Exhibit Space by Fashionpreneur – DISCUSSING FASHION AS A VIABLE BUSINESS

KUALA LUMPUR, 20 February 2016 – Exhibit Space (ES), Malaysia’s first fashion forum and exhibition, presented by FASHIONPRENEUR, powered by Infinite Ventures (IV) materialized in an all white vision at WhiteBox, Publika Solaris Dutamas. With the confluence of both local established fashion brands and key players, ES succeeded in advancing fashion as a viable business and advocating the support of local designs, products and services to the wider community.

FASHIONPRENEUR seeks to bridge the gap between the creative-side and the business-side of the local fashion ecosystem, by creating awareness on the importance of rethinking fashion as a sustainable business. Bon Zainal, one of Malaysia’s renowned fashion gurus had this to say: “There should be more collaborative efforts within the fashion industry to increase engagement for any progress. I think it’s great that ES aims to kick start that aspect.”

One of the underlying problems in the local fashion scene is that design students and aspiring fashionpreneurs often lack business mind and skill-sets. Technical and operational business skills necessary to build successful fashion brands have not been well cultivated. Thus, hindering the progress and eventual success of many young entrepreneurs who try to dip their toes into various fashion ventures.

FASHIONPRENEUR founder Ms Pingkee Chan, an intern at IV who is also the Project Manager of ES had an idea one and a half months ago. She believes that by assembling current key players in the local fashion industry in one place could facilitate a platform to enable issues and concerns about the industry to be raised. In this spirit, ES was a sophisticated forum addressing a crowd of about 300 attendees consisting a majority of fashion enthusiasts. The forum was presented in 3 panelist sessions, each with three or four panelists and one moderator who chaired a discussion on salient topics.

Three highlighted topics that were discussed included “Getting There- What does it take?”, “How to deliver a Business Pitch” and “Fashion Tech: The New Frontier”. One of the highlights of the event was the session presented

by the founders of the Thai fashion brand, Irada who were the winners of Who’s On Next 2015, the Vogue Thai Fashion Fund. Founders Chanapa and Chotika Triratanachat of Irada shared their Vogue pitching journey alongside with Tengku Syahmi, founder of the local fashion brand Tsyahmi who was the winner of MyCreative Ventures Fashion Pitch 2. This sparked tremendous interest and enthusiasm among the audience.
Participating panelists who explored meaningful conversation regarding the local fashion scene included founders of fashion labels, photography and tech-preneur brands like Fizi Woo, Tsyahmi, Kittie Yiyi, StreetFashion KL by Sazzy Falak, Twenty3, Ash Be Nimble, TTFGA and WeStyleAsia. Mr Bon Zainal, Mr Affendy Ali (Legal Counsel at MyCreative Ventures) and Ms Sylvia Yin (COO of Shoppr App) initiated critical discourse as moderators of their respective panels.

To further deliver value, a brief professional development session “Legal 101 for the Creatives: The Basics Under 15 Minutes” was presented by Mr Affendy Ali to highlight fundamental fashion-related legal knowledge to not only the audience, but also the panelists. ES then ended with a networking session and an exhibition contributed by local brands and guest exhibitor Alia Bastamam.
Highlighting the success of the event, Sylvia Yin, COO of Shoppr – one of the most prominent fashion-tech apps in Malaysia said: “By bringing together a diverse and highly relevant panel of speakers, Exhibit Space is the perfect platform to celebrate the increasingly apparent relationship between fashion, technology and business.”

The key take-away from ES is that young fashionpreneurs need to invest in a more holistic learning scheme. Practical business proficiency is crucial to ensure success in fashion. Striving for success in the fashion industry is a different ball game all together, however there are various ways to hack it. Fashionpreneurs should know their target market well and be able to take advantage of changing market trends. Also, a strategic approach to sustaining a profitable fashion business is by having a good team that its members complement each other and ultimately share the same goal.

For any inquiries, kindly contact Pingkee Chan at +6012-3452890 or
pingkee@ivmalaysia.com

About FASHIONPRENEUR: A community that gracefully combines fashion and entrepreneurship to enable meaningful communication and support collaborative engagements in the local fashion industry. We believe that with the confluence of like-minded and passionate fashionpreneurs, constructive solutions addressing issues in the industry can be discussed. The community regularly organizes events like forums, networking sessions and talks that connect people in the area of fashion. Most importantly, we advocate support of local designs, products and businesses.