Lv Yan: Designing Requires Endless Learning.

As the 2016 autumn winter series is released, Comme Moi founder and

Lv Yan, a supermodel, shared her mind with reporters.

Creativity and

Opinion.

Shanghai, China, a long old house in the deep lane of Weihai Road, there is a continuous voice coming out: "this is to find Yan sister", "please look at Yan sister", "Yan Jie, trouble sign"...

The clothing workers, the print masters, the staff and the movers are waiting for "Yan Jie" to give instructions to them.

Three years ago, Lv Yan founded his own brand, Comme Moi, and became a designer, and became "Yan Jie" in everyone's mouth. This word means greater ability and greater responsibility to her.

Before that, the girl with a slim eyebrow was known as a supermodel for being excavated by stylist Li Dongtian and photographer Feng Hai.

The unique Oriental face made it one of the few Chinese models that appeared on the international stage before China's supermodel wave.

Lv Yan's curtain call at Comme Moi 2016 autumn winter series

"As a model, every day, you are being imperceptible, passing through so many clothes, slowly finding your own style, and improving your appreciation ability," Lv Yan said. At that time, she had been feeling and learning how designers pformed their inspirations into beautiful fashions with various skills, and did not think that one day they would become one of them.

However, this curious learning has turned her career path into necessity.

"At that time, I knew nothing but the most brilliant part of the industry, and I knew nothing about how the whole industry works," explains Lv Yan, explaining his original intention of building a brand: "designing and making a brand is more comprehensive for me. It can reach all levels of the industry from downstream to downstream, from factories to media to consumers, and learn a lot from everyone and every detail."

Thanks to many years of experience in modeling, the sense of touch on high quality fashion and the sublation of style, Comme Moi has been recognized by the market for its high quality fabric and fashionable style.

Its combination of neutral design and feminine beauty and intellectuality has also become the choice of many Chinese female stars at the event.

Comme Moi 2016 autumn winter series

However, despite the popularity of Comme Moi for many celebrities, Lv Yan has been trying to solve the pain of many local designers such as target customers and market pricing.

"I made the price range of products according to my consumption habits. I bought two thousand or three thousand yuan of things and felt OK, but it was too expensive. I thought it would be worthwhile to think about whether this stuff is worth it," Lv Yan told reporters.

If positioning and price is the cornerstone of Lv Yan's brand building, fabric is the starting point and foundation of her design.

"This year's autumn and winter series, we did a lot of splicing, many retro clipping, interpretation with modern fabrics," she said. "My series always looks for the fabric first, then looks at the suitable style from inside. I sometimes find a point in the process of making it, and then expand it into a series."

At present, the fabrics of Comme Moi are all imported fabrics, and the processing plants are mostly suppliers of many luxury brands.

According to Lv Yan, many customers who buy this brand are luxury brands, so they still have their own standards for quality and taste.

"You can't cheat customers, clothes are good, customers know," she said.

"In foreign countries, the increase in cost is basically three times, but why did China achieve eight times or even ten times? Because in the past business mode, many people spent money on channels, and no one was concerned about the real core products, but I spent all the money on the visible parts: fabric, design, core products, publicity......

But I am very provincial in other aspects.

She added with a smile.

Comme Moi 2016 autumn winter series

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In order to ensure the high quality of design, Lv Yan has been participating in various fabric exhibitions.

For her, this is also the most intuitive learning process. Every year, Premiere Vision fabric exhibition and Pitti Filati yarn show will appear on her.

From her initial ignorance to the present, she has been able to quickly find a fabric supplier that matches her positioning and style at a large exhibition.

"We went to Premiere Vision in the first season, and now we have been there six times. The longer you go, the more precise you go. You know what is right for you." Lv Yan said, "now we have seen the fabric dealers who have worked together, and the prints, lace and worsted men's fabrics are not seen at all, so we have more time to see accessories, publications and trends.

If you look carefully at this exhibition, you will see the trend in the next one or two years, which is also a good prediction for our future design. "

Comme Moi 2016 autumn winter series

Another place where she spends most energy and is most willing to go is the factory that many designers are too tired to set foot in.

"First of all, look at the factory can learn a lot, in which you can find one or two things that you can use, and you feel a sense of achievement.

I have been to the factory of Stella Luna, and I have been very rewarding. You will see how a handbag goes from design, paper blank to parison to big cargo, and from which links to optimize the process.

Instead of thinking about the products that are taken for granted, "she said,"

"Secondly, look at the factory is also a Comme Moi to find potential suppliers, such as I love to go to Milan, and I intend to go to Czech and Portugal to develop some local factories this year," Lv Yan said. "Finding the right processing plant has always been a difficult problem for many Chinese designers." many times, Chinese garment factories always have some stereotyped ideas, for example, they used to be annoyed when we were small and wanted to develop new styles.

But I don't think the future market is going to be hundreds of thousands of products coming from the mass market, but more and more detailed and narrower, which requires the quality of factories and workers themselves.

She told BoF that some overseas factories such as Eastern Europe had low orders.

50 factories in Czech can produce.

At the same time, because of the quality requirements of the product, she needs workers to follow up all the production processes, rather than the general mechanized production in the past.

"In my design, a lot of things like bead embroidery need to be done by hand, so many Chinese factories will be in trouble, so I will put these processes in factories in India, and accessories in Lebanon, they will be very careful, better than the domestic ones, and the cost will be cheaper," Lv Yan said. "No one can do the same quality at home, but no one wants to do such a thing."

At the same time, Lv Yan attached great importance to the importance of core products.

In just three years, Comme Moi already owns several iconic products such as baseball jacket and fishtail skirt, and the selling rate of other styles has also kept at a higher level.

"Our SKU (inventory unit) has a high degree of accuracy. With 200 SKU as the benchmark, our design will not exceed 250 styles. More than three revised design notes are problematic, and we will give up, which will reduce unnecessary costs, and second, we can save everyone's time," she said.

Internally, Lv Yan accumulated a very strict and strict file system. Every season she would make two volumes and several samples of all kinds of classic versions, crafts and embryos of the brand, reducing the labor and time expenditure of duplicate edition, and ensuring the repetitive training and communication costs under the condition of personnel flow.

"If I think this edition is very good, maybe it will develop several more colors or change the style on the basis of this design," she said. Now, her understanding of fashion is "data", how to collect the best selling data, and how to distribute the rate and matching rate of the product structure, and make the SKU of the core products more precise.

Comme Moi Xinle Road flagship store

Along with the gradual maturity of products, the channels of Comme Moi are slowly expanding according to Lv Yan's rhythm.

At present, the brand already owns 14 retail outlets in the whole country, including Liang Liang and even Crawford. In October last year, it launched its own flagship store in Xinle Road, Shanghai, and then opened a special store in the national retail benchmark shop Shanghai Jiu Guang Department Store (Nan Jingde Plaza is currently a multi brand retail store, and will also expand into a special store in the future).

For many Chinese designers, the high barriers in department stores are difficult to surmount, and the establishment of Direct stores requires more investment and courage.

But Lv Yan regards wholesale and retail businesses as channels that must be taken.

"I grew up with a buyer's shop.

Buyer's shop has advantages and disadvantages. When a brand develops to a certain stage, it must have a definite purpose in the channel of buyer's shop.

We contacted some buyer shops, and the goal was not so clear, for example, the 200 SKU, they set 180.

In the past few seasons, buying shop orders are more conservative, and they are also related to the big situation. Now, the buyer shop is also a time for shuffling, and I think this is a test for us. How to control the quantity in the future and find a bright, concise and simple buyer shop to cooperate? "Lv Yan said," many people say that our clothes are only suitable for the buyer's shop. I believe that if a brand wants to be bigger and can't be so limited, I want to try it in a department store. It turns out that customers like senior customers like Gao Guang are also very fond of our design, indicating that our products can still accept the test of the market. "

No matter which channel, Lv Yan attaches great importance to dealing directly with guests, because "environment and service will directly affect customers' impression of brand".

The flagship store in Xinle road was handed over to Guo Xien, Hu Rushan, the founder of the Design Republic and the design of the Azure, which is also designed by Mr. Tu. The store is located on the side of Donghu Garden Hotel. It is an old building built in 1925. The historical traces on the wall are preserved, and modern terrains, terrazzo, metal and wood flooring are added. It is one of the best shops in the year 2015 by the "AZ Awards" Awards of Canada.

The shoes in the fitting room for guests to try on are also Christian Louboutin.

(according to Lv Yan, Louboutin has sponsored Comme Moi brand for four consecutive seasons.

Her salesperson is also from her major luxury brand stores to provide customers with intimate service.

"I hope to provide very good service, high quality clothes, and very affordable prices, so that you will easily feel intimate with you.

And shops are good enough to show the value of the fashions sold inside.

It's better to put things in a bad environment, "Lv Yan said." I'm making a brand. Ring is very important. Design takes up a little bit, and there are many other aspects.

Production and sales are also very important. Every link must be very good before we can go in the long run.

Comme Moi Jiu Guang Department Store

Every link she mentioned included the fashion distribution, graphic catalogues and advertising photography that must be done every season.

Take fashion distribution as an example, Lv Yan did not choose to participate in fashion week because she had to start from her brand positioning, choose the stage lighting design and model line-up she wanted, instead of choosing 798 of the activities that everyone was there, but the Yintai shopping center in the city center, taking into account the comfort and convenience of guests.

"This is a whole plan. You must feel good, complete and comfortable from inside to outside," she laughs. "Money in this area can not be saved."

At one time, Lv Yan's plan was to make up his mind that Comme Moi had invested heavily in brand and product within three years, and did not plan to make profits in the short term. Now, as a 34 employee, "Yan Jie" feels that Comme Moi seems to have come to a new stage.

"This year, we will recruit some design assistants, financial and administrative personnel. After training the team, we will open more department stores and independent stores next year to share the current cost," she said. He said he still optimistic about the development of high-end retail stores such as Hangzhou Tower and Beijing Xinguang world in the next 35 years, while the new independent stores are expected to be located in Beijing to show a slightly different brand image.

At the same time, the designer's heart care children's clothing business will also be on the agenda.

However, Lv Yan's learning path is continuing.

"Now, I particularly want to read books, learn to read financial statements, learn management, and learn communication," she said. "I have great confidence in core products, but when a brand is maturing, you will find that talent is the most important key."