Blog
And now for our next act...
Now that g.moda has its first successful collection under its belt, I am in the processing of thinking about next steps. Somethings are obvious - introducing some other colours beyond white and black to the g-zip/g-cielo line or extending these lines by developing additional garments which "zip in" to the existing framework. Also, I have been working on several additional... More info
What happens when we try on clothes?
During our open doors sessions, a number of women have come into the workshop to try on the g-zip clothes. These "try on for size" sessions may be viewed as the normal practice of trying a garment so as to judge its fit and overall appearance, hence a fairly staightforward process, nothing to make a fuss about. But a closer look at the experience of our clients raises deeper... More info
Transformable Fashions - A Way of Giving Greater Control Back to the Consumer
Part of the charm of transformable fashions (or convertible garments, as they are often called) is that they provide the wearer with a greater control over how their clothing looks. In an instant, the wearer can change from one appearance to another to suit changing social or professional contexts, or even simply a change in how one feels. This control can be managed with other clothes, but not... More info
An inspirational leader and mentor
I never met Steve Jobs. I read with interest about his early career - he is portrayed as having been extremely demanding and rather arrogant, a bit of a tyrant even into his later years. I recently viewed his commencement speech for UCLA in 2005. He seems to have less of the charisma he developed at Apple in more recent years in this video clip, even though his words, what he has to say, are both... More info
Early Bird Discount for g.moda subscribers!
Following our successful launch and the substantial media coverage we received in Quebec City last week, we have decided to offer an Early Bird Discount of 25$ (Canadian dollars) towards your first purchase at the g.moda online boutique if you sign on with us before the store goes live (it will replace this website around the end of September). Already, more than a hundred people have... More info
Gate Fashions
The idea of a “gated community” has emerged into modern urban jargon to refer to neighborhoods which limit access to a select few. These may be wealthy housing areas, new family-oriented housing complexes or other arrangements. The concept is often applied to other contexts now, including online communities. However, fashion has also played the role of exclusive gateway, not only... More info
On Risk Taking as a Fashion Designer
The whole issue of taking risks is a fascinating one. At one level, it is impossible to be a creative designer and not take risks. Creative design, by its very nature, irregardless of application domain, involves moving beyond the bounds of what has already been done, and hence risk taking is built into the enterprise from the get go. Furthermore, fashion design is also a business, and... More info
Transformable Garments – What are the Possibilities?
Let’s take a closer look at Transformable Garments, also known as Transformable Fashions. This concept is at the heart and soul of what g.moda intends to market in the near future, but we believe that interest in transformable garments can only grow. Currently, transformable garments come in several flavors, almost completely low tech. Here is a short list of existing garments and/or... More info
Nuts and Bolts – Organizing a Fashion Design Business
Some days I’m really into the theory of fashion, design, identity management, and everything… and other days, there are so many things to keep track of that I have no time for theory. And there are also days when I am convinced I have gone off the deep end – like, wacko! How could I imagine that a man in his fifties could turn around and start a new career as a first time... More info
Fashion, Humor and Managing Identity or Role Conflict
In earlier postings, we explored studies that show how fashion choices are being used to manage emotions and conflicting roles and identities. This latter function of fashion is particularly fascinating. We normally think of fashion as a means of expression, not as an active and constructive means of dealing with some of life’s more complex difficulties. What is going on here? And what is... More info
Bridging the Identity Gap – From Brand Identity to Personal Identity
In earlier postings, we have explored how clothing and fashion choices contribute to help us construct and maintain several complementary identities for each of the distinct social contexts that form our lives. What should also have become clear by now is that this process of constructing multiple identities is nourished not only by our fashion choices, but indeed by all our choices, and,... More info
The Identity Audit – A New Tool for Profiling
We live in a changing world. In other posts, I have discussed the changing role that identity plays in our lives, and how fashion serves to reinforce and consolidate that changing role. Over much of the 20th century, the notion of identity was considered to be a unique feature of each person, and to be determined by birth, family, culture of origin, and life history. In the years leading up... More info
Managing Emotion, Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing
Interest in how we manage our emotions has grown dramatically in recent years, both among researchers and as a practical approach to daily life. Researchers have discovered that individuals experience variations in intensity, persistence, modulation, onset time, the duration of the rising emotion phase, the range of emotions experienced and their ability to recover from strong emotional responses... More info
Memory, fashion and technology
Another role for our clothes in the coming technology revolution is as “memory extenders”. Clothes today already encapsulate a kind of memory, for, indeed, memory is related to identity. Garments that we wear many times, for example, for daily wear, become associated with sets of memories that are heavily reinforced regarding our contextual environments and our encounters with other... More info
Beyond Fashion – A Coming Revolution in Daily Life
So far we have turned the spotlight onto a range of issues related to fashion, our new modes of identity and the interface between fashion and technology. However, the importance of “smart garments” for fashion over the next five to ten years is that these are actually but one element of a larger revolution in the works, a revolution towards increasingly “smart... More info
