{Factory Girl} Month 2

I've always thought of myself as a factory girl.  When I worked in the fashion industry in New York in my twenties, I worked with local factories in the garment center of Manhattan to have salesman samples made.  Then I took the helm of our in-house sample room and managed teams of patternmakers, cutters and sewers.  Eventually my career took me to China, where I spent up to 4 months out of the year working with some of the largest factories in southeast Asia.  Nothing thrills me more than heavy machinery, the sound of productivity, and a beautifully constructed product.

As some of you who follow us on our Facebook page know, on July 23 2013 I got my very own factory.  Our new 4,000 sq ft space on the waterfront in Brooklyn was, literally, a dream come true.

Until that point, my company, alexandra ferguson, had been based in New Rochelle in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City where I grew up.  The first pillows I ever made in the first few months after launching our Etsy shop in January 2009 were in my living room of my loft apartment.  There was a photo of me sewing in my living room with my sunglasses on, late afternoon sun streaming through the windows with probably CNN running on the television in the background.  I can't to find it, which is a bummer.

By spring of that first year, we moved all the bolts of fabric and supplies to my mom's garage and set up shop.  Talk about *big time.*  Now, in fairness, this wasn't your typical garage space.  My mom had hand stenciled the floors, and together we had painted the walls with folk art inspired trees over white washed wood paneling.  The only heat source was an old fashioned wood burning stove (which kicked some serious heat) and double glass sliding doors opened up to the garden.  For a year and a half, I toiled away with a small team in this lovely little space.  When I worked evening shifts, my mom would pop her head in to announce dinner was ready.  Life was good.

By the summer of 2011, we were bursting out of the space.  Thankfully when the weather was nice, we spilled our packaging into the lawn and prayed it wouldn't rain before the UPS truck showed up.

Fortunately my loft apartment about a mile away was zoned as a work/live space.  So I personally moved out, and the company moved in.  Heat that could be turned on with a button, my own private office and a sprawling 800 square foot work room felt truly luxurious.

One of our online retailers, Vau.lt, came in and shot this super fun 2 minute video where we demonstrate our process.  You can watch it here.  This was definitely the only day (dare I say, hour) that the space looked this clean and tidy.  We had designated areas for cutting base panels, sewing machines and packaging.  We learned to pile boxes 4 high, make tables serve double and triple duty, and organize our supply chain to ship us exactly what we needed when we needed it.  By the holidays of 2012, we were storing our inventory of shipping boxes in the kitchen with only enough room to crack the fridge door open to grab a soda can.  It was a great exercise in efficiency.

Shortly after the company turned 4, it had become clear that it was time to move again.  There were some important criteria: the new space would be in the outer boroughs of New York so that we could tap into a larger talent pool to build our team.  It had to be light and airy, close to public transportation and in a safe neighborhood.  And it had to fit our budget.

The search took 3 months, and in the end we decided on a raw industrial loft space in Industry City.  It was perfect.  Sweeping views from the 6th floor of New York Harbor, including downtown manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.  Wall to wall wrap around windows.  And over 4x the space we were currently in.  Manual operated freight elevators and loading docks felt like a luxury that I couldn't wait to indulge in.

On Tuesday July 23rd, the moving truck came.   On wednesday, our sewing machines were delivered. By Friday, the sweet sound of needle and thread joining fabric together could be heard echoing in the space.  For all I knew, it sounded like Mozart.  How we pulled off manufacturing within 3 days of the move is a miracle in human determination that I will never fully understand.  But boy, I do know that I've never worked so hard in my life as I did this summer.

 Custom steel 10' high aqua colored shelving running the length of our 120' long wall was one of my most delightful purchases.

So here we are!  2 months in to our new space.  Besides real estate, what's different?

-We've grown our team to 8 full time employees (and still hiring!)

-we've consolidated all of our manufacturing under one roof

-due to efficiencies of scale, we were able to lower our prices 15%

-we introduced a brand new category of personal accessories.  This week we did our first production run of candy colored makeup cases!  Look for them in stores and on the web within about a week.

-we have "greened up" our shipping by installing a custom built pillow "compressor" which will dramatically slash shipping costs, packaging materials as well as our carbon footprint. (go, team, go!)

Our custom built pillow compressor

-we have teamed up with our neighbors: our latest batch of hangtags were printed on the 3rd floor.  Our makeup case panels were cut in a cutting room on the 5th floor.  And we will start working with a silkscreen printer across the courtyard later this week.  My landlord has officially become my sourcing agent, simply by recommending other tenants in the complex.

Most of all, I am so excited to be part of the growing movement of makers who are bringing manufacturing back to the States.  Everyday I'm reading articles about different factories who have carved out new niches for themselves, jobs being created in communities that desperately needed them, and an overall spark of energy in the air.  This is such a great space to be working in right now and I feel so lucky to be in the middle of it.

What can I say?  So far, with two months under our belt...yes, it's everything this factory girl dreamed it would be.

Better buckle up!

Love this sign we spotted over the weekend outside of Seattle, WA

Shaking up my own status quo: How I went from whiny "no" to unstoppable "yes"

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

― Apple Inc.

It got to a point where I wasn’t invited to meetings anymore.  As the decisions came down and the to-do list itemized, my face would get whiter and whiter.  In terror, I repeated blindly, “it can’t be done.  It’s too much, we’ll never finish on time.” 

I’m somewhere in my mid-twenties, running sample rooms for some of NY’s hottest designers.  My job is to manage a team of patternmakers and sewers to transform a designer’s sketch into the clothes that ultimately went down the runway.  By the time fashion week was upon us, we had been working 7 days a week into the small hours of the night for weeks on end, living off of a rotation of delivery services for meals and starved of the company of our friends and family.  

The final days before the show were the most challenging emotionally.  Run down, my reaction to being overwhelmed manifested as frustration – this is impossible!  Why am I being set up to fail?!  Sometimes I would lock myself away in the bathroom, crawl into a ball on the floor, and just cry.

But my fear of deep humiliation if the clothes weren’t ready for the runway was stronger than my conviction that I couldn’t do it.

So I sat in the meetings and repeated “no, no, no” until I wore out my welcome, and then, faking confidence as best I could, set to work with my team to do everything we possibly could to try and get it all done. 

Amazingly enough, every single season we put a gorgeous collection down the runway. 

After many years of this routine, with the bar set higher and higher each season, I had become a broken record of “can’t” and “no.”  And worse yet, my track record was appalling – I had been wrong every single time.  My limited belief in myself was making me deeply unhappy, damaging my credibility with my peers, and holding me back from career superstardom.

So when I took a big job to run product development with an overseas team, I challenged my internal status quo and decided to go from “no” to “yes.”  Now it was my turn to ask people to do more, faster and for less cost than they ever thought possible.  “I know it's crazy, but you can do it,” I would promise, drawing on deep reserves of resourcefulness and patience learned from my runway days.  “How about we try it again this way…” 

Once I had convinced myself that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to, it was easy to get my team on board, and together, knock our goals out the park.  Within a year, I was negotiating with monolithic factories to rebuild their machines, rethink their minimum order requirements, meet aggressive calendar dates and slash costs.

With that magical 3-letter word, “yes,” I transformed into an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.  “Here comes trouble!” the Chief of Operations would cry out when he heard the click-clack of my heels approaching his office.  

“Yes, what do you need me to do?”

6 STEPS TO BECOMING A TROUBLEMAKER:

• Observe yourself - red flag any time you hold yourself back with “no” or “I can’t do that.”
•  Challenge your set of assumptions that lead you to “no” – are they valid?  Play it out in your head – what would happen if you said “yes” instead? 
• Fake it ‘till you make it: faking confidence in my abilities didn't have the same magical results as truly believing in it, but was still an incredibly effective tool and led to a string of victories to lean on.
• Practice!  I found that saying “yes” is MUCH harder than saying “no.”  The confidence to back it takes time to develop (8 years in my case).  So be patient with yourself and take baby steps. 
• Save your “no” for when you really mean it.  When I made a habit of saying “yes,” I found my “no” became very powerful. 
• Best of all, let the joy and the passion of your new confidence come through – it’s contagious and inspiring. 

FINAL THOUGHT:

An art teacher of mine in high school, Sr. Anne, had a lot of students tell her they were not artists.  “I can’t even draw a straight line!” they would say. 

“Well thank goodness,” she would reply, “because there is nothing more boring than a straight line.  Now give me the best curves, zigs and zags you have.”

Felt scraps put the the cutest use

This month we are launching a new program to re-use and recycle all the colorful fabric scraps that come from manufacturing our pillows.

They are perfect for all sorts of community art programs - from schools to hospitals.  We've already begun our outreach and will start shipping out USPS Large Flat Rate boxes next week to several programs in the tri-state area.

If you think you would be able to use our scraps for your program, please send us an email at info@alexandraferguson.com.  The fabric scraps are free, and all we ask is that you cover the $16.85 shipping cost.

Meanwhile, to get you started with some ideas, check out these adorable little Easter chicks made by alexandra ferguson Roving Ambassador, Charlotte (Alexandra's mom)!

Small business holidays - Post #1: Peek...aren't you curious?

I am in the incredibly fortunate position of being an aunt to possibly the cutest 2 year old little boy named Ben.  

Now, finding cute boys clothing is so much harder than finding cute girls clothing.  Which means that every time I do find it, I simply have to buy it.  Christmas around the corner is a technical excuse.

This past weekend, I went on a store visit to Treasure & Bond in SoHo where I discovered Peek and bought this {made in the USA} T-shirt that says "Brave men run in my family."  

It's especially perfect as Ben's dad, my brother Max, is a Captain in the U.S. Army, and I'm proud to say, especially being Veteran's Day today, that nothing could be more true.

They only seem to have large sizes on the Peek website or if you are in NYC, you should definitely check out Treasure & Bond.    Extra cool about Treasure is that they donate 100% of profits to charities benefiting children in NYC.

And we just shipped them their opening order of alexandra ferguson pillows.  So obviously, their 'cool' factor just got epic.

Gift Tags by alexandra ferguson

Gift with purchase!

The experience of unwrapping a gift can be one of the most delightful things this time of year.  So we thought we'd add a little alexandra ferguson sass to it with our super fun gift tag stickers.

You know the little side-explanations you say when you hand your gift to someone?  Those were the inspiration behind these tags.   Have fun with them - I think you'll find the perfect tag for each gift on your list this year.

And the best news yet is that we are including a sheet of them FREE with every order on alexandraferguson.com, from now until December 20th.

Small business holidays - Post #1, Charley Harper Dining Ware

Gift buying is one of my favorite things to do.  Often I'll be thinking of clever ideas months in advance. I listen up year-round for clues and ideas, and think carefully about what item matches each person's personality, and then scour the market for the most beautiful version of it.

Not lying - I bought a stocking stuffer for my mom in August.  It's a velvet beaded Union Jack tree ornament I found in London during the Olympics.  She is English, and her New York home has a serious case of Anglo-fever.  So now the christmas tree can be branded as well.  Trust me - it's perfect.

(She's not very high tech - low risk I've just spoiled the fun for her ;)

This year, I'm adding a layer of fun and making a pledge to do all my holiday shopping with small businesses.

My parameters are self-defined.  Generally I want to shop independent retailers and e-commerce sites (like the ones I sell to) and buy products from small designers (like me).  Either/or, good.  Both? BAM!

Big box stores with mass produced goods?  Not this year.

I love nothing more than a challenge, and I think my friends and family will get the most interesting and fun gifts ever.

So, more things I love:
1. Dining ware & tabletop accessories
2. Birds in art
3. Mid-century modern aesthetics, bold graphics, color blocking

Conclusion: Charley Harper is one of my most favorite artists, and WHAM! Todd Oldham partners with Fishs Eddy (incredible NYC eclectic dishes store) to put Charley Harper images on glasses, plates and trays.

I left their email blast announcement open on my computer for two days to let my pitter-patter heart calm down.


Don't forget mugs, dishtowels and aprons.  (Seriously, you even did an apron?)

Cereal bowl fetish?  Meet Big Fish.


Available for sale on charleyharperartstudio.com or click here

(Wait - is this series of blogs going to turn into a list of things I'd like my friends to buy for me??  No, no, promise...it's just that sometimes I find the gift before I find the recipient...and keep in mind, I do include myself on my list of people to buy presents for...and I'm OK with all that.)