This Friday Underlines speaks with Vicki Wallis – a garment design, production and sustainability expert. Her CV is impressive with experience of international retailers, large and small brands and start-ups. Since 2016 she has run – The Fashion Business Coach – as a space dedicated to helping designers thrive and push forward in the fashion industry. She shares her experiences and highlights some pitfalls!
You are only 34! and yet you have a wealth of first hand experience – how have you managed it?
I started out in the fashion industry when I was 16, initially part time during my BTEC and degree studies. From the start I’ve always been interested in the business side of fashion as much as the design, so for my degree I chose a course that incorporated design as well as manufacture and marketing. My early career choices reflected that too and over the years I have worked for several brands in the UK and abroad, with a wide variety of roles that included garment and print design, public relations, marketing, garment technologist and production management, to name a few. This varied experience positioned me perfectly to launch my own label and coach other brands because I’d made myself aware of the entire process of running a clothing business, from start to finish. Typically in corporate fashion roles it’s easy to get pigeonholed into a specific area which I feel creates a lot of problems for businesses, because one department doesn’t understand the implications for another. For example, I see a lot of client’s whose designers produce products that are difficult and/or expensive to manufacture, because the designers have solely creative expertise and therefore have little or no understanding of construction and the cost to manufacture the products. Being able to help with these challenges is one of the reasons why setting up my company, The Fashion Business Coach, was so important to me.
What is your proudest moment to date?
The first time a client told me I changed their life. I’ll never forget the day and reading the words ‘…..I found your course and it changed my life for the better. I’m forever grateful to you Vicki.’ That made all the hard work worthwhile in an instant, plus gave me renewed energy for the business, because I realised it was no longer just about me and my career. There’s a lot of other highlights too, the kind that I’m happy to have on a CV, but when I think about that moment, it’s the one I’m most proud of.
Your biggest mistake (if there is one!)
There’s lots! I think as an entrepreneur you have to make mistakes along the way to learn from them. When I first launched my fashion brand, the biggest mistake I made was not being specific enough about what I was doing, I honestly think it set my business growth back by a year back in 2010. I was trying to create so many different products and in hindsight it was very confusing. I was too close to the business (as most business owners are) to realise just how confusing it was for my customers. Luckily, I hired my first business mentor and she noticed the problem immediately. As soon as I stripped the business back and focused on a specific target customer and catered to them, things really started to take off. In my fashion business membership I host a workshop each month and every single month I refer back to our foundation training on the target customer. This has to be the guiding principle of everything we do as brand owners and at the very start I just didn’t realise that. I was under the illusion that I could try and sell to everyone, but that old saying is true, if you try to sell to everyone, you end up selling to no-one!
Who do you admire in the world of fashion?
I have a lot of admiration for Claire Press, who is very outspoken about sustainable and ethical issues within the fashion industry. Years ago I bought her first book, ‘Wardrobe Crisis’ and even to someone like myself who had already started learning about sustainable fashion, it was really eye opening. It’s unbelievable to see the extent of the damage the industry does and I think it’s something that everyone who is in, or a fan of, fashion needs to read.
Additionally, and I’ll admit I’m a little biased here as I’ve worked with Rosey, founder of WeAreNativ, but she always inspires me to go the extra mile. A lot of brands choose a sustainable fabric to ‘tick the box’, but Rosey really puts her all into making the brand as sustainable as possible in every way. She really thinks about the business as a whole, not just the product itself.
A Typical Week…in your life
One thing I love about my work is the fact there isn’t a typical work day, but there are some priorities each week. First and foremost, almost every week I have a live online event on for members of my program, so it’s my top priority to make sure the event is results driven, actionable and inspiring for the members, so preparing topics, staying on top of current trends and creating presentations happens most weeks. I’ll also check in with any members who have set goals to see how they are doing.
I still do a limited amount of 1-on-1 work so I usually have a design-development project booked, where I’m creating trend direction, designs and tech packs for a client. Each business has its own unique strengths and challenges and I love to work with a variety of brands throughout the year; it’s exciting to get to know business owners of all backgrounds and help them with their journey.
As well as helping customers, I love to learn and I think as business owners it’s imperative to keep on top of what is happening in the industry. I spend time educating myself each week and meeting with other industry experts to stay ahead of the trends.
If you follow me on social media you might thing that I’m spending all week on social, but to share a secret, I only spend about 5hrs a month on marketing! I’m a big believer in systems and automations, so I automate my marketing tasks as much as possible so that I can focus on client’s needs.
Those Special Moments in your career
Getting my first mention by a major publication (Vogue Diaries) was a big moment for me, I’d always read the fashion media as a teen and dreamt of my name in there, so it was amazing for that dream to become a reality. Every press feature since has meant a lot and it’s always been an honour to be included here in Underlines. There’s so many people who are worthy of being featured, so it’s always special to be included in the media.
In my past life in the corporate world, working for a company called Max in New Zealand was a highlight. I started off there as a temp and the team were so welcoming, which was unusual for the fashion industry at that time. I remember finding it really refreshing that everyone got on so well and my manager Liz was incredible. She taught me so much and proved to me that you could still make it to the top in the fashion industry while being nice – you don’t have to create a ‘Devil Wears Prada’ style working environment. Despite being hired as a 1 month temp, I was able to stay for 2 years as the team went to huge lengths to get me a visa to stay longer which was extremely flattering.
I guess the fact that what I consider to be ‘special moments’ are what some might call low key, is quite telling about the kind of person I am. I’m lucky to have experienced a lot of the ‘glamour’ and high profile jobs that people associate with the industry – and don’t get me wrong, those times were great – but to me, nowhere near as important as being recognised by people I respect.
If you were not doing what you are doing now, then what do you think you would have done instead?
If I wasn’t in the fashion industry, I’m pretty certain I would have been a lawyer now. I was lined up to study Humanitarian Law and Politics and had a last minute change of heart to switch to fashion. I still love law in many ways and the positive impact it can have, but I hated the culture of cutting deals rather than going all-in on what was right. Plus on a personal level, I love being creative and I think I’d have missed that as a lawyer. Ironically, I wanted to get into law to create positive change, but I’ve realised that my current work allows me to be able to do that just as well; the fashion industry has a lot to answer for and being free to educate and campaign on causes I believe in has been a huge benefit of a fashion career. Plus, (almost!) everyone wears clothes so by influencing the clothing industry I can have an impact perhaps in an even bigger way.
What is your greatest challenge?
Currently my biggest challenge is keeping on top of fabric suppliers and manufacturers, as circumstances are changing so fast at the moment. I work with clients and members in 26 countries and I like to stay on top of what’s happening globally so I’m aware of what options are available to them. But at the moment we’re still feeling the effects of Covid, with a lot of suppliers closed or at limited capacity, plus increases in fuel costs and shipping containers have brought challenges too, so having up to date information on access to fabrics and bulk production keeps me busy at the moment!
The single product you cannot live without?
From a business perspective, ClickUp. It’s an organisation software that makes me feel superhuman, I get so much more done with it and there’s even a free version. I started using it about a year ago and never looked back, I have all my team using it now as well.
The Fashion Business Membership
The Fashion Business Membership brings together small fashion brands who are looking to scale up. It combines training, expert feedback and collaboration which allows members to take actionable steps towards growing their brand. We have live events in the membership most weeks, with monthly workshops specific to the needs of small brands, 2 group Q+A calls a month and a community for members, all to help brands to achieve their goals with prompts, check-ins and accountability. The membership launched in September 2021 and I’ve loved getting to know and coach members personally. Seeing them grow week on week, both in business success and confidence has been amazing.
