Fashion Angel Warrior Talks Fashion District Manufacturing Tours, Mentorship, and More with Bronxnet TV!

Watch our interview with Bronxnet TV as we share how our manufacturing tours can help restore Manhattan’s Fashion District! With over 15 years of industry experience, we find joy in connecting emerging designers with New York’s most esteemed suppliers and manufacturers. If you’re interested in joining us for our next tour, feel free to sign up here!

BOB LEE:  Welcome back everybody!  March 23rd and April 19th (2018) our next guest will host tours of the fashion district and offer business tips.  Have you ever been down there?  Joining us with all the details is Christine Daal, CEO and Founder of Fashion Angel Warrior LLC. Welcome!

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Thank you for having me.

BOB LEE:  When did you start this?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Well, it officially started two years ago and I was a designer for many years in the industry. I worked my way up to head designer by the age of 24, then VP of Design and Merchandising by the age of 30; so, I had a lot of success. Then I started my own fashion line and I had a lot of success with that.  People just naturally started coming to me asking for help to start a fashion line and I realized……

BOB LEE:  You found out who you were, yeah!

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Yes! That was my true calling, so yeah!

BOB LEE:  So, you work or you give tours down by where they have this guy that’s sewing a button?  There is a big statue down there right in the fashion district.

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Yes, The Garment Worker.  Yes, that was done by Judith Weller of her grandfather.

BOB LEE:  Whoa!  There you go.  See I grew up in printing, Out of high school, I went to the School for Graphic Arts Communications and there was a printer guy- the guy who first did moveable type, his name is Gutenberg.  So, you being in the business; you know who those people are?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Yes definitely, definitely!

BOB LEE:  You have to because somebody is going to ask one day, “Oh yeah, I know that person.” So tell us about some of the things that you’re doing!

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Well we are a fashion consulting agency. We specialize in business, career, and image consulting.  Primarily we work with startup and established designers- pretty much helping them the entire step of the way to start and grow profitable businesses.  We do this through one-on-one coaching, group coaching, online courses and workshops like fashion district tours.

BOB LEE:  And these designers are going to be…

CHRISTINE DAAL:  They go on to be famous designers, emerging designers, startup designers, whatever they choose to be.

BOB LEE:  Would they work for Macy’s and places like that or……

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Most of the time they’re starting their own business. Sometimes they want to get a job in the industry and we can help them with that, but a lot of times they just want to start their own business.

BOB LEE:  So, in this business, you are designing and sewing clothing? How does that work?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  So, it’s a very complex process. But yes, we take them through the entire process on how to source their fabrics, how to source their trims, where to look for pattern makers and manufacturers, how to sell their garments, and how to build a following on social media. So, we really teach them the entire process.

BOB LEE:  See the people in the business know that language. I’m trying to get to the people that are watching it who are thinking, maybe this is something I want to get involved in.

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Exactly, yeah.

BOB LEE:  So, this thing that people may want to get involved in– you’re the coach for it?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Yes definitely, we help them every step of the way.

BOB LEE:  So, if somebody wants to get involved, what’s the first step?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Well a good first step is to come on our fashion district tour.  We do the tour once a month or once every other month. They’re always sold out and really the tour is designed to give you an overview of how to take your idea from a sketch all the way through to a final garment- because most people have the sketch. They have the idea and they have the passion but they don’t know how to actually get it produced.  “Where do I get my fabric?”  “Where do I get my zippers?”  “How do I get a pattern made?”  “How do I get production made?”  So, I take them through to all of my personal contacts and vendors and show them these are the people that you need to work with to get your line done.

BOB LEE:  And that’s important because a lot of people get stuck and they won’t follow up on everything that they want to do because they don’t know those missing steps. They don’t know what’s around the corner.  How do I get from point A to point B and so on and so forth?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Exactly!

BOB LEE:  And you have all of that information for them.

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Yes, I’ve been in the business for over 15 years so I’ve got a lot of contacts and experience.

BOB LEE:  When does the tour start?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  The next tour is March 23rd but it is already sold out. So the following one will be April 19th.

BOB LEE:  Wow! Alright, sold out.  April 19th.

CHRISTINE DAAL:  That’s a Thursday and they are from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  It’s a six-hour tour and we take the designers around to six different stops including wholesale fabric suppliers, wholesale trim suppliers, pattern makers, manufacturers, and label manufacturers.  We have lunch on the tour and we do Q&A during lunch; it’s a lot of fun.  People have so much fun and get a ton of information. It’s really exciting.

BOB LEE:  If you drive through it– you see all those things along the way, right?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Exactly!

BOB LEE:  There’s a lot of people selling wholesale a lot of times.

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Yes, we don’t really focus too much on that. We focus more on actually physically making garments.

BOB LEE:  Alright! Excellent, okay.  So, the next one is the 19th and you should go where to sign up?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  You can go to www.fashionangelwarrior.com and click on the Events tab.

BOB LEE:  And everything is right there for you.

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Yes, definitely!

BOB LEE:   Why is this information so valuable?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Well I found that a lot of clients who were coming to me had no contacts in the industry. Not only that, but they weren’t sure what questions to ask when they were going to these manufacturers. So a lot of these manufacturers were basically taking advantage of the fact that they’re newbies and they don’t really know what they’re doing. At the same time, the garment industry is shrinking- especially the fashion district.  A lot of people are going overseas. A lot of people are talking about moving the fashion district to Sunset Park, Brooklyn and a lot of my vendors are constantly complaining that the rent is going up and the business is going down. I thought this would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone– to give the designers the contacts that they want and at the same time, bring business back to the fashion district and really save the fashion district.

BOB LEE:  Excellent, yeah!

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Yeah, so it’s a win-win situation.

BOB LEE:  So, whatever you want to do in life, get the knowledge of what to do, what to say, how to be and you’re equipping all the people with the information.

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Yeah, it’s important to have a mentor. I always had mentors in my career and it’s important in this industry especially, to know a lot of people. It really is all who you know and not what you know. It's important to have a mentor. It's important in the fashion industry especially, to know a lot of people. It really is all who you know and not what you know. Click To Tweet

BOB LEE:  Yeah, where can we go to check you out on the website or something like that?

CHRISTINE DAAL:  You can go to www.fashionangelwarrior.com, you can follow me on Instagram at Fashionangelwarrior and you can also join our amazing Facebook group called the Fearless Fashionpreneur. We do Facebook Lives every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

BOB LEE:  Well Christine, I’m following you. Christine Daal!  Give her a big round of applause everybody, CEO and Founder of Fashion Angel Warrior LLC.  Christine, thank you so much.

CHRISTINE DAAL:  Thanks so much!

BOB LEE:  We’re going to take a quick break right here, but stay tuned, we’ll be right back with what opens next.

For more FREE fashion biz tips, join our Fearless Fashionpreneur Facebook Page and subscribe below!

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