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Comment by jakejake | Hacker News Reader

I hate to see a good idea go to waste. I think the assumption that people want to design their own clothes is false. But if a celebrity designed a pair of jeans, people would want that.

It probably isn't realistic to get Kanye West for a non-ridiculous sum of money. But a lot of fairly popular indie musicians or fashion bloggers would surely endorse a pair of "custom" jeans with their name on the label. I know a lot of musicians would do it simply to get a bunch of free pairs of their own custom jeans.

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This is just another celebrity fashion brand. These are popular for a short while, but it is really hard to build a sustainable model on this.

Fashion is incredibly competitive - really, really competitive. Us techies underestimate how cut throat the fashion industry is. It is not a bunch of idiots air kissing each other - it is in the main run by really canny people who know what they are doing.

Apart from Victoria Beckham I don't see any celebrity fashion brands lasting.

Uhh... Just because you're not aware of celebrity fashion brands doesn't mean they don't exist:

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen - The Row

Jessica Simpson - eponymous

Gwen Stefani - LAMB

Jay Z - Rocawear

Beyonce - House of Dereon

P Diddy - Sean John

Kanye West

And these are just a FEW.

Celebrities selling clothes is pretty lucrative.

I meant lasting in the sense that Chanel, Dior, Boss, are

Ah, but every few months there's a new celebrity!

> This is just another celebrity fashion brand. These are popular for a short while, but it is really hard to build a sustainable model on this.

Right, but there could be a sustainable model in a turnkey service that made it very easy for minor celebrities to do their celebrity-fashion brand for the short period while it's possible?

I think they were onto a great idea, but their main premise that people want to design their own clothes was wrong. People want to buy clothes that are a known brand or recommended, worn and endorsed by tastemakers. They have a platform that could enable those tastemakers to create their own custom brands. Celebrities are all over this stuff - making their own perfumes, clothing, accessories. There's a ton of more indie-level celebrities that would love to do this but don't have the connections.

Even still, the outcome for most businesses is failure. And I'd assume you are correct that fashion is probably one of the more fickle businesses.

I think that kind of marketing would have made a big difference.

Some people do want to design their own clothes. But they'll probably be making their own clothes by hand already. Everyone else wants low cost, a strong brand, and/or a celebrity link.

So mistake one was assuming that just because you're a build-it-yourself person, everyone else is too.

But more, marketing for these kinds of projects has to be creative. You have to invent your customer relationships and your brand, not just try to buy them wholesale using social media and Google as a retail store for clicks.

If this was easy, everyone would do it. But it's not easy at all. It's really, really hard.

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