Fashion blogger/photographer of the popular blog One Nigerian Boy last night took to twitter to confront retail store L'espace on their "unfair treatment" of designers. He pointed out that the store was exploiting designers and struck quite a few chords. After a few tweets, L'espace released an official statement and also replied some of the concerned blogger's tweets. Check out tweets from both parties.
Here is the official statement released by L'espace
“Addressing the various allegations and claims made by Terence Sambo of @OneNigerianBoy tonight, the L’Espace team is simultaneously shocked and saddened to hear that anyone feels this way and we assume this is based on a recent miscommunication with his designer sister of WSClothing Co. First off, we’d like to clear up a few things. On bearing zero risk – Millions of naira in initial investment is very far from being zero risk. Anyone who runs an SME in this particularly hostile environment, would beg to differ, and perhaps even take offence at this cavalier attitude towards the risk any entrepreneur takes. And ironically, the commission actually gives us MORE of an onus to sell, simply because if we don’t sell. We make nothing. The fee as is, is nominal at best. On stock – We require SIX pieces minimum. Whatever the designer decides to do upward of that is his/her decision. And to be precise, the store is 670 sqm in total. Abuse is a very strong term and as one of the core L’Espace team is a designer herself, we find it irresponsible that this word (which conjures up images of slavery and child labor) is being used in this context at all. On ‘ridiculous demands’ ….. At every point we try to involve our vendors in the process and attempt to be as flexible as we can. The rate we are asking plus commission is paltry and whilst it might seem monumental at first, designers NEED to break out of the cycle of ‘spend the cash flow’and living from order to order. Until you can produce and distribute at a certain level you will NEVER grow. On wannabe stylists …. It is clearly communicated to designers when their stuff is being used for an outside shoot or pulled by an outside stylist. However, when it is used for in-house content creation we assume notice is not necessary unless otherwise stated, simply because we are already liable for damage etc by default. For the record, we have worked with many ‘non-wannabe’ stylists Veronica Ebie-Odeka of Vane Style, Bolaji Animashaun, Lucy Love and Funmi SMD to name a few. On the following tweet most irritated by is dat they’re running d biz like dem guys in suits. Dere shld more soul since one of d owners is a designer 2 we will not be commenting because we feel it is unprofessional and the opinion of the blogger/tweeter, however misguided, is his own. In general … L’Espace is a 3 month old business with huge running costs. The initial business idea was based on the premise that most young, up and coming designers cannot afford the high rent and maintenance costs of a space like ours, hence the cooperative competition model. Unfortunately, should a designer be unable to cover the 50k+ sum plus commission, that is an indication that perhaps, the business is not quite ready to go past the incubator stage yet. Lastly, we are a growing business and try our very best to find a business model that works for all parties and will help our industry grow from where it really matters – commerce. We changed it a little to be more accommodating and we have been pleased with the results so far. We are understandably distraught that WSClothing Co will be leaving us momentarily, we wish you the best of luck going forward.”
Ahhhh!!! fashion people drama!!! So what do you guys think? Are both sides making sense?
SOURCE NEKS2U
SOURCE NEKS2U
KISSES!!
