Today, we are sharing how Inga Grinko transformed CLAP Paris into a promising digital brand. Since then the label never stopped growing! Great achievements of Clap’s digital strategy formed IAMFASHION program basics et Clap became a clear example of success for our members.

"Cette année, on a multiplié le chiffre d'affaires par 6 par rapport à l'année dernière. Donc c'est un gros gap. "

Laura shares with us her entrepreneurial experience. It's been 3 years and a half since she founded her brand. She had the idea when she was getting married. She was looking for a gift for her witnesses, something original. She remembered that her mother was wearing a “shoe clip” and that was it! Her witnesses started to clip it everywhere and CLAP was born! 

She met Inga Grinko in April 2019. She wanted to bring Clap to the next step and boost its digital presence. Her brand was not powerful enough on the Internet and didn’t generate...

Julie, the brand founder,  joined IAMFASHION in July 2020.

" À un moment donné, je me suis dit si je n'arrive pas à faire décoller les ventes rapidement, dans tous les cas, dans 3 mois, je vais devoir arrêter Petite and So What. Du coup, je suis tombée sur une pub Facebook de IAMFASHION et là j'ai eu le premier entretien avec toi, et là franchement ta méthode m'a complètement convaincu." 

Julie is 1m52 tall and she was always uncomfortable with existing fashion brands. It was about remaking and adjusting her wardrobe each time she bought something. In 2015, she started a blog to help short women like her dress with style. In 2017, during her pregnancy, she took the decision to create her own fashion brand and quit her job. Engineer and financial specialist, she finally decides to follow her dream. It’s important for her to “become who you want to be” and show an example to her newborn...

Margaux Gripon, the brand’s founder, joined IAMFASHION in May 2020.

" Le premier confinement a été, je pense, pour tout monde, super dur. Et en même temps c’était une manière où  tout le monde  devait être super créatif pour justement réussir à pivoter, à trouver d’autres resources de revenus. Et c’est à ce moment là où je me suis dit, j’investis dans la pub,  mais encore très timidement, comment est-ce que je peux faire pour vraiment décoller ? Et je n’avais pas les outils pour vraiment augmenter mes investissements de manière sereine. C’est à ce moment que je me suis dit il faut que je trouve de l’aide pour faire exploser mes ventes en ligne. Parce que c’est le seul moyen que j’ai de faire grandir ma marque. "

Margaux always dreamt to be a stylist but she decided to study business...

Meet Ephyre 

Emmanuelle Barre, the brand’s founder,  joined IAMFASHION in July 2020.

"Je leur dis courez-y ! Si vous avez du temps pour vous impliquer et que voulez avoir des effets rapides, surtout allez-y...parce que je ne regrette pas du tout d'avoir fait ce choix là. C'est un investissement financier mais qui vaut vraiment le coup. Donc,
je recommande à chaque fois le programme."

After her career as a stylist at famous luxury Parisian brands, Emmanuelle founded her brand in 2015. She makes exclusively accessible luxury leather bags and only collaborates with French craftsmen. She works with tanneries that have an ethical and ecological approach. 

After five years of selling exclusively to shops she has realized that she would better come up with a stronger digital strategy to reboot the brand. This year, when major lockdowns happened, she found herself with lots of canceled orders from buyers and much inventory left unsold. Although she...

Meet Barjé. 

Clara and Camille, two co-founders, joined IAMFASHION in July 2020.

"C'est  grâce au programme qu'on en est là aujourd'hui...Mais c'est vrai que ça nous a donné un super coup de boost et que c'est vraiment le meilleur investissement, qu'on a fait.

Si on n'avait pas appris tout ça, on serait toujours en train de faire des pubs un peu foireuses qui sont montrées à des hommes qui ont 60 ans. Au début, on eu beaucoup à apprendre et c'est la différence. Après, je pense qu'on a encore des trucs à peaufiner. Et on parle beaucoup de Facebook ads, mais ce n'est pas que ça. Site Internet, Pinterest, pleins de trucs qu'on a appris."

Clara and Camille have been good friends for years. They decided to change their lives and created Barje in October 2019. Their idea was simple: how to offer different clothes to women. They’ve remarked that often women wear...

Meet Paloma Germain, 

Paloma joined IAMFASHION in April 2020.

" Moi généralement je dis fonce, fonce, ne perd pas de temps parce qu'il y n'a pas de temps à perdre. Simplement, et c'est exactement ce que tu m'as dit, tu m'as dit vas y, ne perds pas ton temps, parce que ça met du temps. Et ben moi, je dis fonce, y'a pas mieux, en fait, parce que finalement, c'est un très bon investissement. C'est probablement le meilleur investissement que tu puisses faire pour ton business." 

She created her extremely feminine brand of turbans in 2016 four years ago. She mainly focused on pop-ups and exhibitions to promote her work. But soon she realized that it was not the way she wanted to develop her brand.  

The first lockdown has only accelerated this transformation. Her brand required digital uplifting to allow her to become independent. It was not possible to sell on the existing website. 

After joining the IAMFASHION...

Building a fashion designer brand is no more about managing a creative part. 

You need to be multitasking to get results out of your business. 

Multi-tasking means being able:

• Building your website.
• Knowing how to attract traffic to your website. 
• Learning how people interact with your products and discover your site.
• Understanding how to help your customers in their discovery journey. 
• Realizing how to use leverage to build valuable offers and more sales.

Data is everything in your business:

• it's the oxygen of your e-com business.
• It's how you grow and establish a profitable brand.  
• If you do not know how to use it, you need to learn it.

Based on data you can build:

• Profitable fb ads (both cold and warm traffic). 
• New offers (this is what will convert your ads into profitable ones).
• Bundles (yep, if you know what sells best together go for it).
• Create new products. 
• Know which products to pull out and when. 

...

"Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for

something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future."

Earl Nightingale 

Being a fashion entrepreneur may seem glamorous and cool. 

But the insiders know how difficult it is to build a brand. 

The Fashion Industry follows the rules that no one questioned for years. 

• Build collections. 
• Start selling through resellers. 
• Participate in the fashion tradeshows. 
• Find a PR agency.
• Spend many seasons like this. 
• Trust the process, someday you will become a famous brand.

What's wrong with this system?

Everything! 

• Lack of predictability
• Lack of end-customer knowledge 
• Lack of sales 
• Lack of visibility 

This business looks more like a hobby, with many expenses and never-ending expectations of something that never comes. 

Also, retailers themselves are in a very fragile situation with the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Besides, the fashion...

Today I talked with two founders looking to launch a fashion brand.

These are the questions raised from the talk:

• Should we start with both wholesale and online? 
• How to start a brand on digital platforms? 
• Should we kick off the business with FB ads? 

1. Start online 

It's no more a secret that with the current coronavirus pandemic, retail is suffering more than anything. 

Orders are canceled. 

Designers found themselves without money, sales while cumulating the unpaid debts. 

The situation is so serious that many emerging brands are about to disappear.

There's no more sense to depend on someone's will and waiting for orders and payments because retailers are weak. 

The best way to create your story and get paid regularly at a fair price every single day is to have your online brand 

Plus, the main reason why you should exclusively start online is that you can offer better prices to your customers. 

Besides, You...