← Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Empowering Fashion: Elizabeth Solomeina's Journey from Designer to Retail Innovator
00:48:54
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We're spending more than ever. I hate my job.
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The price of everything has gone up.
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AI is threatening my job.
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It's crisis after crisis.
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Nothing is working out.
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I can't find a job. We're one disaster. Take control of change. I need a change.
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Disruption is the force of change. Stop the chaos. Stop the madness. Take control. Read James Patterson's Disrupt Everything and win. Hey, it's Jon Gafford from the Escaping the Drift podcast. And big news. My new book, Escaping the Drift, is coming out November 11th. You can pre order it right now at thejohngafford.com There are tons of bonuses, tons of giveaways. Get the book. If you are somebody that feels like you might be drifting along, this is for you. If you know somebody that feels like they might be drifting along, this is for you. Available everywhere. Everywhere. All bookstores. Everywhere. Amazon, Barnes and nobles, the whole nine yards. But pick your copy up right now at thejohngaffer.com and get a bunch of the awesome bonuses I've thrown out, because I promise you, I put my heart and soul into this thing. I want it to help you change your life. Pick it up everywhere. All right, I'm gonna ask you a tough question. You're not allowed to say 50. 50. You can't answer 50. 50.
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Sure.
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Ready? That is off the table.
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Sure. Okay.
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Is this more about art, or is it about business? And now, Escaping the Drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm John Gafford, and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along. Escape the Drift. And it's time to start right now. Back again. Back again with another episode of. Like it says in the opening man, the podcast that gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And now also the book that gets you from where you are to where you want to be. If you want a copy of my new book, you can buy it anywhere books are sold. Also called Escaping the Drift, just like the podcast. Or you can buy it right from my website, which is www.thejohngafford.com where I give away a lot of exclusive extras for buying. The book through There comes out November 11th. Make sure you get your copy today. But today beaming into the studio people, I have an entrepreneurial type human actually Everybody that comes through here is an entreprene. But this person is the co founder, managing director of a company called Flying Solo. It's a curated community based of retail. Retail. It's a, it's a retail marketplace based in New York City where essentially what they've done is they've taken the in person boutique community and moved it online in a way that's kind of different from anything I've ever heard. So I'm excited to hear her story. Welcome to the program ladies and gentlemen. This is Elizabeth Solomina. Elizabeth, how are you?
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B
I'm doing very well. Thank you so much for having me. John, welcome.
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Glad to have you. So let's talk a little bit, let's dive right in to talk a little bit about what how you started your business and why it's different from the other ones.
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B
Flying Soul started from, I guess how a lot of great businesses started from a need to have something like we created. I started as a jewelry designer. We co founded the brand called Salamina with my sister. And the problem for a lot of independent brands is that you grow to a certain, certain pace to you becoming like a mid sized brand and then you need to figure out how to get to the next stage. So the problem is you unless you have really big budgets behind you or you have investors that happy to help you along this journey or maybe you already have pre existing connection within the industry, it's really hard to get to next level. It's really hard to get into big stores like sags, Bloomingdale's, it's really hard to get in Vogue and Harper's. It's really hard to organize your Runway shows and we and it's really hard to open your own store in New York. Anyone who is in New York real estate knows how extremely expensive it is. And not only just expensive on the real estate side, but it's also takes a lot of money up front build outs like you need to hire people. If you're not from the US you need to open the company. And so many things goes into actual physical retail. So turns out that I wasn't alone in my search for a place like Flying Solo. I met a lot of designers along the Way that were kind of in the same position and just searching for something where they can sell their products directly to consumer without going into big wholesale orders, etc. And that's how Flying Soul was created. So in 2016, we opened the first store on Mulberry Street.
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A
So you do have in person stores, it's not just online?
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B
Yeah, we have a really large retail store in person. So we actually have it not just in New York, we have New York and Paris location. So whoever is in New York, please stop by. We are on Broome street now, so we moved around for quite a bit and now our location for a very long time will be on Broome Street.
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A
So are designers consigning like their product to you? Is, is it like a, is it like an art show where they get a section? I mean, how does this work? It's like a department store where they're doing a deal with you, just on a smaller scale in person. How's this work?
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B
Very good question. So we decided to redefine retail and do it our way. The big problem with big retailers is when you come to, let's say Saks Fifth Avenue is actually interested in your product, but what they'll ask from you as a designer, they'll ask for a very large minimum. They ask for very certain deliverables. They will do a selection of your product based on whatever they feel that sells. And at the end of the season, if it won't sell, most likely they make you buy it back. Especially if you're a smaller brand, like you don't have that leverage just yet. We realized that the biggest power for an independent brand comes in flexibility. So you need to be able to experiment with your collection. Put one sample or two samples in front of the customer and see if it's actually being bought. If those two SKUs are being bought, maybe bring those in a different color and so on, or outerate them if they don't do well. Fit problem, sizing problem. So many things young designers need out before they can actually scale. So we created exactly that. Flying Solo is a membership based model. So our design is depending on the services that they need. Pay us a membership fee, monthly membership fee for that. They get full flexibility on their deliverables and how they sell. So they can bring just a capsule collection, a very small collection. They can see what's sold. They can immediately swap as they go their samples or their pieces as they go. If they want to feel, if they feel like bringing the new drop the next month, they can do that. So we never limit our designers from doing what is actually best for their business. We don't limit them. If they want to bring in season or they already, let's say it's still August, maybe they want to sell summer items or maybe they already trying to start selling pre fall at that point. So anything that will work for their business is going to be their decision. We provide the space, organize it, we curated, we provide salespeople like the whole infrastructure and designers just come in and bring their product to be sold in flying.
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So, so the lesson there, if you're listening to this and it doesn't matter if you're in fashion or any, you know, we've heard about us talk about many times with many different entrepreneurs on this podcast, which is if you're going to sell a product before you go, spend a bunch of money to make a million of them, make sure that people actually want it. And this is a great way to really. You're a test kitchen for fashion is what you are. Because people are.
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B
John. Yeah, yeah.
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Because people can bring stuff in and see how the market actually reacts to it if they like it or they don't. You know, how do you. Because obviously it's a membership deal where people are almost buying in like a co op. They're actually participating in the overhead. So how do you, how do you maintain the like, for example, what would, what would prohibit me from coming in and saying, okay, I want to be part of your thing, here's my monthly fee. And then I bring a bunch of T shirts that are just insane and look like homeless. I literally went to Subway, took them off a homeless guy, hung them on a rack and put 300 on them. How do you, how do you maintain the quality and integrity of your store?
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B
Absolutely. Well, we are membership basis company, but we have a very big team that selects designers that gets in every season. So we not only select them based on what we believe will be right for the customer, but we also by season by sections that they need within the store in order to have a proper experience for the clients. So we have a curating team. So while everybody can apply, obviously not everybody will get in. However, we also want to say, what's.
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A
That, what's that process like?
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You just go to our Instagram, Flying Solar nyc, click link and buy and you can apply to any of our stores, either New York or Paris. You can also apply to be a part of our press showroom or we also do New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week and Milan Fashion Week shows. You can apply to those all, like everything that you need to learn about how we run it all going to be there. I won't bore with you all the details today, but no, no, no one who is interested can certainly learn it there.
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A
Well, it just, you know, like anything else, you can't just walk in off the street and show up. I mean it's not, it's not a consignment story. You can't just say hey, here's my stuff.
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B
No, absolutely. And I mean we pride ourselves on creating a very diverse lineup of designers. We have very, very young brands but very established brands as well. So we have brands that been around for a good 20 years. They still technically independent designers but they could have a very established network. Let's say they're in Europe, they have multiple stores in Europe already. But they want to test US market. So the first logical step will be come to us before they even know what they want, where they want their stores to be. They'll come to us, test the market and after that they most likely going to expand if they feel that it will be the right fit or sometimes it's a very young brand, they don't even know anything about anything. But they already have a really good collection, the one that we believe will be a very successful thing for our clients and they come in and start their journey with us.
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A
Yeah, you know, look, I don't pretend to understand how the fashion industry works but I've seen, I've seen a movie or two where it seems like the big, the big well known designer would just have like the young people working for them and then kind of steal their designs as their owns. Don't know if that's really how it is. But I've seen, like I said, I've seen a movie or two. This seems like you're giving an avenue for those young people to have a place to sell their stuff that's not a more traditional work for a big well known designer and maybe help them route. Am I right by that, am I wrong? I mean you can tell me if.
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It'S just fictional, right? It's the reality of it is there is a lot of talent out there that are people want to create their brand but the problem is that breaking in, how do you even start your brand? I mean you can create your collection and hang it in your studio, but what's the purpose of all of that? You need to bring in in front of people and actually start testing the market. Is it a good fit? Do you need adjustments? And by the way, reality Even the most talent and the designers that become extremely successful through going on a journey with us, they still take some time to test everything and adjust. We have a couple really great examples when designer joined and like three years, three, four years later, they already started becoming a bigger brand and leave us because they want to open their own stores. But they started from very beginning. What they normally do is they pivot many times throughout their journey. They might start with one thing and transition to completely different thing. They might start with ready to wear and landed in outerwear at the end only because there are few pieces that were vegan fur coats, for example. It's one of the brands that been with us, was the most successful part of their collection. And that's how they built their brand at the end. So you need to test those little things. Fashion is very fluid. One day one thing become trendy, then another, you might catch something great and run with it. Sometimes it takes a while to figure that thing out, but you need to have a place to experiment. That's the main thing about fashion.
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A
Well, look, when it comes to fashion, again, I don't claim to be a fashionista. I mean, I see things like I saw a clip scrolling down my Instagram the other day that said, what is it? Jaden Smith is now like the head designer at Christian Louboutin or something? I'm like, dude, other than being from the lucky sperm club of getting bored to Will Smith, I don't think that kid has any talent for anything other than that. But I guess sometimes that qualifies you. But that brings me back to this question, which is this. So I would think that what would make someone very good at designing fashion, right? That artistic side of them would also make them terrible business people. I just would think you don't, you don't get it all. Nobody gets it all, right? Like, I'm an elite level business person, but I could not go design a shirt. I don't have that in me.
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B
Right.
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So my question is, how much of what you guys do is also mentoring them on the business side? Is there, is there an aspect of that? I would think for them to be successful, they'd have to be.
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B
Yes. I mean, John, you're absolutely right on that. I'm not saying that every creative person is a bad business person. Sometimes you get lucky to have both. But at the same time, you need to put time and energy in developing your other side. Let's say business side in that case. So what we do in flying solar initially, we provide them the entire structure of that. So they literally just bring that collection to Flying Solar and we do the rest. We merchandise it, put it on the website, we present it to the client. If they, we present it to press to the magazines the way it's supposed to be presented. Most of the time when it's a young brand and one person behind that brand, they just simply don't know how to start.
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They have no clue, no clue.
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But little by little, seeing how we do it, they will learn, they will learn how to, how to present their collection on the sales floor, how people talk about it, see how we interact with clients. And that's a very good part of mentoring. So we mentor by example.
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A
Okay, so would you say that you do more business online or through the in person boutiques?
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We do more business in person boutiques, but there is a very specific reason for it.
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Yeah, let's have it. Because I thought this was online. I think I read that in the opening bio that you'd taken this online. I was wrong.
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The biggest challenge for independent brand is you go as a shopper online, you see something beautiful, you would love to buy it. Like this is so cool. I would love to buy it. And your first challenge is going to be well, is it going to fit me? Because let's say it says size medium but God knows if that independent designer put medium as medium or it should be bigger, should be small. Second problem that you have is like I don't know the brand, I don't know the quality, I don't know like if they even going to deliver. It seems like a cool brand but I never heard about it. So I do not have a trust in the brand just yet. So that's, that's why a lot of brands do need us as flying solo. And when you come to established retailer like us, we've been around for 10 years now, they see that we have a beautiful curation of the brands. While brands themselves could be very young, they really trust us that we pick the right ones. They can try it physically in the physical retail, see if they like it. And then they oftentimes, if they fall in love with the brand, they often order online, not just through our platform, not just nyc. Oftentimes they go directly to the designer because they might have bigger collection on their website and so on. So we in a way are a discovery place for a lot of young brands. And when we that place where client and brand build trust, well, client build trust to the brand and they can further already go directly to the brand already knowing their quality and Fit and sizing, et cetera.
- [18:12]
A
And your. Your revenue model for your business is strictly based really on. Because you. 100% of the profits outside of, you know, credit card processing and all that stuff goes back to the designer. So your, Your, your revenue model is 100% based on these memberships. Correct? Your. Your membership.
- [18:28]
B
That. That is correct. And that's how we want to structure it from the beginning. It's the best way for us to give each designer equal opportunity to sell in our store. So again, we don't have. We do have more established designers than others, the ones that do more business than others. But regardless, we treat every designer equally. So whether you just created your collection six months ago and put it in our store or you've been established in 20 years in the business we showcase, we merchandise everybody equally, so every design will have an equal play in the store.
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A
And how many designers do you have on membership at any given time?
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So over 200 brands at any given point. Between our New York Paris store and our pressure.
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A
And what was the last part? I'm sorry? I heard New York and Paris. What was the last part?
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B
New York, Paris and press showrooms. So we have a retail store, physical retail store in Paris, and our press showroom is located in New York on the. On a separate level. So that's where media comes in. So basically editors of magazines, photographers, stylists to take pieces for the photo shoot. So we do that for designers as well.
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A
Yeah. I mean, it seems to me that they're not really paying for placement in your stores. They're paying for biz dev services.
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B
That is correct. Yeah.
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A
You guys are business development. That's what you do. You're fractional, coo, fractional, cmo, fractional, all of these things. That's what you guys do.
- [19:57]
B
I love that. Yes. I'll definitely refer to us like that.
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A
Yeah, I think that's what you do. And you're picking up the side of this that people just don't have any avenue to do. They don't. They don't understand how to get where they want to be.
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B
That is true. Yeah.
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A
Let's talk a little bit different about the fashion industry in general, which I know obviously so much about, as we've already discussed, but I do know this. I know it seems to be in the news all the time that this cheap Chinese chic stuff online seems to be just running through America like crazy. What is it? No, not Temu. That's not the one. What am I thinking of? What am I thinking of? The throwawayable stuff. Sheen is what I'm thinking of. That one, that thing.
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B
Well, I think there is something for everybody and there will be always people that shop in different retailers. Depends on what exactly you need. If you just need more and cheaper, it will be one retailer. But if you're looking for something quality with the story, something that will be very personal to you, that is more towards our designers. And what's interesting about our brands is that when you buy a piece from us, you not just buy. You buying something that either one of a kind. Oftentimes, it's literally the only dress in the whole New York City that, that you, you bought from us. That's it. It will not be another one because they shipped it from somewhere else and they might have just made one or very limited production. So it's very unlikely that you run into someone else behind it. But on top of it, you're not just bough, big manufacturer and God knows where the money went. You really support the designer by purchasing it. And I, I cannot emphasize enough how much it means for a lot of people, because when you're a small brand, every single sale count. Not just because the amount of money that you'll bring, but it's like a validation for designers. Like, am I doing the right job? Am I on the right track of do people even like what I do? Are they attracted? Or should I just give up and every purchase just confir that on the right way. You don't understand how many times designers will come to us and say, I was about to give up. Like, I thought this is my last stop. And if those flying solar couldn't like make any sales, that's it, I'm done. I guess no one wants my stuff. But when you put it in front of the right people and they start getting your pieces, like actually voting with their money, all of a sudden you realizing that there is a following behind it. You don't have to be on everybody. You don't have to be liked by everybody. But there are a specific client that absolutely love your stuff. So that's wonderful. That's what fashion is all about. I mean, it's always going to be someone who absolutely hates you and there will be a people that loves you.
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A
Yeah. The reason I asked that about Sheen, obviously I wasn't comparing your brand or any of the brands that you service to that stuff because it's really cheap. As I saw this story talking about the problem with disposable clothes globally, where you have like these small countries in Africa that buy they like agree to take all of this, like the clothing we give away to Goodwill that we think somebody's going to be wearing in two weeks. Yeah, it's all stacked up in a field in Ghana somewhere. Right. And it's just everywhere. And the problem with disposable clothing versus quality stuff is people do tend to just buy stuff because it's cheap and fast and throw it away rather than buying quality things that may last them for a long time. Yeah, yeah, I just, I don't use, you know, somebody that is in that industry. You know, that's why I was just curious what your thoughts were on that because I was a problem and I think you obviously agree with quality over quantity all day long. How did you get the idea for your, like, how did you sit there one day and what was the moment you said this needs, I need to start this business and let's talk about building that business. Let's talk about from the conception idea to opening your first store.
- [23:56]
B
Absolutely. Actually, I wasn't the only person that decided on that reality. A lot of great businesses are born organically. And what happened was I met a lot of great designers along the way when I started my jewelry journey and designers were basically looking for places to sell. All of us were very excited about meeting each other. And it was, something in the air between all of us is like, hey, we need to do something together. Because reality is by ourselves. Even if you have the money to open the tiny little store in New York City, somehow how are you going to be noticed? Like people just ignore you. It's so many things going on in New York. But if we get all together and initial group of designers were just 10 people, 10 people get significantly more attention. And the idea was, hey, you have some clients, I have some clients, another person has some clients. But if 10 of us bring all the clients to the same place, guess What? We'll have 10 times more clients. So that was a very basic. It's, it's so, it's so simple, the idea that. But that was the very beginning of flying solo. So we did a series of pop ups before flying solo even became flying solo. We did it for a couple weeks, then we did it for a couple months. And we realized, I gotta say, because.
- [25:24]
A
You just skipped over something that is, yeah, elite level in business, which is sharing email lists or sharing client bases. And so many people, so many people, they're like, you know, you're like, oh, you know everybody you need, if you're in business, you need to have a newsletter, you need to have something that goes out. You need to start building an email list because that is in this day and age is one of your biggest assets. People don't realize that your email list to your clients and people are like, oh, how am I going to build one? I only have so many customers. Well, great. Well go to people that have comparable businesses or complementary businesses to what you do, but aren't your competitors and just close, but not really the same. And then you do this together and all of a sudden collectively you guys can jointly build a very large list very quickly. And then once a month you just, you know, as you send those, those newsletters out every week, whatever, quarterly, monthly, whatever it is, you feature one of the businesses in it and then it just kind of organically grows. But yeah, that's a great point. It's a really smart way to do it.
- [26:19]
B
It. Yeah. In 2016, right now you hear every that everybody's collaborating especially there are so many collaborations on a artistic side. So one brand did a collab with another. You hear it all the time. But you like don't remember that in 2016 that wasn't a thing. When we opened our very first store, people literally would come up to me and saying like that would never work. I was like, why? Why would you say that? And because, well, fashion people cannot just possibly collaborate. They're always going to be competing against each other. It's all about eagers, it's all about who is best. They just you guys all going to fight and that, that will be it for Flying Soul. And for me it was a really weird statement because I personally come from a film film background and I worked a lot of creative industry. I was a graphic designer, I did film editing. I did a lot of creative fields before I started Jewel. In any creative field, it's all about collaboration. There is always a team. When you're filming something, there is actually a team. It's not about who is competing with what. And what's fun about being surrounded by the creatives. You always bounce ideas of each other. You kind of in the same environment and you love the same things and you get excited about the projects and things like that. So for us as a creatives, it's really weird to be by ourselves. So when you start a fashion brand and you they are all by yourself, it's kind of a natural. So that's why because it wasn't coming from a fashion industry to begin with. It was a very weird statement for me is like why would we not collaborate? It's it's actually makes sense. So. But yeah, I mean, we prove them wrong.
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A
Well, that's. Well, let's. You're skip. You're skipping ahead. So I want to talk about. Because you got 10 people now, right? You said there was 10 of you that want to do the cigar.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So you're gonna do a couple pop ups. How did you get 10 people to. What was the hierarchy there? Were you guys voting democratically on where, what you were gonna do, how much money you were kicking in, or did you just say, I'm gonna take the reins on this and then come along for the ride?
- [28:26]
B
Did you want an honest answer? How is that?
- [28:28]
A
Yeah, totally. Because people need to hear this stuff, right? Because everybody has like four friends that want to go into business together and they think it's the greatest idea in the world and, and tell them the truth.
- [28:40]
B
Okay. I wish I have some kind of Hollywood story line. That's how it all happened. But it wasn't. So basically it was 10 of us. We did the series of pop ups and for whatever reason, a lot of people trusted me to lead the group. And it was then kind of one of the latest pop ups were coming to the end and they came up to me and they're like, well, we need to, we need to figure out the permanent space. I was like, okay, and you need to do it. You need to go find a permanent space. Go find the money and we'll bring more designers. That was the promise. I was like, okay, so in order for us to open something permanent, we needed significantly more money, obviously. So we were aiming towards like 30 designers at the beginning. And on top of it, we need to find someone, an investor basically, who will co sign for us because we're just a designers.
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A
Hang on, hang, hang on. Did you write. So the first pop ups cost money, right? They all cost money. Did everybody kick in equally for these things?
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B
Yes. Yes.
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A
Did you get, did you, did you get paid? Did you take anything over and above just.
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B
No, no. It was absolutely equal for all of us.
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A
And you just did all the work on the pop ups just because you thought, I want to see if it worked. You did all the work.
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B
Well, I was also serving myself in. I was one of the designers. But I really believed in this idea. I kind of felt in the moment that we are doing something so different that needed to be done. I don't know. I think a lot of people, when they start their businesses, they have that moment when you like, I need to do it. Like, I don't know why it doesn't make any sense. It's like, financially could be a shit show, but I need to do it. And that was one of those things. I was like, somehow I'm capable of doing it. Like there are people that want me to do it, so might as well.
- [30:31]
A
Well, all right, so see your successful pop ups at the end of the second one they say you need to go find us a store, but you know, you need to raise money. They put all of this on you. So when do you have the conversation? Like, okay, yeah, that's all well and great, but if I'm going to go do all this, we're not going to be equal partners. Or were you still equal partners at this point? Still doing the work for me.
- [30:51]
B
We have a co founding members of flying solo, so they're always going to be members. So they have, have a very privileged, you know, terms of their journey.
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A
Members and equity are two different things.
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B
But I mean, none of us really had, none of us really had the money to put in. So we needed an investor who becomes a majority owner who like, who put up the actual money for all of us. And thankfully I was able to find one based on my previous connection. Based from the.
- [31:25]
A
All right, let's talk about, let's talk about that. Don't run past that because look, businesses need capital to get moving. So you obviously went out and raised some capital. So talk to me about that process.
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B
Yes, we actually didn't do an race race like in a traditional sense. I found one investor who wanted to invest in us and we did not go and like we stuck with him for all this time. So we did.
- [31:54]
A
Did you have a business plan? Did you have projections? Did you have all those things? Or was this just somebody that you had a relationship with and you said they believed in you because both things can happen. Both things. They can have both ways.
- [32:03]
B
Believed in me because we worked together on the previous projects back in my film days. So I guess the assumption was that I'm capable of pulling off, you know, complicated things. But of course it was a very big risk on his behalf and the reality was he actually believed in the idea. And, and it was also for the idea of independent designers actually having a chance to, to grow their brands and to become known. Yeah, yeah.
- [32:34]
A
So how much was the initial investment?
- [32:36]
B
I cannot talk about numbers.
- [32:38]
A
Okay, all right, what was it? And how much did you give up more than 50% equity for them?
- [32:41]
B
I cannot talk about the exact numbers, but yes.
- [32:44]
A
Okay, all right, that's fine. Fair. I just. The reason the Only reason I bring it up is because I just. People need to have the expectation of. Sometimes they think that going to, you know, they have an idea and they can go out and find an investor and they're like, oh, we're going to give you 10%. It's like, well, yeah, no, it doesn't.
- [32:58]
B
Really work like that. And to everybody who is looking for an investment, I'll honestly say that if you have money on your own, do that with your own money. The investor thinks, I mean, we were lucky, but not everybody was so lucky. It's. It's a really. You basically have a boss now. So whoever your investor is, it's not just free cash. You start having a boss that really demands you to do things on their own terms. So again, like, we get lucky with ours, but it's still. You have someone else in the business and you no longer can do things just your own way.
- [33:34]
A
Yeah, now that's a great point. When you have shareholders or investors, you have to report to them and they kind of start controlling your time and have a big say so in what they want to do is how that works. So let me ask you this. And again, obviously you can't give me specifics, but. But when you did the initial raise, was there any type of. Is this a permanent. Is it permanent equity situation? Was there a buyout opportunity on the back end? Like, what did you do?
- [34:01]
B
So the initial thing was let's last one year and then we'll see. So the initial lease for us was one year on Mulberry street. And that was the commitment from our investor was. And our commitment just to keep our. Enough designers, like for the whole thing to actually run. Of course, more money had to be put in along the way because we choose to keep growing in February of. So we opened in June of 2016, and in February 2017, we decided to do our very first New York Fashion Week Runway show, which was a success at the end, but it took a lot of money from him and it was very. It was a lot to do. So a lot of things need to keep. Needed to keep growing. But yeah, overall that, that was the initial part of it.
- [34:56]
A
So when have you. Did you take on additional investors or just the same one?
- [35:02]
B
We stuck with one.
- [35:03]
A
So at what point. So you started New York? That was the first store. You said you've been around for 12 years now you said 12 years, 10 years. Okay. So at what point did you decide to scale to another market, which was Paris? What's up point of that happen?
- [35:17]
B
So we Always did Paris Runway shows. So basically one year after we started in New York. So September 2017, we decided to do our very first show in Paris. And Paris is obviously known as a fashion capital. It's one of the four cities where. Where big Runway shows take place. And it was wonderful. I mean, it was wonderful to showcase there. It was wonderful to travel there twice a year to bring the collections. And I mean, it just made sense for us to open a store in different market. So we opened the Paris store not that long ago. It was two years ago. So that's our third year running there.
- [36:01]
A
So when you opened the Paris store, did you have to raise more capital or was the business sufficient enough to make that we.
- [36:07]
B
We had to ask for more money from the investor. It was definitely an investment for us. It was a very expensive market to get in. I will say that in. Yes, in general, what we did not realize initially that French. French market, French, the way things around there will be very expensive on the paperwork side. On the just opening the whole business side in US Us, it's quite easy. It's actually in US it's much easier to start your own business than in. Well, in France. People say that you're in Europe in general, but I didn't form a company anywhere else, so I cannot.
- [36:50]
A
All right, so what are the growth plans now for the brand where you're trying to go?
- [36:54]
B
So we are very established brand in the fashion industry right now. So our next move is actually we are going to host flying solo awards ceremony in June of next year. So that is basically to celebrate every part of the talent within fashion industry. Because it's really personally bugs me that we have Oscars where we celebrate every single person on the production side. Like everybody from not just actors and directors, but editors, music and everything. We have the same thing for theater with same thing for music, but we never had that for the fashion industry. So while we know who models are and designers are, we do not know people who work tirelessly behind the scenes like makeup artists, hair artists, stylists. And if you ever seen a set of the production set of for the magazine, it's a lot of people that get involved but never get highlighted, never get get proper credit for their work. I mean, they technically get credits but not recognized enough. So we decided to change that as flying solo since we have a power to do so. And we're going to host flying solo awards in June of 2026.
- [38:13]
A
Is that a. Is that a for. Is that a for profit event or is that just a Branding. It's a branding event.
- [38:18]
B
It's a branding event, nonprofit, and we'll put it on our platform platforms. Very soon, the applications for all different categories, they'll be completely free to. For anyone to apply. And then we'll be sorting them out and announcing the shortlist, et cetera.
- [38:32]
A
Okay, and what do you think that's going to do? Obviously, obviously, that's kind of a passion deal for you that you want to give back to the industry. But how do you see that impacting your business positively and tempting it to.
- [38:43]
B
Well, I personally believe you do a lot of great things. Great things come back to you. And. And again, I believe we are finally in a position to change, start real change in this fashion industry. You heard probably many bad things about fashion in general. How cruel it is, how people unkind to each other.
- [39:02]
A
I've seen the movies, begrudgingly. I've seen some in the movies, begrudgingly. I got a daughter, I got a wife. I got to watch that stuff sometimes.
- [39:10]
B
Yes. So funny enough, that's how industry was for a very long time. And we from the very beginning said that we not going to be those people. We actually, actually going to be the people that would be kind and won't be mean, will give chances. And this is one of our thing that always be we not just give chances to designers. That's obvious. But when people come to our press showroom, we there are a lot of young talent that's coming. Let's say you're aspiring stylist, right? You are about to work on your first big editorial for the magazines. You come to a shop showroom and say, hey, I want to take this and this clothes. I have this amazing project. It's going to be great. And most of the showrooms will say no to you because it's like, well, what's your track record? You're like, I don't have any yet. I'm young, I'm passionate. I want to do something in this industry. They're like, well, nope. And without great clothes and without great setups and everything, you oftentimes cannot do things. So we pride ourselves on the fact that we gave chances to a lot of young talent, talent that like back in the day was unknown, but now they became the creative directors, like big shots in the industry. And we already saw that growth within 10 years. And they always come to us and say, hey, you gave me a chance when no one did. I will forever remember what you guys did for us. So I believe that's our mission in general and Something that I personally believe in. When you're in a position of power and you can give young talent an opportunity, you just must do it. It's just should be part of your thing. And that's what we're going to do.
- [40:50]
A
All right, I'm going to ask you a tough question. You're not allowed to say 50. 50. You can't answer 50. 50. Ready? That is off the table.
- [40:57]
B
Sure. Okay.
- [40:59]
A
Is this more about art or is it about business?
- [41:03]
B
It's business. I mean, it's always good business, as I said, to support great people. I'm not saying that we non for profit company whatsoever. Of course. Great attention. When you do great thing, you get a lot of great attention and you become unknown. I'm not hiding that fact, but we are here to celebrate the entire industry. And again, we as a flying solicit completely nonprofit thing. So whoever will be winning those prizes, like it will be for them completely. We will not charge a cent for it.
- [41:39]
A
Oh, I think, I think I met. I. That's not what. And I see. I think we had a miscommunication because I wasn't talking about. Because like we always get those things like, hey, do you want to win America's best businessman awards? And three grand to this? And it's like, no, dude. Yeah, I don't, I don't need to buy myself a plaque. I could do it cheaper just going down the street. I think what I meant was, you know, when I think about scaling business, right. When I think about scaling it up, like, I think giving back is super important. I mean, my businesses are all happy, heavily involved with a lot of great charities. We're not a five. We don't have a five, one, three ourselves, but we're heavily involved with a lot of great stuff. And I think the reason I asked that was you don't normally hear when I ask somebody about, about scaling where they immediately go to something that is strictly about giving back and has no profit. Like, like, like not. It's not a business model really for profit at all. It's strictly about giving back. Which is why I asked the question about art. That wasn't a shot at you. I just. Not at all.
- [42:36]
B
No, no, I, I didn't take it like this either. I mean, we are finally in our era where we do not have to constantly double in size. There were times like this, I mean, it was 10 of us, then 30, then 50, then hundred, then 200, then we had to open another store, then we have to do New York show, Perry show, then EDIT MILAN SHOW so we were constant growing. I believe right now it's our area flying. So to dig deeper, deep to create this better connections, like with an industry with designers to help them better. We don't really have ambitions to have a hundred stores in New York because that's not something that we believe we should do. Yes, we'll grow in size because it's a lot of demand and we are trying to do it very organically. But there are other aspects that we need to pay attention to and that will be one of the those.
- [43:32]
A
Yeah, what's the next? If you had to pick a next city, what was the next city BE.
- [43:35]
B
L A There are a lot of.
- [43:38]
A
Different, I guess you're international, so you could say Milan, you could say London. There's a lot of places.
- [43:43]
B
So there are a lot of places. I mean we looked at different places including London, Milan, Dubai, la. Each of those markets has its own upsides and its own challenges. So one thing, what we learned about expanding is like you need to know your market first. You don't know what you don't know in a new market. And it's much simpler to open in a market that you already live in. Not because you necessarily have a company established or know how to run the business and that you know the market, but you know the market. I mean, you know how people think. You kind of understand the people that you live with somehow their habits, like you know what they do, what they don't do. You already know them. And when you go to a new market, you need to have partners there at least like manager, someone who will guide you through this cultural differences.
- [44:35]
A
And can we talk? Oh, that's a great point. I want to talk about. Let's talk about that real quick because that's a great point. Your store in Paris, is there somebody there all the time that has equity in that business?
- [44:45]
B
No, we don't have anyone who has equity. But we hired a very high skilled manager management there. So therefore there are people that already. And before even opening the store, we did hire consultants from the market. But you're still going to have challenges. Funny enough, not everybody thinks as Americans do. So I'll give you a great example for difference between two markets. America is all about the client, the final client, the profits. Whoever makes the most is the most important person. Right? We all about success and drive and let's make it happen. French are not about this. And if you go to that market, you should accept that it's more about balance and quality of life and living Home, going home on time and not overworking. And that's their thing. And again, when you go to a different market, you cannot disrespect it. You need to understand that this, those are their values values and you cannot just impose yours on them. You have to understand where they coming from and kind of play not necessarily just by the rules, but at least acknowledge that there is a different set of rules how industry is done there.
- [46:06]
A
So yeah, well, I would, I would also guess and I would, I would guess that the, your mission of what you're trying to do and the mission mission is as important to the people that gravitate to be employees for your company as almost as is the amount of money they can make and how successful they are. They probably. Because I see how passionate you are about your mission and that's got to permeate through the whole organization, I would guess.
- [46:32]
B
I believe so. Yeah. We definitely attract a lot of really great talent. And I also love the fact that while I personally do not expect that everybody, when they enter flying solo, like being employed by flying solo, think that they're going to be here forever or have aspirations to be here forever. But it could be a really big chunk of their development because we always give extra opportunities to people. So you might come into our organization as someone on the sales floor. So that's the first level job that you'll get. But you might have other aspirations like being a stylist, being on Photoshop shoes, being part of fashion weeks, etc. If you ask us, most likely we'll give you like if we have time for that, we'll give you that chance to do that next time we're doing something like that. And this is your chance to showcase your skills or your desire to do so and you can progress. We do have a lot of great people that came from like literally the assistant of the assistant job and now run the whole department. And they're very happy in their role. They develop the whole department in a great way. And yeah, I believe that's a success story.
- [47:50]
A
Well, that's awesome. Well Elizabeth, it's a great story. I wish you well in all your future endeavors. If they want to find you guys, how do they find you?
- [47:58]
B
Our Instagram is flying solar nyc. One word and all the websites are linked in bio. You can reach us there. Take a look at what we have to offer both in the consumer side and to design. And Definitely stop by 419 Broome street in New York, SoHo, New York. And in Paris, it's 43 Rutie and Marcel.
- [48:22]
A
Cool. Well, thanks so much for joining us today. I appreciate your time.
- [48:25]
B
Thank you so much.
- [48:27]
A
As we wrap it up today, folks, just remember this, man, if you listen to that story today, just understand something. If you have a passion about something, you can absolutely turn it into a business if you just get with the right people. People focus on the right things and always, always, always test before you spend a bunch of money. We'll see you next week. Hey, it's John Gafford from the Escaping the Drift podcast. And big news. My new book, Escaping the Drift is coming out November 11th. You can pre order it right now at thejohngafford.com There are tons of bonuses, tons of giveaways. Get the book. If you are somebody that feels like you might be drifting along, this is for you. If you know somebody that feels like they might be drifting along, this is for you. Available everywhere, all bookstores, everywhere, Amazon, Barnes and nobles, the whole nine yards. But pick your copy up right now at thejohngaffer.com and get a bunch of the awesome bonuses I've thrown out because I promise you, I put my heart and soul into this thing. I want it to help you change your life. Pick it up everywhere. What's up, everybody? Thanks for joining. Joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escaping the drift.com you can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review. Give us a share. Do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.