Yes, it can be competitive, but in retail, if you are in an area with other stores of like minds, then you can start working together and that is called a movement . In the right town it can be your BIA. Working together brings dollars to the area and retailing as a designer, with your OWN store, is money in YOUR bank each night when you close the store.
For designers, yes, it can be competitive but designers that work together can help each other and that is why in 1978 I started the movement with fifteen Toronto designers and founded Toronto Ontario Designers (TOD) – the ground breaking association formed to promote Toronto fashion designers. We ended up being together and helping each other for many years. TOD then later evolved into Designers Ontario (DO), then Fashion Designers Council of Canada (FDCC), and finally Fashion Design Council of Canada (FDCC).
Posted in: Fashion
