On April 11, 2017, we were invited to meet with the founder of Agence Saba Demian in small Parisian office to talk about the industry today. Syra Schenk, founder, and CEO, had an interesting discussion with us on the development of fashion business. Syra Schenk had earned a master’s degree in law from the Institut Français de la Mode, after which she had extensive experience within the L’Oréal Luxury Division and Christophe Lemaire. Her experience was a great inspiration to us.

The agency was founded in 2013 as a way of creating and controlling the amount of work Schenk could participate in, and now she is cooperating with 5 designers at different capacities. The agency insists on strong analytical skills, such as understanding of a brand’s core values and quality. The brand development of the agency includes global sales strategy, marketing, brand identity, price positioning, merchandising, client management and product development on special projects. The nature of this work often requires the agency to tailor their approach to each brand they manage, giving them exactly what they need.

During the discussion, Schenk mentioned that she is trying to work with each of the designers in a different way in order to help everyone to build his/her own brand image. Sometimes, she sets up daily finance plans, and she works closely with the designer to develop their creation from the runway to marketable pieces. At the same time, Schenk cares about if she could help each fashion designer to achieve their vision, to make their creativity financially plausible.

“Creativity and visibility is very important, and strategies is also very important. Good examples such as Vêtements and Philipp Plein. ”

In today’s fashion world, it seems to be necessary for a fashion brand to put celebrity effect in a significant position. Today’s reality is not only about making a brilliant design, but also the strategies should make fashion brands more visibility, more surprise and more story-telling to the consumers. Identifying the brand is also an indispensable factor of the in-store clothing sales, thus, fashion designers should make fashionable but also wearable clothing for their in-store sales. Not just the design but as important its quality.  Maison Martin Margiela was cited more than once as an excellent example achieved the best balance between its design and its good quality.

“Fashion designers should be flexible, they should go to the shops and see who are buying clothing in the shops”, Schenk pointed out, “and they should think about if their clients can wear their designs. If you want to sell the clothing, then you should not only pay attentions to the  runway, online shopping is also a good competition.”

Text by Kirsten Wang.

Photos by Rachel Fenderson.