Verified Document

Fashion Business: Steps To Success Research Paper

Related Topics:

'Offshoring' can occur within the same company and involve movement of work to a different location of that company outside of the United States, or to a different company altogether" (4). Simply put, outsourcing is contracting with an outside company in any location, while offshoring is contracting with a company outside the United States. Examples of Exclusive Wholesale Manufacturers

One example of a wholesale manufacturer that sells exclusively is Mona Lisa Fashions Inc. This "is a full-service cut & sew apparel contractor serving the women's, children's and men's apparel markets." They are located in Allentown, Pennsylvania and are encouraging designers not to outsource or offshore their products but to come to them instead. Another example is Sports and Sports International, a company that manufactures sports accessories and apparel. On their website, they announce, "We are one of the most prominent manufacturers, suppliers and exporters of an exclusively broad range of sports products equipment & accessories throughout the world." Finally, there is Fashion Bella, an exclusive jewelry manufacturer headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Why Go Overseas?

The history of outsourcing and offshoring began when companies began to acquire so many other companies that they could not deal with everything they had to deal with in-house. Originally they would outsource to domestic companies. However, once they began to realize how much money they could save by outsourcing in other countries, they began not only doing it when they needed help, but simply to save money and increase profits. According to Reh (2009) "Companies began outsourcing work to the lowest bidder and lost sight of the effect it had on the company except for finances. Outsourcing this work to 'foreign' or 'offshore' companies, solely to take advantage of lower labor rates in those countries, became known as offshoring."

A major problem with outsourcing and offshoring is that companies lose control of operations. According to Enlow and Ertel, "ineffective relationship management is often at the heart of outsourcing failure" (51). It is much more difficult to know if standards are being met and if rules are being followed when the work is being...

Once you hand it off to someone else outside the company -- especially in a foreign country -- you are taking the risk of losing control. For example, Kathie Lee Gifford found out the hard way that her clothing line was being manufactured in "sweat shops" using child laborers. This could have completely destroyed her reputation if she had not handled it correctly. As it was, her integrity was brought into question and her name and her clothing line were forever tainted (Anderson, 1996).
Summary and Conclusion

Fashion may be fun, but it is a business just like any other business. This means it requires business-related knowledge such manufacturing, distribution and marketing. In this paper I have discussed the six steps to developing a fashion line as described by Elaine Stone in her book Fashion: Fun! Fame! Fortune! I have also discussed outsourcing and offshoring and how and why decisions in this area are made. From this research I have concluded that unless you win Project Runway, developing a fashion line is far more complex than most people probably think.

Works Cited

Anderson, William. Kathie Lee's Children. The Free Market. 14.9. 1996. Web. http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=45

Brown, Sharon P., and Siegel, Lewis.B. "Mass Layoff Data Indicate Outsourcing and Offshoring Work," Monthly Labor Review. 128.8.3-10. 2005. Print.

Enlow, Sara and Ertel, Danny (2006 May/June) "Achieving Outsourcing Success: Effective Relationship Management," Compensation and Benefits Review 38.3.50-55. Print.

Fashion Bella. Web. http://www.fashionbella.com/

Mona Lisa Manufacturing. Web. http://www.monalisamfg.com/index.html

Reh, John, F. Offshoring - Outsourcing To Extreme, About.com, 2009. Web. http://management.about.com/cs/people/a/offshoring104.htm

Slywotskcy, Adrian, J., Morrison, David J. And Andelman, Bob. The Profit Zone: How Strategic Business Design Will Lead You To Tomorrow's Profits, Crown Business, 2002. Print.

Sports and Sports International. Web. http://in109676751.trustpass.alibaba.com/

Stone, Elaine. In Fashion: Fun! Fame! Fortune! Ed. Olga T. Kontzias. New York: Fairchild Publications, 2007. Print.

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Anderson, William. Kathie Lee's Children. The Free Market. 14.9. 1996. Web. http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=45

Brown, Sharon P., and Siegel, Lewis.B. "Mass Layoff Data Indicate Outsourcing and Offshoring Work," Monthly Labor Review. 128.8.3-10. 2005. Print.

Enlow, Sara and Ertel, Danny (2006 May/June) "Achieving Outsourcing Success: Effective Relationship Management," Compensation and Benefits Review 38.3.50-55. Print.

Fashion Bella. Web. http://www.fashionbella.com/
Mona Lisa Manufacturing. Web. http://www.monalisamfg.com/index.html
Reh, John, F. Offshoring - Outsourcing To Extreme, About.com, 2009. Web. http://management.about.com/cs/people/a/offshoring104.htm
Sports and Sports International. Web. http://in109676751.trustpass.alibaba.com/
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Business Intelligence Unlike Its Military Counterpart, Business
Words: 2038 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

Business Intelligence Unlike its Military counterpart, Business Intelligence is not an oxymoron. There are many examples of successful implementations of Business Intelligence despite the challenges. This paper explores the purposes for and the complexities of data processing systems that are designed to provide tools for top managers in their task of wading through swamps of unrelated information as they hone in on supports for taking critical business decisions. A possible confusion of

Business Scenario Type the Document
Words: 17664 Length: 45 Document Type: Dissertation

This means that you must continually monitor and communicate about possible changes, pertaining to the overall scope of the threat. Once this occurs, is when an entity will have an effective security procedure that will adapt to the various changes that are taking place. This is significant, because this information can be used to corroborate the overall nature of security threats that could be faced by the SME. Where, this

Business Studies: Case Study -
Words: 1829 Length: 7 Document Type: Case Study

Resuming the aspects related to the external environment, the following problems were identified: the increased health concerns and possible environmental damage caused by the increasing number of discarded mobile phones may temper, in the future, the demand for mobile phones; changes in the type of consumers implies further diversification; technological changes bring about additional challenges; increasing competition in the mobile phone market. Recommendations The recommendations are based on three pillars: e-business, quality services

Business Logistics and the Supply
Words: 1620 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

This allows for greater levels of planning and cooperation, and fills in the information gap that currently exists between the factory floor and the rest of the supply chain. Lexmark provides an example of waste. Recently, the company found itself with more than $1 million in scrap from one lot. Engineers had insufficient information to isolate and fix the problem, so were instead relegated to crisis control. With more accurate

Business Fashion Knockoffs: Perils and
Words: 2829 Length: 9 Document Type: Term Paper

In this manner, a chain of custody could be established. if, say, Aldo's product had suddenly jumped from one step of the process to another, it might indicate that Aldo had not gone through the usual channels; had possibly stolen the idea, or copied it to a significant degree from Alexander McQueen. In either case, the designer could protect himself or herself by following the customary procedures of their

Fashion MBA Application Why Is an MBA
Words: 1191 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Fashion MBA Application Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is LIM College the best MBA program for you? LIM College seeks candidates of various backgrounds who can bring new perspectives to our community. How will your unique personal history, values, and/or life experience contribute to the culture at LIM College? For the past two years, I have worked in retail -- at

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now