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