Keeping busy, I am — fulfilling orders for Soul Portraits, angel candles and many other things, and at the same time, I’m trying to get ahead of myself in the virtual exhibition area.
So far, I have 20 exhibits up, in two different accounts. The one to which I’m exposing you at the moment is the PAOM Late Summer & Early Fall collection.
As you can see, the Fall Collection is sort of a random choice of what I thought was reasonably priced — these things are all custom-tailored — and what looked attractive for the time of year.
I plan to make a new collection for every season, wouldn’t you? But most of all, it’s there as an example of what YOU can do — the fact that the things are for sale is actually a side-issue and beside the point.
So how does PAOM work?
It’s very simple. You upload a pattern, design or whatever graphic you have in mind. They print it on a big piece of fabric, as many yards as it will take to generate the clothing article.
Then they cut the cloth to a pattern according to the specified sizes and shapes, and then they sew the garment, and otherwise tailor it and pack it and hopefully ship it out safely and uneventfully to your doorstep.
I forget how, but there’s a way to get your own label sewn into the item instead of theirs — I didn’t bother, at least not for the 430 items I have up on the PAOM website — they all have a “PAOM” label on them, and I don’t really care.
If someone wants to set up a sales thing, then I’ll worry.
The point of this little exercise is to demonstrate how to set up a legitimate fashion designer “House of Your Name Here” without any money whatever, just a computer and some graphic skills and a good collection of CDs and some time on your hands — lots of time.
You can generate your graphic patterns as JPEGs or PNGs, and you can easily prepare your graphics for printing, in the program known as “paint.net”, which is free — you get it at “https://www.getpaint.net”.
Do you get what I’m saying here???
Total Creative Freedom, and you turn out actual printed textile goods from your very own apparel factory!
Everything’s online these days, so why not your seamstresses?
Do you see my point?
You could be a self-proclaimed “Manhattan or Paris or London Fashion House”, without having to actually cut and sew and press hundreds of numbers to set up a show and possibly sell wholesale to major apparel buyers.
Good luck on that one, but you CAN set yourself up as a fashion house online, where you’re only as big as your graphics.
You’ll need the usual for fashion sales generation, which means you need a social following, a popularity base.
You also need to either BE an influencer or KNOW one really well.
There is no other way, not in this time-frame, however, after the second or third American Civil War, those skills will come in handy, when there are no shirt-makers and nobody makes boots anymore.
They haven’t for years.
Anyhow, here’s a way to have actual fashions, and to get into the fashion game without a lot of money, just time and talent.
You’ll note that the items are not cheap. Just wait ’til you see what they’re made of — how about silk, cotton, linen and other exotic textiles?
I think the possibilities are amazing, especially if you know how to set up crowd funding and such — I don’t have a clue, so don’t bother asking me — however, if I happen to find out, you’ll be the first to know.
Wading into the world of fashion is a tough journey. I promised my grandpa that I would never get into the garment industry, and thanks to the folks with whom I work — PAOM, Zazzle, Redbubble and Cafe Press, I don’t have to.
I design, they manufacture, pack and ship and handle any customer issues, for which I gladly pay a fair price for their services.
I recommend that you master Zazzle first, then Redbubble, and only then go on to try working in PAOM — the hardest of them all.
If you decide you want something from my PAOM store, please allow me to design something special for you, or at least get a discount, which means you tell me which one and I buy it on your behalf and pass my maker’s discount on to you.
I’m really excited to see all the attempts being made to master this new marketing technology, but keep in mind that hidden within the tools I’ve given you to work with online marketing methods, there is a practice that can yield powerful positive results.
Well, once again, I’m pooped. The heat has taken a lot out of me lately, but also the effort to create these virtual exhibitions.
There’s a lot of admin and a hell of a lot more typing than I’d like to be doing when you make one of these exhibition thingies.
There are so many variants you can use to create very unusual and unique expressions of exhibit forms.
Keep in mind that pieces travel with their numbers, if you leave things up on the wall and change the format and configuration of the map, which you can do any time you wish, as well as re-color the walls.
I hope you enjoy this little excursion, remembering that I’ve made 430 items on PAOM for your kind consideration.
Go thou and do likewise. Seek the Hidden Knowledge in the Virtual Exhibition.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby