
For the March 2025 issue of the magazine, Vogue Runway’s Nicole Phelps gathered three of the industry’s bright stars: Diotima’s Rachel Scott, Colleen Allen, and Julie Kegels, to ask them about the realities of being their own boss and navigating a fashion industry that seems to not always value its female talent. On today’s episode, the three designers join Phelps to discuss their role models, the ways in which the industry can better support up and coming designers, and what their idea of success looks like.
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