Co-operatives are the way forward
Our new venture I'm An Ideas Company is set up on the basic principles of a co-operative, so I was really interested to hear about a new type of co-operative in my favourite city, NY.
New York has to two new-ish fashion co-ops on the Lower East Side that are attracting a lot of press and praise lately. For clothing designers, opening a store themselves can be prohibitively expensive, and finding a large-scale retailer to stock their work is no easy task, either. So design co-ops Hillary Flowers (above) and The Dressing Room are a welcome alternative.
These two new fashion collectives - which we suspect are part of a larger, and growing, trend - provide both a sustainable retail model and an enjoyable shopping experience. Filling their racks with work by a carefully curated roster of designers, their stock is always interesting, unique, and unpredictable. And like most types of co-op, fashion collectives require their designers to work every so often at the store, so when you stop in to shop you might very well run into the guy or gal who designed the shirt you’re trying on.
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