Part of the budget should be used to purchase the items that you really need, such as a new coat or boots. Part of the budget should then be set aside to buy things you fall in love with and can't live without.
— Aslaug Magnusdottir
Designers were saying to me that they didn't have a place to sell their special pieces from the runway.
There are so many women throughout the world who appreciate beautiful design and have the budget to buy designer fashion but sometimes have a hard time finding the things that they really want or that suit their lifestyle or their culture or whatever it may be.
As in many other industries, the luxury fashion consumer increasingly desires to put a personal stamp on important purchases.
Having trained as a dancer growing up, I love any dance related events.
I never wear pants; I only wear dresses.
We want every woman to have something unique, a wardrobe she can really make her own.
While my calendar with Moda Operandi often takes me to fashionable locales like Milan and Paris, I am thrilled when opportunities to visit new places present themselves.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with the fashion scene that Stockholm has to offer, both on and off the runways.
While my trips are most often focused on business, I always try to take some time to experience the local culture.
If someone is making a very expensive purchase decision, they typically have a lot of questions about the fit and about what to wear the item with. In some cases, they'll ask for additional images or want to contact the designer.
I try to keep my closet organized by color and category so that it's not only aesthetically pleasing but practical as well - it really makes getting ready so much easier.
I worked as President of House of Waris for a year and a half, and Waris is one of my favorite people. He is not only a talented designer but also a warm and genuine person and a pleasure to work with.
Each individual garment has its own customizations based on a collaboration between us and the designer. We say what we think our woman wants, and they say, 'This is what we think we can do with our production.'
I so often heard from women that they saw this beautiful fashion, but it didn't always work for them - whether it was cultural reasons, lifestyle reasons, body type reasons. So it seemed like in my mind there was a gap there, that women really wanted to be able to customize items to fit their needs and their tastes.
If all purchases are spontaneous and simply driven by what is seen and loved, there is a high risk of ending up with 10 cocktail dresses and no outfits for work.
I'm Icelandic, from this small country where there was very limited access to fashion when I was growing up, and so, for me, it's really important to have a product that's relevant for this global customer.
When I was working at Gilt, a lot of people at the time - this is back in 2009; Gilt launched in 2007 - were making their first fashion purchases online and at a discount.
Since M.O.'s trunk shows will run during a brand's market week, designers can get immediate feedback from our high-end customers to help better shape their buying and production decisions. This keeps our members happy and can improve each brand's bottom line.
I enjoy walking through Nolita and Chinatown, watching the people and the buildings, browsing through shops and stopping at little cafes for a cup of coffee or glass of wine.
Our girl is someone who knows the trends before they happen and look online immediately when shows are happening. They love fashion so much, so they're thrilled they get to be a part of it all.
It is always a pleasure to see what NYC, London, Paris and Milan have to offer.
Having grown up in Iceland and Los Angeles, gone to school in Europe and America, and lived and worked in London and New York, my insatiable appetite for travel has informed many of my life decisions.
The Stockholm street style is distinctive, with ensembles that exemplify the city's understated elegance.
As I have written before, one of my favorite parts of my job as CEO of Moda Operandi is the opportunity I get to explore international fashion scenes to discover new talent, and then being able to introduce these designers to our community of fashion-savvy customers worldwide.
The fashion sector is very hot in New York, especially the fashion tech sector, and a lot of women have been the leaders in the industry.
I first met Michael Angel when he came to my office with a box of prints and asked me whether I thought he should make dresses from the prints.
There were no tourists. Beer was illegal. There was only government television and no television on Thursdays or in the summer.
It's definitely an interesting question: 'Do you need more funding to start a luxury business?' That's something I want to think about a little bit more.
A lot of people made their first luxury fashion purchase, but at a discount. And that made it an easier purchasing decision.
As a customer, I would see pieces that I loved and then find out they weren't being made because no store had ordered them.
What I've always found about going to a tailor is that it's a little bit daunting. You don't know exactly what it's going to look like, it's hard to know who to go to, and it's still a very expensive proposition.
A brand can have huge hype but still only be a tiny business.
Moda Operandi will change the face of luxury e-commerce by directly connecting brands with the most discerning shoppers around the world.
I try not to take much time off for lunch, so I usually end up with a tossed salad from the local deli.
We use digitisation and 3D-render programs such as Optitex and ClO3D to create the silhouettes, but we invented our system to let users mix and match components in real time.
Driven to design by what she refers to as the lack of glamour in the industry, Bar Or creates for the modern woman who is a fashion risk-taker, one who is confident and, perhaps, has a larger than life personality.
I consider myself to be a citizen of the world.
I was eager to see what Swedish design had to offer and get a sense of its fashion culture, and Altewai Saome was the perfect introduction.
I like feminine suits with unexpected details.
People are saying fashion week is no longer just a press event, it has become a shopping event because of us.
Daft Punk's 'One More Time' remains one of my favorite 'getting ready to go out tonight' songs.
I choose my outfits based on the shows on a particular day. If there's an edgier designer, it might be a slightly edgier outfit. I don't think it matters, but still that's how I think about it.
We were the first multibrand platform for the customization of designer clothing. And it's great to be a first mover if you manage to pull it off. You can have a great competitive advantage. But if you're quite early, you're learning a lot: both learning as a company, and the customer is still learning.
