‘Bloggingl monthly was a goal I set at the beginning of the year and in mid February (yes 1.5 month overdue) I posted my first blog of the year. Back then I prepared a few more posts hoping that I would post them one by one monthly. Then in mid March, COVID 19-related lock-down started and I thought that the posts that I had prepared which had no reference to the situation would not be relevant at least for now. However, for the past 1.5 months, the topics I touched on in my prepared blogs turned out to be the ones discussed a lot in general. These issues have been around regardless of the current situation and these issues are not directly connected to the pandemic.
However, first, the current time vacuum has given us time to seriously reflect on various issues and has given us an opportunity to completely re-set our way of behaviours. Secondly, lots of money has been lost from the industry (there should not have been that much in there in the first place, anyway). And the financial vacuum means power vacuum. There is a chance that whoever has the strongest belief might, might just break the current power structure or status quo which will only benefit the few powerful while many are left powerless, not represented, not represented and exploited.
I hope to document my thought process during this lock-down and would invite you to give your thoughts. Meanwhile, below texts are what I had written before the lock-down started. After each paragraph, I added my current thoughts.
Empowerment’ theme (written mid Feb 2020)
To be quite blunt, most of the time I hear someone saying ‘We have our products made by people of such and such country and pay them fair to empower these people’ because if I ask them how much they pay these ‘empowered people’, they say with high pride ‘higher than local average’.
This implies the local average wage is lower compared to European local average wage, which implies European local economy is bigger than local economy of the country of production. And somehow, I have a suspicion that these ‘conscious’ guys seem to think that the local economy over there is smaller for a set of completely wrong reasons. In my opinion, the local economy of these countries is smaller because they have not been subject to fair trade with other part of the world at least at one point in history, or, very often, for a long time including now. In an ideal world, the economies of any part of the world should be at the same level as, in an ideal world, the same service or goods must be compensated the same way. But unfortunately this has not happened for a long time and that’s why there is this economy disparity. If you are not in the same opinion as mine, then you will think that you are a good ones who are ‘empowering’ poor people but in my eyes, it’s mere ignorance and arrogance. Imagine, if someone comes to you saying ‘I’ll empower you’, how do you feel? Am sure you realise that this person feels superior to you. How dare these strangers, don’t you think?
Addressing this imbalance is another big challenge of the world as we have to go way back to make up for our mistakes in the past. We need and learn more. About history the concept of borders etc etc. And like anything else, the more we learn, the more we realise that we still don’t know. Since I started demure, I have been more interested in politics on an international level. My business is no international gig but it makes think a lot about fairness and what’s true and false/wrong and right…
Added 26 Apr 2020: Latest news are revealing that workers in weaker positions are the one who have empowered the few by sacrificing their well-being and everything else.
Branding obsession (written mid Feb 2020)
I come from Osaka Japan, where unique cool culture thrives (you know I’d say this). They go for substance, the cakes rather than the packaging. If your business opt for the squeaky clean branding with perfect story-telling, they will say ‘They give you lecturing on the bloody cake before I eat it and I already don’t wanna eat it! Yes, story is mere a lecture if substance doesn’t match it and if the story telling sounds too perfect, they suspect that there is something wrong with the substance. However, if your cakes are yummy, they come back, tell friends and can be the most loyal friends and customers.
Since I started demure, secretly I have been experimenting to see is this ’Osaka method’ works. And the good news is, it certainly does to the extent that what I make sell enough to keep demure on a comfortably sustainable level. The bad news is, on the other hand, that it took me quite a long time, so much energy, try and error and errors and errors. I only survived till demure became ‘safe’ business-wise because it involved what I love the most.
Added 26 Apr 2020: We hear measure fashion houses are reviewing their expensive strategies, presumably from financial point of view (no matter what they say for the sake of branding). Meanwhile, those who do not need someone else to tell or /make up’ stories to tell carry on with their story-telling, which are turning out to be more visible without manufactured noises.
Fake till you make it(written mid Feb 2020)
Since I starteworking in fashion, I often observe this mentality and if I interpret this as ‘Maintaining positive attitude all the time is important’. then yeah, it’s OK. However very often, I see quite a few people taking this a bit too far in my opinion.
I tend to read into things too much but for example, if I see someone using filters heavily when taking selfies, I know this person doesn’t like how they look. If I see someone wearing different things for every outing which are borrowed from PR agencies, I know this person wants to look richer than they actually are. What this phenomenon say to me are following.
1. What you can fake (your appearance or your net worth) are more important to these people. Yes, some people do it as a job but they are only actors and actresses on Oscar days.Don’t we remember hearing from adults with love and wisdom who would say ‘what is important is your heart, not your face nor body’ when we were small?
2. To who do we have to fake? Loved ones? NO!!! Then, does what I see on social media or even in some real life occasion, means that you always feel as if you are surrounded by someone you actually don’t feel loved by? I have a feeling the answer to this question is ‘YES’. Sad. A Dutch historian/journalist Rutger Bregman said in his book ‘We work so hard to earn money to buy clothes to impress people we don’t like’. We effectively dress for others, not for ourselves. And you may think, dressing like your favourite influencer may get you some compliments, but do you, actually, really care what they think of you? And I know, the answer is yes, and actually that is because they are actually not your real friends. They are people who would judge you by your appearance or which labels you wear. your true friends love you for what you are and don’t give an F to what you are wearing. I feel sorry for such people.Besides, as far as this slogan ‘Fake till you make it’ is concerned, this has also become a mantra for business owners but then again, for me, this is an attitude that I might have towards those I consider to be my enemies. And I have no enemies. All the entrepreneurs are my friends, advisors and someone that I can share my thoughts and feeling, positive or negative. They are the ones that I go to for inspirations and advices. If I fake to these guys, how can I build trust and gain most valuable knowledge and wisdoms? Even other hat makers are also my inspirations. The more of them they are, the variety of products is available to customers and customers also have more opportunities to gain professional knowledges to choose right brand snd and products. And especially, solidarity within smaller business community is very important for all of us to survive. It takes a lot to run a small business on my own and I absolutely have no time nor energy to waste in pretending to be successful or superior.
I hope I will meet more of like-minded small business owners so we can be more open and supportive to each other.
Added 26 Apr 2020: Yeah, how actually liberating not having to look perfect or no need to pretend to be a power business man/woman?
I know, as one blog post, they are very random but I will be continuing to write, just for myself and maybe, whoever may feel similar ways at the moment.
I wish you all safety and peace of mind.
Yuki
