Unfolding Fashion

UNFOLDING FASHION
Quinn Jensen

Management activities of most fashion companies could be
compared to a present, neatly folded, tightly wrapped, and
secured with a bow. Unfortunately, these rigid attributes
do not set up fashion companies for long term success.
The business consultancy, Unfolding Fashion, seeks to
help fashion companies rethink their companies by focusing
on strategy, transparency, and organizational structure.
Unfolding Fashion helps fashion companies “repack” their
companies for long term viability.
Unfolding Fashion believes that fashion without strategy
cannot endure; and that fashion companies need to
understand their strategy before designing garments.
Including research and industry knowledge, this book acts
as a briefing of a Gen Z consultant’s perspective of what
is needed for fashion companies to succeed and insight for
how brands must prepare for the next century.

Unfolding Fashion uses a scorecard to evaluate fashion
companies which includes:
A clearly defined strategy that is long lasting… as opposed
to just creating so called “on trend” fashion garments
A leader who is capable of blending the strategy of their
business with the creativity of making clothing items that
fit the strategy
Ensurance of company transparency... from designing and
creating the products to employee treatment to what is
revealed to their customers
A cellular organizational structure that is conducive for the
leader to ensure transparency and consistent creative output
After being scored, clients have the oportunity to engage
in a revised business model which could include: an
update to visual branding, a refeshed marketing strategy,
creative direction suggestions, organization structure
improvements, and transparency advice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chanel vs. Poriet 1-4
Adapting 5-6
Is Creativity Enough? 7-8
Managment Ideas of 2020 9-12
The Business Environment 13-14
Fashion’s Value Chain 15-16
Manipulating Transparancy 17-18
2000 to 2020 19-20
COVID-19 21-22
Organizational Structures 23-24
Future Consumer Environment 25-26

CHANEL VS. PORIET
Coco Chanel and Paul Poriet were dueling designers in Poriet’s
peak time before the first World War. It would have been foolish
at the time to think Poriet’s career would fall short of the
Chanel brand’s existence by decades, but it did. Poriet fought
against the copies of his garments whereas when the same
thing happened to Chanel, she simply maintained focus on her
classic streamlined styles.
The work of Coco Chanel is continued today likely because she
adapted to the times. Coco knew how to hustle and she knew
the demographic her clothes needed to reach for her business
to be successful. Chanel also introduced a fragrance line that
began with Chanel No. 5. This niche of fragrance within fashion
was one of the things Poiret was unable to market for the long
term. Poriet encouraged women to wear many of his scents for
her different moods. This short term marketing strategy did
not work well when incomes were cut short during wartime.
1

Paul Poriet spent his time designing with surplus of materials.
He thought, the more exotic a look could be, the more garments
he would sell. The thing about this outlook is that times are
always changing, so consumers’ taste, needs, and desires need to
constantly be reevaluated.
Designers cannot just create for the runway, they must consider
demand.
With a business and design approach to fashion, Chanel outlasted
Poriet’s designs by decades and is still a pertinent high fashion
brand today. Without the business mindset, Poriet was bound to
be a failed trend. But, if he considered who he was designing for
and continued to question the necessities of maintaining his brand
in changing times, he likely would have made it to today as a
successful brand alongside Chanel.
3

ADAPTING
There is a pattern with the longest lasting successful
fashion companies. They have uncompromising mission
statements and the flexibility to adapt to changing
consumer attitudes.
They apply what’s going on in the world to what’s
relevant for their business. In times of war, climate
change or pandemic, these companies find themselves
producing not for the company but for the nation.
For example, Chanel re-directed several of its
French facilities to produce cloth face masks for the
government’s COVID-19 effort.
5

IS CREATIVITY ENOUGH?
In sustaining a business workers must understand that,
“Creativity alone is not enough in building your clothing line
or brand. It only sustains your passion but not the business
aspect of your clothing line. That means you’ll have to think,
prepare, and decide like an entrepreneur.”
“Budgeting in business is crucial because it is how you allot
the money needed to make your product and pay suppliers and
retailers. You must always keep your finances under control.”
“Reviews from customers or other people interested in your
clothing brand help you learn and grow.”
-Jenny Park Business Town
7

MANAGEMENT IDEAS OF 2020
Strategy Needs Creativity
“In the new environment, traditional retail footprints become
more of a liability than an asset.”
Management of fashion companies should, “list the
“incompetencies” (rather than the competencies) and test
whether they can in fact be turned into strengths. They also
should consider deliberately imposing some constraints to
encourage people to find new ways of thinking and acting.”
-Adam Brandenburger Harvard Business Review
9

Operational Transparency
Transparency is the “deliberate design of windows into and
out of the organization’s operations to help customers and
employees alike understand and appreciate the value being
created.”
Successful results look like a “feedback loop where employees
have a greater sense of purpose, customers feel better cared
for, and improvement in organizational learning.”
“If you don’t want people to see how you treat your employees
or the planet, you probably need to make some changes.”
-Ryan W. Buell Harvard Business Review
11

We live in a capitalist based reality.
Fashion companies live in the business world.
If they think that they exist in the fashion world,
they will ultimately fail.
13

The business environment
is bigger than fashion.

FASHION’S VALUE CHAIN
Design & Development: Collection designing, pattern making,
textiles and fabrics samples research and samples.
Production & Supply Chain: Early stage: low volumes of samples
and in-house commercial collections. Later stage: finding production
partners to help produce quantities demanded. Supply chain, logistics,
and quality control are all critical for growth.
Marketing & PR: Goal: creating consumer awareness of collection.
Tools: social media, advertising. Determine specific demographics to
target and what marketing vehicles to reach those customers to build
brand loyalty.
Sales & Distribution: Distribute and sell products. Early stage:
selling wholesale, selling to online or offline retailers. Later stage:
own retail store or combination of e-commerce and physical stores.
15

Fashion
System
Chain

MANIPULATING TRANSPARANCY
Many retailers have tried to treat the COVID-19 pandemic with their
typical marketing messaging. They’ve talked about potential supply
chain problems and luxury brands have made donations to fight the
virus, yet few have understood the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, Target sent letters to email subscribers outlining hygiene
measures. The key message being that their stores are clean and safe
to enter. 2 months into the US outbreak, Nordstrom’s sent a similar
email to their customers. 3 months in, they closed all their stores. So
did countless other retail fashion stores.
One standout fashion retailer, who lived up to their strategy, was
Patagonia. At the same time Nordstrom’s was soft peddling their
marketing messages, Patagonia announced it was closing both its
stores and its online business, commiting to put the safety of their
customers and employees first. And understanding the magnitude of
the pandemic.
17

what they say
what it is

2000 TO 2020
In our current quarantine, fashion importance has decreased. People
have shown throughout history in stressful times, they want to be
comfortable in the clothes they wear. The 2000s were a turning
point for fashion, extreme comfort was made into high fashion. Our
society had never seen this kind of elevation of comfort fashion.
Fast forward to today, athleisure is in high demand. People prefer
to wear sweats and t-shirts or fuzzy socks and sweatshirts. Since
quarantines began, few women are wearing makeup and men are
shaving less.
When we do not have to face each other in real life it is much easier
to give up on appearance. Cameras from computers and phones still
do not pick up as much detail as our eyes in real life and this is a
part of why people dress up less when they know they are not going
outside.
19

COVID-19
As a Parson’s student, living in New York City midtown, the hotspot
of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, I contracted
covid-19. Over a week sick in bed I could barely move, think about
eating, and even getting up to go to the bathroom was a painful,
migraine inducing event. One of the last things in my mind was to
wear pretty clothes.
In recovery, I began watching the financial market news and
noticed that companies’ stocks were falling in this crisis as if it
was economic. These companies were not growing and some of
them, if capable, were using their resources to make more sanitary
products or masks or hospital gowns. Anything that can be
produced in alternate companies when needed usually is. This has
been historically seen in times of war as well.
This experience solidifies the idea that, in times of distress, people
do not care about fashion. All societal progressions whether they
be scientific, artistic, or economic, in the face of a crisis (pandemic,
war, or future disaster), direct their efforts to the main issue or do
not grow.
21

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES
There have been many articles written about what will happen to the
sustainability of fashion industry after the pandemic. The system of
fashion in our current lives is bound to change.
Globally, one in three female garment workers have experienced sexual
harrassment in their workplaces. The exploitation of workers and
resources must change. Fashion will continue to be unsustainable if it
can’t get the business model right.
Most businesses operate with a hierarcary, some with a matrix, and a
few use the spoke and wheel organizational structure. A new approach
for creative businesses such as fashion needs to be developed. A
structure that has not been utilized is the cell structure. Each part of the
cell has specific jobs to carry out for the success as a whole, but these
jobs are preformed when needed, some work together at times, and all
componments report to the nucleus. This structure when framed in the
fashion setting could be highly successful with the nuclus’ intentions
for the cell to thrive as a whole.
23

FUTURE CONSUMER ENVIRONMENT
Unless you realize why companies fail, you can’t succeed.
Companies, especially fashion businesses, must have a strategic
plan and always be transparent in crisis situations. This can
be embodied in a person who focuses on communicating to all
departments and establishes a consistent brand vision.
This person must make sure all employees understand the
company’s mission of complete transparency. With new employees
this can be first introduced in a company policy. This person must
also make sure the companys’ design aesthetic is consistent. They
can do this by communicating through a creative team leader.
They also need to control the cost of goods by selecting proper
fabric and managing labor costs.
Additionally, the future calls for spaces to be consistently
sustainable and immersive. Retail stores need to go all in on interior
design. These spaces can be more than a place to dress oneself,
they can be sanctuarys, works of art even before the clothes are
arranged.
25

SOURCES
Images not cited were either taken the creator or copyright
free downloaded from Unsplash.
Icons were either genertated by the creator or downloaded
copyright free from The Noun Project.
Chanel vs. Poriet
https://poiretperfumes.blogspot.com/p/history.html?m=1
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/452259987549561154/
Is Creativity Enough?
https://businesstown.com/successful-clothing-industry/
Managment Ideas of 2020
HBRs 10 Must Reads 2020: the Definitive Management Ideas
of the Year from Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business
Review Press, 2020.
Fashion’s Value Chain
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/basics/do-youreally-want-to-start-a-fashion-business

Manipulating Transparancy
https://edited.com/resources/the-5-strategies-retailersshould-adopt-to-combat-coronavirus/
https://www.newsweek.com/patagonia-closeswebsite-stores-due-coronavirus-will-continue-payworkers-1492305
https://hbr.org/2020/03/coronavirus-is-a-wake-up-callfor-supply-chain-management
Organizational Structures
https://hbr.org/2016/02/dont-let-outdatedmanagement-structures-kill-your-company
https://cdn.thinglink.me/api/
image/839860344821121025/1240/10/scaletowidth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_organizational_
structure
https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/tesla-organizationalchart-elon-musk-29-rep.html

UNFOLDING FASHION
who needs to get involved?
what changes does the modern fashion
company need to make?
why do fashion businesses continously
fail from lack of entrepreneurship?