Drylake Online Boutique

The coveted Drylake shop of Sturegallerian in Stockholm has opted to start up an online store for their wares. Of course the Dowdy fourhundred wanted in on the launch and you can now find us among other well-known brands such as Burberry, Whyred and Armani.

Drylake Online Boutique

/Alex

At Kocksgatan since 1918

Today I discovered the Dowdy family has a really old heritage when it comes to one of its most dedicated outlets. It turns out my grandfather was born and raised on Kocksgatan Street nr. 25 in the picteresque area of Söder in Stockholm, Sweden. Just five doors from one of our current most fashionable and exclusive sale points. This link to the past of one of the hottest streets of modern Stockholm of course gives us at Dowdy great pleasure and we hope that the classic and timeless feel of this area will be reflected in our products! We are proud that our brand will carry on a heritage started many years ago.

Kocksgatan many years ago

Kocksgatan today

/Alex

Latest press collection

French Mens Fashion Blog: Dandies
Mens Fashion Blog: Modern Dandies
Danish Mens Fashion Blog: Style.dk



Enjoy!
/Alex

Libra Stage 2 Photo Shoot

Satisfaction is a great feeling. That is the feeling I have right now since we just ended the Libra Stage 2 Photo Shoot. We got some great pics and now its just a matter of editing and brushing up before we can go live! Our two models did a great job and they were a real profesh couple with great interaction in front of the camera.


Teasers

Ciao
/Alex

Crazy Weeks Are Over... O rly?

Lately there has been a fictional wall coming closer and closer to both me and especially mr. JBL. Thankfully the most pressing issues are handled and finally we can start working on things that were long overdue.

One of these things is to totally refurbish the webshop. Deadline is set to friday, so that date is gonna be something special, at least for us dowdies. Another fun thing thats gonna happen in the coming days is that tomorrow we are moving in to our new office. It's gonna be pretty sweet since we are working in the same building as some other really promising fashion companies.

We'll be back with some pics of the new office shortly!

Ciao!
/Alex

Launch event summary

Well, this is not the final summary but until that time you can have a look at this interview with Prince Ali!



Ciao!
/Alex

Back at SoFo Café

It feels like yesterday I was sitting with Jesper at SoFo Café after a long days work meeting our friends/clients here in Stockholm. Anyhoo I am back but this time on my own. It feels great though and the response to the A/W collections has been really good.
The difference from last time is that it's alot more boring in between the meetings when you're on your own. I have taken my refuge at SoFo Café where they have "free" WiFi. ("Free" since you have to buy something of course) Im quietly sipping on my pineapple juice while dreaming about sandy beaches. (There are no details yet but there might be a plan of a "svennebanan"-trip in the makings)
In a while I'll have to move myself to Kocksgatan 17 for a delivery. It is a really cool store and I hope you will go there and browse their goods!

Peace & Love
/Alex

UNIFORM X PUNK feat. the Dowdy fourhundred + Le Divan

Soon the event that we have been working on hard lately is taking off. The Dowdy fourhundred is officially launching in Mainland China with a huge fashion smackdown at Club PUNK in Beijing!

Be there or be...out of fashion!


or as the add says:

Announcing the launch of a new set of collaborations with the best of independent fashion labels and PUNK. Blending fashion, music, and nightlife, UNIFORM is the place to sample whats happening under the radar of fashion and style in this exclusive once a month feature. Mixed with the freshest beats of Saul D and PUNK’s special drink list, makes this event the essential stop for your fashion fix.

This month featuring the DOWDY FOURHUNDRED (Sweden) : timeless, modern classic designed accessories. Every piece is limited to only four hundred worldwide. Available only in selected boutiques in Stockholm, Beijing, and Tokyo.
+
LE DIVAN creates heavily architecture-influenced concepts for clients who love original detail and dressing with a sense of drama. Every piece is custom made and never the same for the next.

I hope to see you there!

When: Thursday March 19, 2009

Where: Basement 1, The Opposite House
BLDG 1, 11 Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang 朝阳区三里屯路11号院1号楼三里屯
Beijing, China

/Ali

Spring Break Wohoo!

After a stressful period with booking meetings 24/7 and doing alot of other work related things every day, including weekends, it has finally become time for 1/3 of the Dowdy fourhundred to go on vacation!
It's not just any old vacation but a really good friend of mine from Mexico has taken the time to spend his spring break with me here in sweden. One thing is certain; his spring break will be unique from all the other mexicans/americans spring breaks! Instead of beaches, mojitos and wet-tshirt contests he gets: snowball fights, carlsberg and heavily clothed girls of which only a small part of the face is visible ;D
Either way, the girls in sweden are beautiful and for someone that comes from a place where there are no blondes this is heaven!
Right now we are roadtripping through sweden, we have to make alot of stops in one week. But thats the charm of it! Innit??! :)

Ciao!
/Alex

Party Chinese Style

After working 24/7 during the past few weeks it was time to be unhealthy!
Party like a rock star or should I say Hip Hop star! I went to a club opening in Beijing, a new club called LA. If you are familiar with the Beijing Nightlife you know that all the Chinese either go to Mix, or one of the clubs that the "Coco-chain" owns, for example Coco Banana etc.
LA is their new Hip Hop club, and to make it convenient for their old Banana goers they somehow managed to buy the club next door. I was sitting there drinking at our table, looking out at the huge crowd of rich Chinese kids, and I thought to myslef; do these people even realize how bad the economic situation is in the world? Do they care? Anyways, the club was ok; but if you like many tables, a small dance floor and hip hop music, then you'll love it.

I have a feeling I will go back there again, soon.. Why? maybe I will tell you next time;)

Check out the bling bling on the picture (courtesy of P1.cn).

/Ali

Busy days...

Dear readers,
I know we have not been treating you as well as you deserve to be treated.

Starting today we will try hard to get back to our normal writting speed, but I think you remember me writing a while back how busy these early months of the year is in this business. No excuse, but maybe a reason!

Stay tuned for new more regular posts!

Love,
Jesper

whats in the goodie bag?

Meetings all the time, calls every 5 minutes, I dont even have the time to walk my dog
anymore! The word is spreading in Beijing and the event is going to be great, but there is so much hard work behind it. It's only a little more than 2 weeks left to the event and today I will have a meeting with all the other brands that I have invited to join us.

Im also proud to say that the goodie bag content is ordered and on its way, you
want to know what it's going to be? Well, you just have to wait!

When im not working with this event, well lets just say that you do not want to see my
to do list, because it is huge and it is grooooowing!

Zaijian!
/Ali

BBB - Browsing Bread & Butter

It's always a good thing to keep up what the rest of the business is doing. One of the coolest places in Europe for new stuff is the Bread & Butter fashion fair in Barcelona. This year it was held in Januari but it will come again to Berlin in July. Anyways some of the exhibitors have really cool stuff to show for themselves!
For example italian brand Tie-ups. They have a small niche in the market but damn are they good at making cool stuff! Colours are coming strong this summer and a selection of 40 colours is a good starting point!


Another brand to keep your eye on this spring/summer is Givenchy who are going all out on their accessories for men! Colours, straight-edge ties, bags and gladiator-strap shoes. They are fierce!

Ciao!
/Alex

March is pioneering month

What do we mean? This is the month where the dowdy story will have it's first blog entry that is written under the influence. You could well call it a BUI if you would like!
I'm fairly certain that this is not an offence punishable by the laws of any countries in the world. I really hope so at least.
What I would like to say in this entry is: "If you try, then you will most likely succeed."
Cryptic, maybe. Deep, most certainly not!

That's all folks. (As Bugs the wabbit would have expressed himself)

Ciao!
/Undisclosed Dowdy person (yes, by now i think you can guess)

Booking meetings

We have been pretty busy on the European side of the globe as well. We are out on a surprisingly long and hard sales trip. Basically this time, as Jesper touched upon in an earlier post, is extremely busy for most people, if not everyone, in the fashion business. I basically just live by the phone to try to book meetings with people who are as busy as I am and no one is easy to get a hold of. More meetings of course means more potential revenue, but its a hard ass job. It's not that it's a boring job or anything, but theres a certain level of stress involved with preparing for each call. During the conversation it's fun because the person on the other side of the line is most oftenly a like-minded person with the same interest in our kind of product as I have.

My break is over, back to the phone.

Ciao!
/Alex

Dowdy fashion event!

The last couple of days have been hectic and therefore I have not had the time to write so much...

We just decided that we will have a joint event with one of the hippest clubs in Beijing, Club PUNK. The event will be all focused on fashion and probably take place in the end of March. These things take time, after several meetings with club managers, fashion brands, media, designers, etc we still have a lot to take care of. What should be in the Dowdy goody bag, which drinks should be served and how many hot girls should we hire as waiters? Tough job, but someone has to do it...

I will try to keep you updated but one thing is for sure:
It'll be a night you don't want to miss! So hop on a plane, train or whatever, because this will go through the roof!

And, I almost forgot, all DJ´s out there, our designteam is working on a custom made DJ bag, something that we'll launch in the near future!!!

Zaijian,
Ali

New collection caught in bad weather!

Tomorrow was the day when I was going to get my hands on the new "the Dowdy fourhundred" collection. As it turns out, there were some kind of storm out on the oceans and the shipment is delayed for at least another week. Arrghhh! I was really looking forward to get my brand new Deborah. I had it designed so it would be a perfect fit to my new 13 inch Macbook, haha. The only way to carry around quality is in quality! A word from the Creative Director! ;)

The bags are not yet launched on the website since we are awaiting the delivery but I will keep you updated to when the new stuff hit the webshop! Until then, I can give you a sneak peek of my soon-to-be lady...

Enjoy!






/JBL

The Involuntary Regional Manager

Things are looking up. Me and JBL got the less than glamorous mission to spend a couple of months in a country that can best be described as a mix between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Now we have managed to survive for one and a half months and yesterday I saw the light at the end of the tunnel!
Directions from HQ is that we now will take over the operative management in the glorious nation of the peoples republic of China!
Once again we will gaze upon the proud faces of the Han-people, indulge in the accumulated cooking culture of thousands of years, sing the melodic tunes of 任贤齐 (Ren XianQi) at the local karaoke venue etc. etc.



See you soon Zhongguo!

Ciao!
/Alex

Shopping guide - Berlin

Woke up early to do some store and streetstyle scouting. Berlin has a lot of interesting areas, but the area of old East Berlin close to Alexanderplatz is for sure the best in the city. German mainstream fashion is very conservative and dull, consisting of suits, shirts and leather shoes, a standard business attire will do. However, walking into the area of East Berlin you will get an entirely different vibe.

Here you also find the best stores around. Definitely check out 14oz. with their amazing jellyfish aquarium, yes you got it right the first time, it's filled with jellyfish! This is not of course all they have to offer, their selection of jeans and accessories is awesome! Their “display possibilities” are also among the better in Europe. Displays are of course the main focus when we are determining whether a store is good or not for our accessories. Another store in the area to look out for is Best at Alte schönhauser str. 6 which offers a wide range of new up and coming avant garde designers. A store which is kind of avant garde in itself and which feels more like a gallery than a store is DC4 which is just around the corner from Alexanderplatz, on Münzstrasse 11c. Really nice stuff from brands like, Gram, Good Society, Atelier LaDurance, true dog etc etc. They also love limited editions and of course, so do we;)!

Time for a well deserved döner.

/JBL

I am back!

After such a long time in Japan it feels quite good to be back in China, Beijing to be precise. I feel that something is happening here, for example all the major brands have moved their big fashion shows from Shanghai to Beijing. The average Joe Chinese have started to dress better, it's of course difficult to compare to Japan or Scandinavia, but they have definitely improved in style. More foreign chain stores are opening, for example brands like American Apparel , Uniqlo and H&M all opened or about to open soon. So of course it is not that strange that we moved in the same direction. We just signed with Senli and Frye and the Dowdy fourhundred can now be found at their shop in Beijing.

Off to a busy night, Paul Van Dyke is in town, and will make the city spin even faster! And then there is some kind of fashion show which I will attend too, check for updates in the beginning of next week.

Zaijian,
/Ali

btw, for you not speaking Chinese, you probably guessed it anyway, but Zaijian means the same as Sayonara!

Bye Tokyo, Hello Beijing!

Last time I told you guys how I prefer to travel, by now im already back in Beijing and have left the wondeful city of Tokyo. On the flight back I was thinking about Tokyo and the fashion scene in Japan. It is so different compared to other places I have been, people can wear anything anywhere without people looking at them. Everybody blends in! And I saw some crazy people! Japanese fashion is growing in my eyes, even though there are many things that I could live without, e.g. the boots that the guys seem to wear.

- Sayonara Tokyo!

- Nihao Beijing!

/Ali

Cheap jeans..

I love jeans, but as much as I love jeans, hate bad quality! Therefore I have stuck to pricier brands and my definite favorite is POUR jeans. But then the other day I got myself my first pair of Cheap Monday jeans. This brand has been around for quite some time, but when the word cheap is in the actually brand name, that makes me very suspicious about the quality of the product. Sure, I have seen how well their models have fit other people through the years; I just never got around trying them out.

And then, the other day, they were handing them out for free (10 Euros/pair) so I thought, now is as better time as ever. Personally I really hate sales, for so many reasons it will fit in a post of its own, but I was caught in the moment. Now it’s all up to the jeans, if I will get a second pair or stay with pricier and high-end brands.



Stay tuned,
/JBL

Ali has left Japan...

More on this coming up!

/Ali

Travel and shopping!

I have seen on the blog that both Jesper and Alex has has shared with you which bags they use for traveling. Jesper uses Edna for shorter weekend trips and Alex uses the über strong Samsonite for longer trips (not so fashionable, but we are trying to change him). I thought I would share my choice of travel bags as well.

Well for weekend trips, as can be seen on the picture I have Dorothy on my right hand and Eleanor over my left shoulder. Even though Eleanor has its own computer pocket I prefer to carry Dorothy with me so I can have all my computer stuff in it. Also I had no room in Eleanor for my laptop since i had filled it with 20 kilos.
For shopping or strolling around in the city I prefer Bernice, shes both comfortable, light and sometimes i carry it around empty just in case if I buy something.

Note: The bag Eleanor and black Dorothy will be available in shops later this year and has until today only been seen I Japan!


Sayonara!
/Ali

Celebrity sighting

We were strolling around NK while working in Stockholm last week. We were there to close some deals with some of the shop keepers regarding the new collection. We were pretty relaxed talking about the previous meeting with P&F when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, i see her standing all casual looking in the window of NK Boutique Man. Dorothy was out for a shopping spree and we managed to get a good photo of her before she hurried off in her limo.




















Ciao!
/Alex

RSS feed

We've added an RSS feed in the right hand column. So if you wan't an easy way to stay updated with "the Dowdy story" just click the RSS feed and put a quick button in your web browser!

/Team

Home sweet home...

...is something I would have said if I had returned home. But right now I am in a place in my life where my friend Samsonite constitutes the cube that i consider my home. And since Sam was with me the whole week I never left.
So what should I then say? Good to be back in the HQ maybe?
Well, thats just minor details but it sure does feel good to live every moment to the fullest. The week went great and we will soon publish a pretty summarizing post about the events that took place in Stockholm.

On a side note: Maybe someone we know will be covering London next week. Stay tuned!

Sam - My home

Ciao!
/Alex

Masculine bags?

During our sales trip in Europe 2008 some of the purchase managers told us that our bags are a bit feminine. Some even asked us, are these for men (in some countries)? I was quite surprised that they couldn't tell whether our bags are for men or for women. Please check the Gemini collection at td400 and see for yourself.

When showing our bags to Japanese distributors they tell me that there is no doubt that our bags are for men. How can our bags be feminine in Europe, and so masculine here in Japan? Well the answer is simple, Japanese fashion and European fashion differs a lot. The picture below is taken in a shop for men and all the bags are for men. Would an average European guy carry such a bag? Or would he think that those bags are for women?

Sayonara
/A.

It’s that time of the season…

We are in the beginning of the busiest period for most people with fashion related jobs. It’s always surrounded with a haze of glamor; fantastic catwalks, exclusive after parties and not to mention the crisscross traveling between the different fashion capitals of the world. However, this also means long working days, late nights and early morning flights. Tomorrow I have to leave for a flight at 3 AM, and thats not really a dream for a morning tired person like me! Still, don’t get me wrong, in some ways it's as glamorous as it seems in magazines and blogs, but remember: to all the shine there is also a shadow.

Anyway, time for me to re-pack my black beauty aka Edna and head off to my next stop, Berlin. A city that has a lot to offer and some of my favorite stores in Europe are located here (Ill try to make a contribution about shopping in Berlin if times allow). And of course, Berlin also offers some fantastic German döners and curry wursts.


/JBL

Sthlm Fashoin Week - final words

These are my conclusions of this years first SFW. Stockholm is always a place were many new trends are set and its inhabitants of tall strong Vikings and petite (?) blond girls always try to spice things up with different unique styles. Although, Sthlm is also the place most people try hard but end up looking like clones out of a Barbie and Ken factory, very hot, but very much the same. We still hoped for some inspiration and hoped over to the real SFW catwalk, the edgy area of “Söder”. This area always give you new trends much newer than on any catwalks. Here people don’t "dress to impress" as much as "dress to be different". Some of these guys we put in our streetstyle segment soon to be shown on P1.cn. Next stop for trend spotting is of course at the actual shows. These catwalk pictures are from a trend show created by the Swedish fashion council. One notable thing this year is the “Global” trend that takes its inspiration from a lot of different parts of the world, or what about this simple but yet sophisticated creation. This dress has a clear Asian inspiration to it and if we are not mistaken we’ll probably see more influences from China in the future. The country which us Dowdies like to call a second home. However, the more common color trends in Scandinavia are still very subtle with nature being the biggest inspiration. For men the style will continue to be a mix of casual and dressed. A grey jacket combined with airy linen pants and for the feet: fabric shoes in a shade of grey in pimsol style. The aristocratic look will still be in and why not combine your outfit with a classic hat or a bow-tie. Interestingly, thin ties are still going strong, who would have thought, definitely not me! Of course one of our timeless bags would be a hit with any of these outfits too. Just take a look at this traditional Chinese man with our Dorothy.


Heading out to the different trade fairs is also a great way to pick up on the new trends, not to mention meeting passionate souls and energetic designers. We had the pleasure of meeting some of Scandinavia’s best and most passionate fashion entrepreneurs behind brands like Cheapo, C/O Berge, Bobby Burns etc. We ended our long days, as part of our work is to go to nightly events, at some "hip" club. Just like in any fashion city, Sthlm goes all in with red carpets, exclusive lists, champagne and just a mix of all the “right” people; designers, models, PR folks and press. However, I’d take a night at Beijing’s low-end “Nanjie” bar at anytime! However, we did get to "enjoy" one of the hip dance singers of the 90’s – Pandora. Not as hot anymore though!!!



/JBL

Some more catwalk pictures from the week found below:






This is part of the article we wrote for the Chinese web community P1.cn. Check it out!

The Kawai factor

We all know that men are very different from women, would we for example buy something because we think it’s cute?
It might be the kawai factor, all Asian girls, and particularly Japanese ones likes’ things that are cute. The other day I discovered that Disney has a series of bags here in Japan. For the untrained eye you would think that this series is a kid’s line, but these bags are not for kids, they are for adults! I kid you not, this is the frigging truth!

These bags are also clearly no bargains since they retail quite high. The leather bag shown above, retails for 65000 Yen (about 560 Euro) at the famous shop, Beams. It was their latest pick for the bag in their outfit of the week. The second bag with the "super cool" Mickey mouse print cost 25000 Yen (215 Euro) at Disney's Japanese web shop.

I'm thinking to myself, where am I? Would a ”western” girl/woman over the age of 12 ever carry a Disney bag? Would an internationally well renowned shop like Beams,
choose a Disney bag as their outfit of the bag if it was located in the West? Probably not.

Sayonara!
/Ali

An Industry out of business...

The worldwide recession has really hit the fashion business hard. We actually felt it pretty much the same day as it started last fall. Probably because some of our client’s investors pulled back their promised capital as soon as the stock markets took a dive. Luxury goods and especially accessories is not the first thing you think of buying when the economy goes into recession. However, luxury goods are also the first things that will pick back up when the people with money gets tired of not spending and when they realize that loosing 50% of a billion still leaves them with 500 millions;) So, although it makes the business of today harder, I believe it’s a sane clean up of too many unstructured brands and too many posh stores based on passion rather than money making. This is a fact that makes it hard to navigate and finding out which stores to trust for the future or not. Bills need to be paid all the way through, from producer to consumer. Lets just hope it ends faster than what it’s pointing towards at the moment.

/JBL

Empty shelves...

Sthlm Fashion Week - update II

The fashion week is moving along. Yesterday was very busy and we had to gamble and sacrifice some of the events for others. The best party of the week so far was the new club format launched at Berns last night called LIFESTYLE. A fashion club concept hosted by one of the best fashion critics in Sweden right now, Johan aka Fashionisto.se. The venue and the music played resulted in one of the best club concepts I've been to in Sweden. This probably says more about the lousy club scene in Sweden, than of the greatness of this event. Nevertheless it was a truly great concept, measuring up to clubs internationally, and I highly recommend it! It will be an ongoing club taking place every 2nd Thursday of each month, next time on the 12th of March I guess...

Be there, or be out of fashion!

/JBL

Sthlm Fashion Week - update I

What can I say? Stockholm Fashion Week got off to a great start for us. After looking at the weeks schedule we realized that there would be very little sleep and much, hmm work. Especially since we recently took on a mission from P1.cn to write fashion articles for them from around the globe. Fun so far. The SFW, I have to say, is not the biggest and most exclusive fashion week of them all but still it gives a great indication to which new trends are to emerging from the Scandinavian brands! A lot of the new and fresh designers are given the stage during these days, important since the hype among the already established brands sometimes feel a bit too much. Today we scouted around the fashion fair in the trendy Southern part of Stockholm and we meet a lot of interesting people! I especially wanted to find out how they were affected by the economic crisis. It turns out that most brands do, in some way or another, get affected by the slowing economy. But I did not see any sad faces and everyone, albeit the crisis, looked at the future with hope in their eyes. I guess that is what we humans do. I know I do!

Ciao!
/Alex
















2/3rds behind the shoe brand Jim Rickey, Jesper and Patrik. Great shoes and what it seems like, a great team of young entrepreneurs. We like!

Whats in the bag?

Before I forget, there is one awesome thing that the Japanese stores do when they want to sell out their stock before the new collections arrives. The have so called surprise bags, it works like this:

On the bag they have written which size it is, usually S, M or L. You cant see what is in the bag which is the whole point. The price depends on the brands that the store sells, but lets say a bag cost between 200 and 700 Euro. Usually the value of the stuff in the bag is higher than the price you pay but it all depends on your taste and so on. A couple of people I met in Tokyo actually bought like 5 bags each, then they would take out what they didn't like and sell it to second hand shops! They usually go break even. I never bought any of these gift bags, but it was very very tempting!

That's all for now,

/Ali

Fashion is art and art is fashion...

Stockholm in the wintertime is surprisingly filled with tourists even though it’s grey and cold. However, there are always creative people out there who want to brighten things up. And since its Stockholm Fashion Week, what better way than to give a bronze statue a makeover?


Not only does it make her more colorful, it keeps her warm too ;)

/JBL

People, people, people...

When I first got to Tokyo just before New Years I was quite overwhelmed by the huge crowds.

Wherever I went it was crowded, at first I thought it was because of the holidays and all. All the shops were packed, people were actually queueing outside the shops before they were allowed in. The other day I visited the same streets once again, and what did I see? People everywhere! Although they were not not queueing outside the stores there were still people everywhere! The thing with big crowds is that as soon as you are in the crowd you have to adapt to it. You can't walk faster or slower than the rest, even if you wan't to!

I don't think that I can ever adjust to the miniature European crowds. I guess I will just stay in Japan forever.

The famous Shibuya crossing.

Sayonara!
/Ali

The Dowdy Team is going to...

Yes that's right, in 3 hours we are getting into our motorized vehicle and off we go to the capital of Sweden for yet another week of fashion.

We will keep you posted!

/the Dowdy team

Some days i really doubt my own judgement

Why? Well, I traded this:

For this:


Now you see why "sane" is not the first adjective you should use about me.

Ciao!
/alex

Looking out of my window...

... and all I can see is snow. This is for sure not my favorite season! All I do is longing for some warmer days (and nights for that matter). Sure, summer times leaves you with less possibilities for styling due to less layers of items but the light makes everything so much more beautiful! I prefer living in a place where it’s warm most days of the year and then travel to cooler places if I suddenly get the urge for some fall/winter. Why try to survive these cold days, when you don't have to? This is definitely my last cold winter!
















My Malaysian balcony view from last summer, a bit better than grey sky and melting snow...

/JBL

Reflections of a Male

What is up with textile girls?!?
They dress weird. They look weird. They only think about textiles. They only talk about textiles. They only hang out with each other.

If I was talking about boys and if you change the word textiles into computers then what do you get?

Of course: Computer nerds.

So what does this mean???

Textile girls are the female answer to computer nerds!

Ciao!
/Alex

Brand Stores Tokyo!

I have been to many areas here in Tokyo and have many times been impressed by the flagship stores that some of the brands have. White seems the ”in-color” when it comes to the exterior.
The picture to the left is the Dior flaghsip store between Omotesando and Harajuku, the store to the right is the Prada store at Omotesando and you can even see the Cartier store in the background. The third store is the Louis Vuitton store at Ginza. Maybe its just me but the exterior of the store says a lot about the brands. Dior and Prada have small, barely noticeable, logos, like many of their products. Compare this to the Louis Vuitton Store; big logos on both sides of the stores, luckily not as many logos as on their bags! :)

Unfortunatly I also walked by the Issey Miyake store, I guess I don't mind the brand but when I saw the outfit on their mannequin I didn't know if I should laugh or cry.

Enjoy the pics,

Sayonara!
/Ali

I am out of the closet...

I have kept a big secret for quite some time now and today is the day to come clean. I feel that now is the time and I have finally taken the step and admitted to myself and my friends that I have switched teams! Or maybe I will play for both teams during a transition period, I can't let go entirely just yet...

So what the hell is going, some of you might ask, didn't Jesper have a girlfriend?! Well, even though I know some gay guys out there would be happy, this transition is not about people or sex, but something similar on some levels. Here we go:

I love Macs!!!

For all of you PC users I know this might come as a disappointing surprise but this is a professional decision that has grown over time. You know how much I love quality, in fact our whole business is built upon our strong belief in quality, so how could I not switch. As a matter of fact I got my first Mac by express today and I am so happy that this is finally out. Check out the pics and I think some of you might reconsider your stands on computers in the future.


Enjoy!
/JBL













Quality in a box!

Just a thought

Japan is all about standing out, for many of the youngsters between 15 and 18 I have noticed a quite obvious trend even though I'm here during wintertime! And Tokyo is cold!!! All the students have to wear school uniforms, the girls have to wear skirts and stockings, while the guys wear suits. First when I got here I was quite surprised by how short the skirts were! I was thinking to my self, damn Japanese school officials are some kinky people, forcing the girls to wear short skirts during wintertime. But then I also noticed some girls wearing much longer skirts. As it turns out, the girls with the short skirts have themselves cut their skirts. When you are forced to wear something you don't want to wear, how do you stand out? By cutting your skirt! How do the guys do? Accessories!

Like anywhere else in the world people don't want to be like everyone else, when you are forced to behave in a certain way, you still do it but with your unique modification.


Sayonara!
/Ali

Invitation Only Sale in Tokyo!

The other day I got an invitation for an high end brand sale, I went to check it out not only for my personal shopping but also to check out the people. I was quite disappointed when I saw that 90% of the clothes and accessories were for women! In the corner of the big shop they had some clothes for men, and also some bags. Some of the brands available were Marc Jacobs, Gaultier and Alexander McQueen. People were shopping like crazy but I didn't really get it since a lot of the clothes were not from the latest collections. For example there was a Victor and Rolf blazer in the shop from the SS07 collection.

I took some pictures but unfortunately I only had my iPhone. Whats interesting is how they displayed bags worth around 1000 Euros, just thrown in a big plastic box. Messy!

Anyway the whole thing was quite an disappointment, both shopping wise and "people watching" wise. However, one good worldwide standard when it comes to sales: ladies as far as the eye can see;)

Sayonara!
/Ali

Another day, another lesson

The holy resting day has just started and I realize I won’t be able to honor the gods today ;) I have forgotten what the difference between Sundays and normal weekdays is by now. I guess that's what happens when you have your work as your hobby and vice versa.

Anyways, yesterday was a good day! We finished the updated pricing strategies for our brands, after an extensive competitor research. For a “bag aficionado” like me that means browsing through hundreds of sweet looking products! For men that love bags the spring/summer season is set out to be THE season. It really was a good day :)

The day ended with the tasting of one of my newest purchases for my wine cellar. I was curious to try a Zin grape and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of that American wine. If you need a good “vin-a-table” then I can sincerely suggest a Gallo '06 red. Of course, the night progressed and we went out and luckily I didn’t have to watch any bad TV!

Ciao!
/Alex

Today was the first day of the rest of my life.

That might sound dramatic but today me and Jesper sat down and decided what every minute from now on and 10 weeks forward will be used for.

Things felt really optimistic after we went through all the business strategies for the upcoming collections. The focus was on sales and PR. We discussed back and forth and, as things usually are when I and Jesper discuss things, we disagree a lot. When we disagree we get into heated discussions that almost all the time lead to a conclusion that is neither what I had in mind from the beginning nor what Jesper had. Arguments are what create good ideas!

Yesterday we went exploring the local nightlife. Our main goal for the night was to meet people from the textile industry. This place is for textiles what Silicon Valley is for computers so our chances were really good. We instantly met some designers and some textile majors from the university. All in all it was a good night I just wish I knew from the beginning how things worked here. Then maybe my night wouldn’t have resulted in me watching bad TV, on my own. Today is a new day though.

What have we learned today you might ask? I’ll tell you this much: Sales is Marketing and Marketing is Sales. The one is as useless without the other as Laurel is without Hardy or a Negroni without Campari!

Ciao!
/Alex

And so it begins...

Ever since we began working with these brands we have had plans to show more; more of our lives and more about how we work to reach our goals and visions. The team behind this blog is the same top team behind the Dowdy brands and we will all be contributing. We will show part of the world behind an up and coming fashion brand and most likely tell you about problems and solutions that appear along the way. We hope this will be both entertaining and in some way, educational.

Enjoy,


Alex, Ali and Jesper