Building the Boutique

Hello again everyone! Things have been a bit dead around here recently and honestly it’s because I haven’t made much noteworthy progress. Of course, that will all end probably in January or February when it’s time for me to start building the site (which should launch shortly after that).

Most of the Spring collections are either closed or closing soon. I’m still looking over a few linesheets but I have my final few designers picked out, and I’ll be heading back to LA before the holiday to buy the rest of the clothes. And annoyingly enough I will probably have to refile my fictitious business name because I missed the deadline to run an ad for in the the newspaper. Great, that was totally the most fun part of this whole process…..or not.

More importantly, I’m glad that the information here is helping people! Here’s a question I received from yesterday in the comments section:

Tammy asks:

Are the showrooms giving you a hard time since you are an online store? I was told that the high end designers are very picky about who they sell to. Also, do you need your biz license & seller’s permit for them to send you the line sheets?

I wouldn’t say they’re really giving me a hard time, especially compared to what I’ve heard others have gone through. Out of all the sales reps I emailed I probably heard back from half of them, which isn’t too bad right? The important part is that the lines I was the most interested in, I had no trouble contacting them.

Two of my lines are quite well known, and the other two aren’t, but none of them are in the realm of Dolce & Gabbana, Chloe, Michael Kors or anything of the sort. If you’re going after those clients….good luck. Tammy is right; not only are they extremely picky but they also have very high minimums. And as far as I’ve heard it can be just as bad with lesser known, indie designers who are high priced. The lines I am purchasing from average about $150 per piece at retail; ones that average something like $300 per peice might be a bit harder to work with.

And lastly, no I didn’t need to send them anything at all get the linesheets. I only spoke with one sales rep who was reluctant to give me access to them. I simply asked nicely and gave them a bit of information about me and my store so that they didn’t think I was doing a school project.

Hope that clears things up!

Who likes the new layout? I do! It’s simple, but the colors are cute.

I just thought I’d check in with you guys and let you know how things are going with the boutique. Not too much is happening right now.  Buying is closing for the Spring collections of most lines so I need to hurry up and high tail it back to LA!  Having a budget really is no fun, but it is smart.  Right now I’m making my final decisions on the last couple of lines to buy. I have my eye on four but I think I can only afford two.  Bummer.

Oh and I’m  step closer to  getting to MAGIC in Las Vegas coming up in February!  But it all comes down to …….the budget.  Once again. Sigh.

Someone on the fashion spot once told me that all your buying plans pretty much go out the window once you actually get to the showroom.  That could not be any more true.

So this weekend is market week, and the Los Angeles Fashion, Gift & Home show at the California Market Center.  Actually it got started on Friday and it ends tomorrow on Monday.  For a fashion buyer, this is one of the most exciting events to attend. You’re presented with a huge range of lines to choose from – the sort of thing that you know you’ll see in top fashion magazines and on sites like my-wardrobe over the coming months. The decision which are made can significantly shape the style of your outlet over the following season, which can have a huge impact on business.  I’m glad I only live 1:30 from LA so I was able to drive down for the day instead of spending $150 or so on a hotel room.  I got to my old stomping grounds, downtown LA, around 12:00.  There was a big war protest right down the street which caused the traffic to be back up and a lot of commotion.  Great timing!

My first appointment was at 1:00 with the Agent Icon Showroom.  The sales reps were super nice, helpful, and most importantly honest.  I ended up spending about half of my budget on two amazing up  and coming lines.  For one of them, I had seen the line sheet and planned out what I would buy ahead of time, but I ended up spending quite a bit more!  It wasn’t a problem since I ended finding more pieces that I liked.  And I’m really confident about what I chose.

I was a bit bummed though because my absolute favorite piece from the line sheet looked quite different in person.  Always see the clothes in person before buying!

Meeting with the showroom pretty much went down like this:

• We came in, the sales rep introduced herself and showed us which lines they had available.  Usually, the sales reps will either present the top selling pieces to you or you can look through the samples on your own and set the things you like aside.
• Collections are usually broken up into three deliveries; one for each month.  Since my orders are small, I’m anticipating that my order will come at the last possible date.  The samples usually have at tag that shows the color ways, delivery and whole sale price.
• I did ask the sales reps which pieces were doing well and which colorways were doing better for each piece.
• After I pulled all of the pieces I liked, I sat down with the rep, went over everything one last time and chose my color ways.
• The labels I chose had minimums such as 5 pieces per style or $1000 per delivery, or 3 pieces per style.  I also found out you can’t buy just one piece from a collection (and I don’t hold this against the designer!).
• The rep filled out an invoice for me, which didn’t have a total so I had to be very careful about how much I was spending.  I won’t be charged for the clothing until they ship (which is next year) and I was given the choice of COD or Credit.

That was pretty much it.  I was in the showroom for about an hour (I like to look at everything several times before making a final decision).

I also got a chance to look around the trade show.  I wasn’t sure how that was going to work; I think basically, anyone who doesn’t have a showroom on the West Coast (or a few who aren’t located in the CMC) are set up in the trade show area, where you can just walk around and browse through the collections as you wish.  I didn’t buy anything but I did pick of up several line sheets and business cards and there are at least two more collections there that caught my interest.

After that I was pretty much done…..it was 3:00.  Yeah, well, I’m not used to getting up early!

There’s so much that goes into opening a business. When I wrote my business plan, I realized it. Just to launch this boutique alone I’ll need to….

• Obtain merchandise, obviously.
• Find a photographer who will take decent pictures of that merchandise.
• Secure an ecommerce site.
• Design the ecommerce site (which I will be doing on my own)
• Get packing and shipping together.
• Do invoices, which involves math. Yippie.
• Create an advertising campaign.
• Fill out paperwork to start a business.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something. It’s not even that these are so many different things, it’s just that they are so many things that are so different.

That last step is what I started yesterday and will finish tomorrow. I have a DBA and now I have to get a resale license, business license and something else since I’m running my business out of my home. They really gave me the runaround; I went to fill out forms for one thing and they told me I had to fill out forms for something else and have processed before I could have the original form processed, plus file another form and whoops….I filled out the wrong form.

No but seriously, so far I actually am enjoying even the most unglamorous thing having to do with this project.

“The hardest part is getting the lines you want. Sales reps are really snobby; some didn’t even answer my emails at all!”

That’s what another poster on TheFashionSpot.com told me, in a nutshell. She too is launching an online boutique, and she answered a whole lot of questions for me.

Actually, let me back things up here. For anyone who’s wondering how you get clothes for your store, here’s a basic overview:

• All sales are handled through the designer’s showroom (unless they’re indie). Most designers are present in a showroom in LA (in the garment district downtown) AND in NY, although some are located in San Francisco, Atlanta, etc, as well.
• This wholesale business directory is the best, and quickest, way I’ve found to find who represents what designer.
• In LA there are four main buildings where showrooms are located: The California Market Center, Cooper Design Space, Gerry Building and the New Mart. You can also find the showroom websites and contact information here.
• Trade shows are a good way to see lines you like and find new ones. The biggest is Magic in Las Vegas, probably followed by Intermezzo and Coterie in NY, and several others in LA.
• If you want to see the lines ahead of time, contact the showrooms and ask for a line sheet. A line sheet shows all the designs for the up coming season along with whole sale prices, color ways, prints, fabric information, etc. Or at least, it should.

Planning My Merchandise

So the last step I mentioned is where I am now. I started contacting showrooms three or four weeks ago. Were they snobby? No, not really. Did they answer my emails? Yes, the first batch that I contacted did, however the second batch hasn’t. And I mean they REALLY haven’t….as in about 95% of them.  I understand that they’re busy but sometimes I have to ask my self, do these people actually WANT business?

I’m not that worried though because I contacted the lines I’m most interested in first.

But for me, not getting all the line sheets is frustrating because I like to plan in advance. I want to know what I’m going to buy when I go in.  I want to see my own stores line sheet (if that’s even what it’s called) and make sure that the pieces from different brands compliment each other.  And sometimes I really need to sleep on a piece before making a final decision, I mean, a girl can change her mind!  This all makes sense right?  Le sigh.

I just emailed a really hip up and coming designer; she’s a FIDM alum too.  Wish me luck.

Aah, the first post. I usually hate writing these but I think this one will be pretty fun, so here goes. My name is Kim, I’m 22 years old and I’m launching a boutique. You may know me from one of my other blogs; I run Girls Talkin’ Smack which is a fairly popular celebrity blog and I also worked for Oxygen Media (over at Oomph.net) for several months, so blogging is nothing new for me. Running a business however is new, but I’ve always been an entreprenuer at heart.

I’ve honestly been dreaming of owning a boutique for years. Actually I would probably be uber excited doing anything in the fashion industry that doesn’t involve removing censors. I graduated from FIDM earlier this year with a degree in Fashion Merchandise Product Development. When I first applied I thought I wanted to be a fashion designer, and then a switched over to wanting to be boutique owner, and for a while there I thought I would end up working as a sales rep. Well, I still want to do 2/3 of those things. Plus get into styling. Plus continuing writing/blogging. Oh, and did I mention having my own empire? Alright, forget I said that; baby steps.

So why did I decide to create this blog profiling my journey? Mainly to help people, but also just to vent if I ever need to! I know there are a lot of people out there who are interested in what I’m doing and who have question, so hopefully you’ll find your answers here!

The boutique will be online only and it will be called Ooh La Luxe! (oohlaluxe.com). If all goes well it will be open for business around February or March of next year.