Need Help Selling Your Collection? Meet Aya Morimoto, Sales Rep. Part 1

See photos from this article and Part 2 at PinkyShears.com

Stella Ishii was well aware of the disconcerting maze young designers must navigate when she established The News. The muti-label showroom sits in the heart of SoHo, but its web of clients stretches internationally North, East, West and South. A major part of bringing the company into being was when Ishii tapped her talented niece, Aya Morimoto, to be her sales representative.Brandon Graham: You’ve come from a fashion background yourself correct?Aya Morimoto: Yes. My aunt was the one who started going into fashion and she pulled me in. My first job was at a department store [in Japan] and I was unhappy. And then she [Ishii] got me to work at Comme des Garçon. So I joined the company and basically I got the job because I could speak English. And they sent me every season to Paris, which was fun, really fun. Then I was in charge of Asian markets, I was able to travel to all different parts of Asia looking for clients and new stores. And then a few years later she [Ishii] got this opportunity to open a showroom in New York through a contact that she had and she said, “I need someone.” She lived in L.A. and she didn’t know anyone in New York, so she just called me up and I came. You know, very lightheartedly came, thinking “Okay!” and then I ended up staying here forever.BG: Is this the building you originally started in?AM: No, actually my aunt got an Italian sponsor. This Italian company had all these brands like Vivienne Westwood and Costume National. Brands that they make in their giant factory and they wanted us to be the showroom and do American sales. So they hired Stella and they bought a brownstone building on the Upper West Side and she, on her own, had to start the company. And then Diesel bought that company, so we either had to be under Diesel’s umbrella, being controlled by Diesel or buy the company out and start this showroom.My aunt was interested in more of a young talent than established people, so she gave up all the big brands and started, slowly though, representing the young talent.BG: What makes it difficult for young designers to market themselves?AM: Designers trying to collect themselves is really, really hard because they [buyers] take advantage of young designers. So what we do, we try our best, it’s like a collective front of young designers and if you don’t pay that guy, we don’t ship this one either.BG: Why else does it benefit young designers to work with The News?AM: When we represented a ladies company for the first time, we tripled the owner's business. Barney’s picked her up for the co-op floor and everyone wanted to buy. She couldn’t handle it all and she came to our showroom. So of course we treated her like any other brand and she got huge orders. Everyone went crazy. Then she couldn’t ship on time, and people waited like two months. I think she liked that personal touch, having a little store and knowing the customer. But when you start mass producing it, you lose that feeling and she didn’t want that.Some people suffer a lot because their creativity suffers... In the end it’s up to each designer.While The News is a very personal experience for a young designer, there comes a time when they outgrow their protectorate. Philip Lim is the most notable of those success stories. Like a proud parent Morimoto pulled a few recent magazine articles about Lim’s rave accomplishments.AM: Philip Lim, he was here. Then he grew to the point that he became corporate. So there are lines that grow out of the showroom.