The Outside View: A Tragic Business Model for Fashion

I have been financing, investing and advising in the fashion industry for a long time. Too long a time for me to mention. It actually scares me when I think hard about it. During all these years, our world has changed fundamentally since I began working with emerging brands. I’m anything but old school. I’m not nostalgic about the good old days. This industry was always an extremely challenging one. But what I do dearly miss is the passion and commitment to building a brand and staying with that brand for as long as the creative juices are flowing. During a normal business week, I am presented with a minimum of five start-ups in all different segments of consumer products and services. I see product, business plans, financial projections, P&Ls, balance sheets, orders, inventory positions and so on. They’re piled up on my desk. They’re laid out before me by owners, designers, PE firms, accountants, lawyers and brokers. A credit to our industry is that entrepreneurial endeavors procreate indefinitely. During this crazy period of viral brands, instant imaging and apocalyptic mind-sets, the perspective of young entrepreneurs has changed so dramatically that the future of the fashion industry is being impacted exponentially. For

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