Phreshly Squeezed

For most of high school, my writing style was non-existent. I struggled to get an 80% on my English assignments; heck, a lot of the people in my class found that to be the sinker grade on our straight-A report cards. A lot of my inability to write had to do with the fact that I had very little understanding with regards to grammar and structure. However, the biggest problem was that no one had ever sat down with me to take a look at my thought process and thought to teach me how to hone in on a good idea and to build on it. Eventually, I did get that education elsewhere and in time before college applications, which allowed me to start churning out well-written essays, but that was the only medium of communication I knew. I had no grasp on how to write other types of works that were targeted to an audience other than academia.

When you think “blog,” you often visualize yourself in a throwback to the beginning of the new millennium where you would find teens writing about their personal triumphs and woes in acronyms and run-on sentences. But in more recent years, blogging has become a huge proponent in aiding in the success of a business (especially start-ups) – after all, what other form of communication seems to offer a human connection to a vast audience. So when I started at JUZD Streetwear, I was expected to not only aid in graphic design, but also in building a a rapport between us and our audience through blog entries.

My first few entries were a complete disaster. Actually, I don’t think I ever made to a second published entry. The first one was so impersonal and detached; I sounded more like a wannabe journalist than a member of any company.

Offering Clothing and Awareness

Dedicated to providing a sustainable future, clothing designers have begun producing lines that make use of organic materials such as bamboo, wood-pulp, and seaweed. Joining in on eco-friendly train is Linda Lundström, women’s wear designer.

Slightly over a quarter of Lunström’s Spring 2007 collection can be recognized as a ‘Green Note’ item, which is an item in her collection that makes use of either bamboo or eco-Yukon fleece. Lundström aspires to have at least 50% of her clothing line making use of organic materials by Spring 2008. This spring, the bamboo jersey will be introduced into Lundström’s line as well as natural un-dyed laundered linen.

In addition to using eco-friendly materials, Lundström is also keen on following an old addage, “Waste not, want not.” In other words, reduce the need to cut excess fabric, and reuse the leftovers to create new garments. Lundström’s design team has come up with two pieces, which make use of the excess fabric – the Shabby Chic Scarf and the Labarka.

Aside from designing, Lundström recently served as Honorary Event Chair at An Evening of Sustainable style, which not only raised awareness concerning the negative impact of people’s choice for fashion but also offered green choices. It is this involvement with the community that helps us understand Lundström’s dedication towards minimizing our ecological footprints.

I just tried reading it, and I stopped after the first sentence. If I wanted something stilted and to the point, I would have just read the headlines of the NYTimes.com articles (heck, I think even those have more personality than what I wrote). But I have to remind myself that I wrote that when I first started out in fashion. It’s so hard to write about something that you don’t know, but it’s even harder when you don’t know how to separate the impersonal from the personal, and to offer your style in the piece.

My colleague at the time, Melissa Shum, put a lot of things in perspective for me. Even though I stopped writing for quite some time on the JUZD blog (I started doing the press and event coverage, as well as the styling posts at the beginning of this year), these pointers (and other positive criticisms in my GMail archives) encouraged me to try blogging on here to touch up my skills and to be even more conscious of my writing. After all, there is no good writer that can write without knowing their niche or knowing the point that they want to convey. Some of these tips are part of my thought process now, or not applicable to me (I often check over my own work), or even extremely basic, but I thought I’d share them. I’ve edited a couple and eliminated some of the suggestions to make them more general.

• Always keep you audience in mind … for example, could be easier to think of an actual person say your sister or your best friend.
• Pick a topic (it is easier to write about current events, or issues in the fashion industry… something you HAVE an OPINION on)
• Think of 2-3 key points you wish to convey through your post (e.g. What do you want your reader to understand and get from reading your post)
• When you are done writing your post, the best way to ensure it makes sense and is good to go is to actually show it to the audience you had in mind, say your sister or best friend and see if they can regurgitate the key points that you had originally hoped to convey in your post. If they can’t then you have to go back and edit

For more on this fab communications gal, you can follow Melissa on the Cover FX twitter account.

Official website for 2009's Q'BFFI

I love student events – there’s nothing like seeing your peers tackle great projects and accomplish things that you could only dream of doing. That said, I can only allow myself to respect the works of others when there is a great amount of effort put into the initiative.

So a friend of mine was interested in going to Queen’s University’s Q’BFFI (Queen’s Business Forum on the Fashion Industry), and posted a link to the event’s page. Having a love for fashion, I clicked on it and checked out the event. The concept is great – exposing current students from all over to the fashion industry in Canada from the perspectives of publications, design, modeling, and blogging – but the presentation was a disaster. Sure, the website looks sleek and stylish, but take a closer look at the content, and I was left feeling iffy on the Q’BFFI

If communication is key, especially in business, then you will realize that the following blunders are completely inexcusable. Going to the ‘delegates‘ page, since I was actually interested in attending, it was disappointing to see no listing of pricing (which turned out to be about $175 CDN incl. hotel) and a reference to last year’s event. Is it that hard to change the number 8 into a 9? Head on over to the ‘blog‘ area and notice the dates? Well, it feels like we’re time traveling to October of last year and that we’re ready to sign up for the ’08 event. If you are not going to use a blog effectively to keep your participants in the loop or anything of that sort, just don’t bother with one – leave it out. Let’s move onto the complete communication disaster – the contact page. Quoting directly from the page:

For general inquiries, please contact the Co-Chairs; otherwise, feel free to contact the appropriate executive member.

Sure, it sounds like a great idea to contact the co-chairs, if only they had their email addresses listed. It’s not hard to list your email address on a webpage; heck, you don’t even need to make it a link. Just type the darn thing out! What’s even more fantastic is that almost the entire executive don’t have email addresses for you to contact. It’s all right when you’re just building the website, but the event’s just a week away and registration probably took place at least a month before.

The executive: great to know who you are, but how do I contact you?

I’m honestly surprised to see the speakers that are doing this workshop, especially considering that one of the speakers is someone that I pulled a complete PR blunder on (can you say addressing to the wrong person?). It’s impressive who they get to speak at the event and that was what made me really want to take the bus up to Kingston. With such key players in the Canadian fashion industry, you have to realize that it’s imperative that you take extremely good care of your image.

You might call me critical, but come on! I wanted to know about the event, so I read the content. Students may be forgiving (mind you, I’ve also done student events amazingly done – EnVision Conference by UofT Rotman Commerce, but when you work and receive a ton of emails (heck, I received about ten in an hour the other day and I’m far from being a big player), a blunder can cost you that particular pitch or connection. There’s no need to prettify everything, especially if you can’t effectively communicate your ideas and points. Always be concise and clear with what you’re trying to say and proofread your work if you are writing or putting it up online.

Let’s be frank – I’m not very big on the whole hip hop scene. I remember during one of my stints as an ice cream scooper (don’t ask, I really needed the money) for the Rogers Cup, I was with a colleague and to pass the time, he played a lot of hip hop and rap music off of his phone. I didn’t know any of the songs that he was blasting. He kind of figured and spent the next couple days trying to teach me the lyrics and the flow to some raps – I think I only got the chorus of one song down.

Anyway, fast-forward two years to where I figured that when I received an invitation to attend the Hip Hop Theater Festival’s “Deez Nuts” that I might as well give hip-hop another shot with my friend Julie. I couldn’t say that I wasn’t the least bit intrigued when I heard that the performance that I was invited to was a workshop production (where the act is put on as a work-in-progress), which was about The Beatnuts. Think about it: normally when you go to a theater, big or small, the piece is final and is the exact same as the night before, but here was something different. I would be watching trial and error; hopefully, it wouldn’t be so much error.

The crowd was intimate with not more than 120 people seated, and the rest of the small studio acted as the stage in the discrete Ohio Theater. Putting a spin to the method of telling of a story, I was presented with the process of how production staff would want to tell the story of the duo (i.e. script read-through), as well as their actual story. Was it well done? Yes. Was that the most attractive aspect of the show? No.

What I loved most wasn’t the story itself, but rather, the level of interaction amongst everyone. Engaging the audience with an attractive story telling method is one thing, but what this show did was engage everyone on stage, on the sidelines, and in the seats. For instance, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sideline persons (i.e. the DJ in this case) have so much interaction – talking to the cast and to the audience.

Also, how many times do you get to see a work-in-progress? It’s fun, for once, to see something in its “rawest form” (as Clyde Valentin said when I interviewed him before the performance). Even if if I don’t see a finished product, at least I saw something that was just good at its core and that was striving to be better. When you think about it, that’s a process to which a lot of us can relate. Perhaps, that’s why the concept of a “workshop production” is so attractive.

Following the performance, guests were treated to an open-bar of wine and mixing and mingling. Press folks (I did mine before the performance) wandered to the back to do interviews, and others just left their mark on the black graffiti wall with silver markers. It was a great way to complete the fun evening.

G-Bo The Pro spinning the tracks

Signing the wall

Me with one of the Beatnuts, Psycho Les

The production team/cast (Clyde Valentin, Peter Oasis, JuJu, Sacha Jenkins, Psycho Les)

Group photo and wall signing photo courtesy of Michael Premo