Omondi Presents: The Cutting Room Floor

Marcelo Gaia is the designer behind the "instagram brand", Mirror Palais. After working as a stylist or 10 years; (which included working for Lady Gaga's Stylist) he launched his own label. I sit down with Marcelo at his Lower East Side apartment in Manhattan to discuss how her did it.  Also! All full episodes are now available on Patreon, only!  www.patreon.com/thecuttingroomfloor

Brian Phillips founded the Fashion PR Company Black Frame which operated from 2004 until 2020. We discuss his POV on a what makes a talented publicist, what he's learned along the way and his ideas for the future.  patreon.com/thecuttingroomfloor 

Today's episode is playful and relaxed. I talk so my friend Christopher John Rogers about his name sake brand and love for color.  www.patreon.com/thecuttingroomfloor @christopherjohnrogers

I launched a Patreon! Patreon.com/thecuttingroomfloor  Mickey Drexler has been in the fashion industry otherise known as "the rag trade" for over 40 years. Best known for running The Gap for 18 years and later Old Navy, J.Crew, Madewell and now working alongside his son Alex Drexler who founded Alex Mill, Mickey has a unique approach to leadership, shopkeeping, and selling goods at great value.  INSTAGRAM: @OMNDI TWITTER: @OMONDIPRESENTS PATREON: PATREON.COM/THECUTTINGROOMFLOOR

The season isn't over! New episodes early June 2021.  Just stopping by to say Hi & Thank You. 

Ibrahem Hasan describes his role as a Senior Creative Director at Nike. Today, we dig into the structure of Nike as a huge, global organization or as Ibrahim calls it, "The Matrix." How many categories are there? What are their functions? Who are the appointed creative directors? How big are the teams and who's in charge of what? Born with raw talent on the south side of Chicago, Ibrahem learned on the job what it means to be a creative for a corporation. Today he describes the unspoken transition from being a "maker" to a "manager." 

This a great episode for a young designers. I speak to Shira Carmi who is the former president of Mansur Gavriel and has since been named the CEO of Altuzarra. Shira is a business person; the kind that every design talent needs to know. She sits pole position between business and creativity with an understanding of how to service both sides. There's a lot a great business advice here. We talk about the challenge of over-distribution among e-commerce partners, why the CFDA/VOGUE/BARNEYS recipe doesn't guarantee a brand success and how true scarcity can help or hinder a brand depending on its authenticity.  IG: @shirasuecarmi

James Scully is a prominent casting director starting his career in PR & production over 25 years ago. This episode covers a lot. James walks us through Vogue Magazine before Anna Wintour, his time as a buyer at the avant garde NYC retailer Chari Vari and his experience producing Tom Ford's first show at Gucci. He describes the evolved role of the stylist & casting directors; some of which abused their power, revealing the dark side of the modeling industry. 

In 2020 Mara Hoffman celebrated her 20th year in business, no small feat for any independently owned NYC brand. Today we speak on the many reincarnations of Mara Hoffman, finding sustainability in your existence, and the importance of never being 'too cool'. 

Today we talk about fashion licensing. Allison Zamora is a licensing executive who started her career at Calvin Klein and later went to LVMH. She walks us through the mechanism of licensing and how it's changed over the years. 

Teri Agins covered fashion at The Wall Street Journal for 20 years. In 1999, she published her first book, The End of Fashion; How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever. A friend lent me the book and it collected dust on my desk for months before I decided to pick it up; at which point I couldn’t put it down. This book is fashion reporting unlike I’ve ever seen of the industry. As Vanity Fair declared, “The End of Fashion rips into the underbelly of a world where marketing is king and often the emperor has no clothes.”

Recap of Season 1 & 2. Peak at Season 3. 

Amy Smilovic, the founder of Tibi, took a lifelong passion and created a burgeoning fashion label. Listen in as she relates why she took the leap into creating fashion, why she later made a major pivot in her brand, and what it has taken to keep everything moving and evolving in the ever-changing world of fashion. Amy is completely transparent about what it took to create Tibi as well all the twists and turns she’s navigated throughout the past 20 years since its creation. You won’t want to miss this in-depth look at a paragon of the fashion industry. TIME STAMPS (00:19) Welcome back to the last show of 2019 with the founder of Tibi, Amy Smilovic. (02:06) Learn about the competitors of Tibi before the rebrand. (03:00) Amy shares the meaning behind the name and her early inspiration. (04:45) The birth of Tibi, the first collection, and the gap the brand filled. (08:02) Why did Amy’s designs turn in to a labor of hate? (10:30) When did Amy decide to make a change? (13:33) How did she get her staff on board wit

What happens to our clothes once we get rid of them? Sustainability encourages that we ask *how* our clothes are made but few ask where they go at the end of their life cycle. Recorded at the University of Cincinnati, we sit down with former DAAP educator Elizabeth Ricketts about the clothing waste crisis, the invisible world of the second-hand clothing economy as seen in Accra, Ghana.  TIME STAMPS (00:24) Learn more about The Indx (00:57) Intro: Liz’s Back Ground (02:02) Today’s Topic: The Afterlife of Clothing (02:51) What is sustainability and what it's not (05:08) We are past the point of conferences (05:37) Extracting finite resources (06:57) Start with Waste (07:47) Dissonance: Clothing as Waste (08:33) Waste: Assumed Part of the Business (09:19) Abundance vs Excess (Grocery Store) (11:42) Recycling New Savior (13:15) Deficit Myth (14:20) Not “Goodwill” Deficit Statistics (16:30) Research in Ghana: Landfill or Donate? (19:35) Went to Ghana with 3 Questions (21:17) Kantamanto and Ghana’s independence (2

Live at the Brooklyn design studio A/D/O we listen in as Nesli Danisman, founder of Angora Group, shares how she became an expert in sourcing materials around the world.  Starting in as an assistant to Ralph Lauren and sourcing for nearly a decade for Marc Jacobs, Nesli describes her mission with Angora Group to help companies develop the best products with the best factories around the world. We close it out with some heavy-hitting questions from the audience that you won’t want to miss.  TIME STAMPS (00:15) Welcome back! We are live from Greenpoint Brooklyn at A/D/O (01:12) Live introduction to the group at A/D/O. (03:44) Special shout out to our sponsor, Indx. (06:44) Intro: Nesli Danisman found of Angora Group. (08:25) What does Angora Group do? (10:11) … and what they don’t do. (11:57) Is it true that more designers come to Angora Group versus just people with money? (13:38) Nesli breaks down the 30/30/30 model. (15:27) The vision behind Kanye’s pieces… that never came to fruition. (16:40) Nesli shares s

Live at Notre Chicago, Ava Niuri (@avanope) is head of special projects at Marc Jacobs. We discuss her Australian upbringing, her time at Helmut Lang and what she describes as "catfishing" of the creative brain.   TIME STAMPS       (0:39) @avanope (1:12) Ava’s Background (2:22) Fashion in Australia (4:00) Fashion Writing (5:00) Opening Ceremony (6:37) Bootlegs (12:33) “Entering the Fashion Industry” (13:45) Instagram & Hiring  (14:27) Helmut Lang (16:42) Marc Jacobs  (19:19) Collabs (20:00) Marc Jacobs Sweatshirt       (21:42) Women in Streetwear  (23:36) Keanu Reeves Project (29:33) Ken Park Project  (32:50) Fashion before the internet (34:45) Vetements  (35:51) DIY Culture (36:56) Questions (40:00) Magazines (Dazed and Confused) (42:00) Sustainability/ ethical brands (43:00) Regionalism  

A denim specialist with over twenty years of experience tells us why the best studied at the house of Levi's.    TIME STAMPS  (1:14) Adriano Goldschmeid (2:42) Levi Strauss (3:39) Tiia at Levi’s (4:10) Levi’s tabs (5:05) Tiia’s Work History (6:40) Denim History (8:27) Tommy Hilfiger x Hip Hop (11:04) Marc Jacobs Denim (12:10) Designer Jeanswear (13:00) Genuine Denim (14:30) Stretch Denim (19:46) Calvin Klein (21:52) Denim Pollution (22:18) Laundries (Denim process) (24:24) Role of a Denim Specialist (25:09) Denim Finishes (26:32) Stone washing (27:30) Indigo (28:39) 7 for All Mankind (29:30) Premium Market (30:56) Raw “Japanese” Denim (33:11) Selvedge Denim (33:11) Selvedge Denim (35:55) Not a Purest (37:00) Denim is a canvas (38:56) Angora Group (42:30) Black - Non Indigo Denim (46:00) Partnering & Outsourcing (48:00) Overseas & Local Manufacturing  

Live in London at The Hoxton Hotel Martine shares her thoughts on “hype”; working for Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga and the influences of her youth.

Founder, Lana Johnson tells us about writing her own playbook. She used influencer marketing to her own advantage; starting with a few small SKUS and growing into a full collection in under 4 years.

Jacquelyn talks finding the white space in the market & reinventing the category of showercaps.