YOU, Time Person of the Year, SELF & S-Patterns

I have been asked about the difference between SELF and S Patterns. SELF (Self-Employed Laboratory of Fashion) is fundamentally a Laboratory doing Research & Development (R&D), and is a non-financial entity. That is, each within it has a self-employed business outside of SELF. But, we work together within SELF, creating, researching, developing new ideas and solve problems in creating fashions, engineering patterns for production, and marketing & selling. SELF is not an entity that sells anything itself. Rather, the resulting products like the S Patterns, are sold through individual self-employed businesses, who are working together in SELF. Right now we have six of as potentially researching some aspect of the fashion industry. In other words, big corporate retailers & manufacturers have their important R&D departments. YOU, tiny DEs, have us. It is very exciting to be creating a 21st century new fashion industry for YOU. We have ideas for business structures, technologies, marketing, sales, etc.

The choice of the 2006 Time Person of the Year says it all. It’s YOU. Gerry McGovern, who is the best consultant on the web, about the web, wrote the following in his blog, which I totally agree with about the future for all industries as well as the fashion industry, YOU & the web. http://www.gerrymcgovern.com
“The Web has become the organization. An organization of a billion people with a billion things to say. And a million ways to work together. … The Web allows for new forms of organization that will have a profound impact on how we live, work and play over the next twenty years. Traditionally, the tools of organization belonged to a powerful elite. … Today, your office can be at Starbucks, while your network is wireless. You can get a complicated job delivered to the highest standards without any fulltime employees; just your network of independent partners who agree to work towards a shared objective. This is a new way of working. This is different. [This is also SELF] … This organization of you, me and us doesn't need to listen to the old organizations as much any more. We don't need to be told what is cool by some fashion guru, or some clever ad campaign. We decide. … "A person like me" is more trusted than doctors, academics and other such experts. In the U.S., trust in "a person like me" has shown a dramatic increase from just 20 percent in 2003 to 68 percent in 2006. … Those organizations that do not become truly customer-centric will be severely punished by the Web. … This is the age of customer power, customer collaboration, customer content; the sprawling, highly networked organization of YOU. “