

Fabricly (YC W10) launches threadless for fashion and raises money - arihelgason
http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/18/yc-funded-fabricly-is-a-threadless-for-high-fashion-and-it-just-raised-400k/

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itsnotvalid
The plus side, cost would be lowered. However, including me, I don't want to
walk off the streets with clothing that look very similar to others. In some
ways, clothings that I like may not have enough appeal to others (due to
tastes, body shape, occasions, etc.) which may end up never voted enough to
get produced. Fashion is not some democratic voting, which minorities and
extremes should be respected as much as majors.

So in the end, it boils down to whether they can get the amount of "votes"
required to be as low as possible, which could enable more designs to be
manufactured.

P.S. As a side note, shops in China selling through <http://taobao.com> can
make that happen already by moving the cost of production so low that prior
buying is not a requirement, as the cost of keeping stock is very cheap.

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InfinityX0
A) As mentioned, -ly is a terrible naming convention.

B) This reminded me of this:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashio...](http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html)

High fashion frequently succeeds on brand name alone. Knockoffs are allowed to
completely copy a style - but since they can't take the brand name, they fail.
People buy Se7en jeans because they're Se7en jeans - and that's about 80% of
it. The other 20% is because they look good. This startup completely ignores
that thought process.

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tjriley82
Oh, we're not ignoring brand name at all. Our first mini-collection is by a
relatively established upcoming British label that only has very limited
exposure in the US. We have exclusive collections from several other labels
coming up. Small labels can find themselves in very precarious financial
positions as they try to grow, even after many "successful" seasons. Fabricly
is about providing a very low risk route to putting out a collection. Almost
like a book publishing model for fashion.

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andreasklinger
Hi Tom, Congrats to the launch! Isn't the upcoming british label ari's
brother?

Looking forward to see how you guys will progress. Good to see we are with
www.Garmz.com not the only ones tackling this industry problems.

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ramanujam
I seriously hope startups stop the 'ly' naming trend. There are already a
zillion of those and its not creative anymore.

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Dramatize
The name is pretty awkward to say.

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tjmc
I like the concept, but it doesn't mention sizing. It seems like it would be
crucial to get your measurements right because there'd be little or no excess
inventory. Unfortunately as someone who's done that knows, you don't always
get the sizing exactly right.

I read a couple of years back about a store in London that was using a laser
scanner to precisely measure customers and then making them perfectly fitting
jeans for something like £300 a pair. It'd be really cool to see something
like that but with an XBox Kinect doing the measurements.

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rickmak
I am curious how those design being produce. There is many restriction on mass
producing cloth. And how can I vote on the textile by looking on the photo?

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tjriley82
Fabricly carries out the sourcing and production. The designer only has to
worry about design and a joint marketing effort.

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aresant
<http://www.garmz.com/> effectively does the same thing in the UK.

With both companies why go high fashion instead of mass-market Tween / young
buyers style?

That would seem like a clearer path to take to get some serious scale and
attention, especially with the clear connection to FaceBook / social media you
guys have implemented.

That feels like a clearer path to exit too - a big box store would LOVE their
retail to transcend internet / social media.

I'd like to hear your rationale about pursuing high fashion - margins? Built
in audience for the boutique designers?

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arihelgason
It's fashion forward without the high fashion price tag.

Cutting out the wholesale / distribution costs by going straight from supplier
to customer, and not having the capital costs associated with brick & mortar
retail makes this possible.

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fashioncurious
Indeed vertical e-retailing has great margins so why are you only offering "Up
to 10%" to the Designers ?

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mbpr
isn't this a relaunch? didn't fabricly originally set out to connect apparel
cos with suppliers?

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arihelgason
Yes. We pivoted - here's a writeup about why we pivoted

[http://www.quora.com/Why-did-Fabricly-com-change-their-
busin...](http://www.quora.com/Why-did-Fabricly-com-change-their-business-
model)

