On the whole, New York had been good to Fallou Wadje. Less than a decade after she moved from Senegal to New York, the fashion designer and visual artist achieved her goal of opening a small shop where she could sell her clothing and artwork. In 2017, she sublet a space at one of the bazaar-like emporiums that proliferate in Harlem, paying $2,000 a month for an outpost out of which she could cultivate a clientele of passersby. But two years later, shortly after her sublessor raised the rent by another $300, it emerged that the funds that she was handing over to the middleman weren’t reaching the owner, who was furious with all involved. Along with a few other tenants, Wadje found herself forced out of the space.
The loss of her bricks-and-mortar shop took a major financial toll, Wadje said, with sales plunging by more than 60%. “People are just willing to pay more for designs if they’re sold in a store rather than on the street,” she said. “They simply see more value in them.” Wadje pivoted to selling her wares from her home as well as on Harlem street corners each weekend. But then the pandemic set in, and appointment bookings and foot traffic alike ground to a halt. “This was a double tragedy for a Harlem entrepreneur like myself,” she said. “I knew it was going to be a struggle to recover.”
Named after the century-old Senegalese tribe and spiritual practice founded by Wadje’s great-great-grandfather, Maam Cheikh Ibrahima Fall, Baayfall features brightly colored hats, hoodies, and jumpsuits that are colorful and elegant, combining traditional Senegalese patterns with contemporary street and sportswear motifs.
The creator never went in for creating her designs at a factory. “I don’t believe in mass production,” she said. “Everything is based on principles and values.”
Wadje, 36, immigrated from Dakar to New York after a stint in finance and accounting there. “Finance was something I liked, but there wasn’t the sparkle to activate my brain,” she said. Her label was entirely self-financed, and it managed to secure some early interest. The forecast became sunnier when the designer’s fellow Harlem resident, the artist Jordan Casteel, completed a pair of portraits featuring the designer and possibly elevating her profile. The Baayfalls (2017), is a snapshot of Wadje’s early street-selling days that was displayed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art before re-materializing as a 1,400 sq ft outdoor mural alongside the High Line in Chelsea. Casteel’s second portrait of Wadje, Fallou (2018), presents the designer in the Harlem storefront that she had newly opened. Fallou is now part of the art collection of married musicians Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats.
Although it was only a few hundred square feet, Wadje’s storefront helped spur sales, and the pandemic was devastating. She kept business afloat by boosting her online presence, “but losing your store feels like you’ve lost your entire business”, said Wadje, who kept herself afloat by selling handmade masks.
The timing of the pandemic and the landlord’s decree was particularly disheartening as Wadje had just started to get her financial footing at her storefront. “You really need two years in a shop to settle into it,” she said. “Having a store allows the money to flow.” Without it, the revenue stream came to a complete standstill, and opening a new shop was a less and less realistic goal.
In July, Wadje mounted an outdoor fashion show, taking place over a slice of Lenox Avenue. The 30-odd models were all friends and neighbors. A slew of artists, journalists and other fashion designers including the Harlem legend Dapper Dan were in the audience. A number of fashion stylists came, too, which is a key step in every fashion designer’s dream of seeing a celebrity wear their pieces and raise their profile.
The show took seven months and nearly $15,000 to produce – “all of my income for an entire year”, Wadje said. The event was packed, and she has been seeing sales as a result. Still, Wadje holds out hope for opening a new boutique in the area. “Not huge, but with big windows and lots of sunlight pouring in,” she said. The storefront would be a place to present her collections, as well as sell her art pieces and masks. “Just as my shop happened once, I know it will happen again,” she said. The Guardian asked three experts to consider Wadje’s predicament and share their advice.
Asahi Pompey
Global head of corporate engagement and president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and leader of Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses program
Instead of saying “I had a bricks-and-mortar store and how do I get that back?”, a different approach might be to think “How do I hijack someone else’s parade?” Many big retailers offer programs that showcase and celebrate emerging artists and designers – especially people of color. H&M, for instance, has a partnership with the Buy from a Black Woman initiative, or there is the 15% Pledge organization, which works with big retailers such as Nordstrom and Macy’s to help allocate shelf space to Black-owned businesses. These strategies could be great for Wadje because she’s getting the bricks-and-mortar experience and exposure without paying for the overhead. Not only would Wadje receive much-needed shelf space, but also fantastic exposure and the ability to reach new audiences.
Wadje should also think big on e-commerce. For the first time ever, online sales hit over $1tn last year. She needs to get a larger piece of that market. But doing so means making sure customers have a frictionless online experience – because you only have seconds to convert a browser into a buyer. So she must double-check that her online environment is as seamless a possible.
Thomai Serdari
Professor of marketing and director of the fashion and luxury MBA program at the Leonard N Stern School of Business at New York University
Landlords pursue tenants with liquidity, which is why Wadje should compile key metrics about her business at the previous storefront. How many people stopped by the store daily, how many bought, what was the inventory turnover? But also, how many inquiries does the business currently receive online for tailor-made garments as well as which are the most popular items? A potential landlord’s trust is based on the owner’s full command of her business’s economics.
Second, she should think about organizing her business into three different merchandise tiers: the most popular items and their impact on the bottom line; a middle tier which helps with brand visibility; along with the impact of her bespoke garments on overall sales. Also, consider introducing a lower-priced tier of items that can help achieve large volumes of sales quickly.
Third, she must take the time to create a strong presentation of her brand’s story, including all Baayfall press and her work’s resonance with the creative class. Very few brands attract the likes of artists Jordan Casteel and Alicia Keys. This combined strategy may be exactly what a landlord wants to see before signing a long-term lease.
Joel Isaacs
Founder and president of Isaacs and Company, a New York-based commercial real-estate firm
A young and self-funded designer looking to gain a bricks-and-mortar foothold should probably begin by searching in lower-priced neighborhoods. In addition to Harlem, she might consider the East Village, the Lower East Side, Nolita or on side streets in Chelsea. A key element is determining who her ideal customer base would be – and making her decisions accordingly.
In tandem, we always advise smaller-scale clients like Wadje to put together a strong brand deck to help illustrate for landlords their various product categories and provide a coherent, overall aesthetic viewpoint. A small brand needs to wow landlords in order to convince them to take a risk. After that, she might even consider making non-binding offers on the spaces she likes most. And she should exert some back-and-forth negotiation on price and lease length to ensure she secures the best deal.
The choice
Wadje loved the advice offered by Pompey of Goldman Sachs. “She seemed to really understand my focus not just on my passion for designing fashion, but on creating clothes that have a sense of goodness and realness,” Wadje said of Pompey’s advice. Wadje also liked how Pompey offered ideas that would allow her to grow Baayfall despite her financial limitations. The idea of working with an existing large retail concern made immediate sense for Wadje, not just because of the financial support it would provide her, but also because she welcomes the chance to be an immigrant, a Black woman and a lesbian with greater visibility.
Working with a big retail brand like Nordstrom or Macy’s could immediately make that happen. “I could provide them with a level of craft and quality and spirituality,” Wadje said. Furthermore, working with a major retailer could ultimately provide her with the capital that she needs to redesign her website and ultimately get back into the storefront she so desires. “I could see my fashion and art pieces sold in the stores in a special section where I would curate a small collection around a theme, say a ‘spiritual’ collection.
“You have to invest money to make things happen,” said Wadje, who is currently planning her al fresco second fashion show, to take place in the summer of 2024. “But I will have my shop – and then I will have a second one.”
link