Baby Bash - Pitbull Outta Control Video Shoot

Thanks to Bronson delRio, Baby Bash and Pitbull and their teams for inviting Marc Wayne to be apart of this video. It's just one of those songs and I'm proud to be a part of it. Myself and the Marc Wayne design team had a lot fun with this.

When the director approached me about designing the piece for the DJ he wanted something simple, raw and sexy...oh and pink! It's exactly that. A simple cowl-neck halter drape.

This was my first involvement in designing for a music video. The top is actually 2 pieces; a hood and a separate cowl-halter-drape. We created it so that when worn it would appear to be a single piece but would give her the flexibility to dance hard in it without having a wardrobe malfunction. :)
It was simple construction that took us just a matter of hours to put together. After they told me what they wanted I sketched it out and upon approval one of our designers purchased the gorgeous swimsuit fabric, we cut the patterns, etc. etc.

We thought the gorgeous color and sequin would look fantastic on the screen. We were also tasked with doing all of the clubwear styling for the video shoot. I went to my friends at ROCintheWeb.com for this. Republic of Couture is where I get most of my clubwear, they are very exclusive and they only ever have 6 of everything (which I love). Most of what you see on the models in the video was supplied by them. (If you live in Chicago go see Rachel at the Woodfield Mall store...tell her Marc Wayne sent you.)



I was very proud to be part of this video shoot. Baby Bash and Pitbull were true professionals. They came in amidst their busy schedules and knocked out the takes in a matter of hours. The production team DELRIOT and the director Bronson delRio were fantastic to work with. They really gave me a lot of latitude in designing the piece for the main DJ character and styling all of the models. This was an amazing opportunity and I can't express my thanks enough. I also made great friends out of it. (THANKS BRON!) Here's a cool "making of" video.

Lingerie Design...Sex, Beauty and Responsibility

Today, as a team we discussed branding. Specifically, we discussed what message Marc Wayne Fashions and specifically, Marc Wayne Intimates is compelled to convey. Our tagline "Beauty where it matters most" is more than just a feel-good mantra. What started off as a simple observation as to how women respond when they are wearing beautiful lingerie has evolved into a responsibility to define what the word "beauty" means to us as a company. It's easy for us to think of "inner beauty" as the beauty that matters most. But it becomes challenging when we look for a message about beauty that deviates from the inherent sex appeal of lingerie. Can intrinsic sex appeal and inner beauty go hand-in-hand? Or does the sheer physical and digitally enhanced beauty used to represent our products perputate the false standards of what is beautiful? What's more, do we believe in the type of beauty that matters most to the extent that we would abandon traditional lingerie marketing...and is that what our customers want?

These are questions that we are candidly sorting through. As the leader of this team I can commit one thing: we will remain socially responsible by finding a way to use our influence as a brand to champion the message that true beauty is beyond skin deep.

Lingerie Design and Engagement Rings...one in the same

It has taken 8 solid months but we have locked down 2 of our private label collections: Marc Wayne Intimates, Milan Collection and the Avondale Collection. We are so excited! But...are we ready? Design extends beyond the satin, lycra, lace and bra straps. Design (in our field especially) must be the romantic courtship that touches ever single point of contact with the customer. I'll liken having great designs ready with having an engagement ring in our pocket. Sure...we have the ring...but the moment must be right...it must be planned.

So, today I'll tell the team here at Marc Wayne Intimates that we are NOT ready. We have the engagement ring but we have to create an experience worthy of our customer. When I proposed to my wife it was...intricate. I wanted to envelope the fact that I was proposing in an experience that would give her a story worth telling for the rest of her life. An emotional, unexpected...experience.

I had finally paid off the ring I found for her 8 months prior. It was hidden where she'd never find it though I felt like it was marqueed with neon lights that said "HE'S GONNA DO IT...THE RING IS HERE...LOOK HERE", I was ready but how would I do it? I even asked a radio DJ friend of mine to query his listeners for romantic ideas but that didn't turn out very well. He finally just said, "Marc, do what's in your heart to do."

We already had a BBQ with close friends planned, including Becky's best friend who was only in town for the weekend. I decided this would be perfect. The night before I awkwardly started a conversation with Becky. "You know...if you think about it you're kind of like my Cinderella." "What?", she said sleepily.

"Well, you know...you had your own version of a wicked step-mother and everything. Then we met and you let me sweep you off your feet. You're my very own Cinderella."

With her eyes half closed she seemed confused by this random moment but too tired to do anything more than humor me with, "oh...I guess you're right...I can see that." Then we went to sleep.

The next morning I jumped out of bed and convinced Becky to wait while I prepared breakfast in bed. When I came back up to bed, instead of having breakfast with me I had a poem in-hand. I knelt by the side of the bed, handed her the poem and asked her to read it aloud. It said, "You're my Cinderella, and I'm your Prince Charming. I don't have your glass shoe but I do have something else meant to fit only you." When she looked up from the page I had the ring box open. Her face lit up, she immediately hugged me and I hugged her back as I realized I hadn't taken a single breath of air for several moments.

I exhaled. This was only the start. Her day was full of surprises. I fixed breakfast and mimosas. After breakfast, her best friend and I covered her eyes, walked her to the front down and there...in front of our house at 9am was a white horse and carriage. A beautiful Clydesdale horse named King Arthur. She was like a little girl at a pony ride. She loves horses and took more pictures with King Arthur than I think she did with me.

We rode around our community which happens to be on a golf course. Golfers were waving and shouting congratulations. Young children were running out of their homes to see the "horsie" and we sat embraced with our mimosas and her new engagement ring in-tow.

But it didn't stop there.

Our friends came over as expected and our simple weekend party turned into a very energetic engagement party. Our friends were genuinely excited for us and we all spent the day as friends do. Laughing, eating and laughing some more.

Night fall came and we decided to continue our celebration at one of our favorite night clubs. Becky and her girlfriend were truly dressed to impress. But there was one more surprise...with a bit of symmetry. Once again, she stepped out of our house and there in front of house was a beautiful white stretch-limo. Her carriage for the evening. It was almost more than she could take. She clapped her hands over her face, kicked up one leg behind her and jumped on me screaming "BABY I love it, how did you do all of this??"

We jumped in the limo. Becky and her friend turned up the music all the way to the club and we had a great time. We were greeted with a table in VIP and a complimentary bottle of champagne (which we didn't even finish because EVERYTHING was complimentary that night as people congratulated us on our engagement).

It was...perfect.

I wasn't trying to do anything other than give her the experience I felt she deserved. I could never have anticipated all of the joy that would come from things completely outside of my control. The children, the golfers, the love from our friends and even later from strangers at the nightclub. I even wrote an email to my DJ friend letting him know how things transpired and he, as a surprise for me, read it on air to 3.4 million listeners; which for Becky was the cherry on top.

How can we, as a company deliver the same *quality of experience* to our customers around these new designs? How can we give them a story worth telling? How can we "court" them? It will obviously require more than just a good bra design. I don't have the answers today but we, as a team, will work this week on coming up with a plan to do just that.

Outliers

Books have played such an important role in my life that my only regret is not reading more of them. I have often been referred to as "self taught"...but I'm not convinced that picking up a book and learning from it means that you're truly "self taught". Regardless, books on management, marketing and team building are a constant staple in my life.

One of the authors I've encountered along the way has been Malcolm Gladwell. This talented author of books such as Blink and the Tipping Point has a unique gift of observation that he examines and supports through his research and writings. He applies a "social science" to exploring phenomena that is otherwise abstract and mystical. I highly recommend both Blink and Tipping Point.

Recently, my dear friend and I traded books. I gave her 5 Temptations of a CEO and she in turn gave me Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. As you may expect, I was excited to read this new book that sought to explain the "story of success".

The best way to describe this experience can be found in a memory of a date I once went on. This young woman worked at the same bank that my mother managed and, after seeing her a number of times, my lust gave way to finally asking her on a date. She was stylish from head-to-toe and had an infectious smile. The cheerleader type who probably started wearing makeup at 13 and just now had grown into it. She was...beautiful. I was very excited when she agreed to go out on a date with me. I left the bank that day with a little swagger in my step as she blushed and gave a flirty wave 'goodbye'.

The night of the date I was absolutely floored at how fast the fantasy in my mind gave way to a relentless need to get out of there as soon as possible. Within five minutes she had gone from beautiful dream date to nightmareish talking barbie. It was the equivalent of high-diving into an olympic-sized swimming pool and finding out it was only 2-foot deep. I don't remember how, but I abrubtly ended the date...never returned any of her calls and avoided her whenever I visited my mother at the bank.

Yeah, reading Outliers was something like that. Why? Well to give away the ending it's because he essentially boils down success to 5 parts luck, 5 parts heritage and 1 part hard work. Hard work, determination and heart are footnotes to the overtones of "Hey! Outliers [extremely successful people] are really not Outliers at all...they're people just like us who got lucky and had better parents (and oh they worked hard too)!"

Marc Wayne Intimates has been an incredible journey. Like any conception some of the most amazing things happen when they're almost too small for others to see. But throughout this journey and every journey of success I've taken I've found one thing to be very true. Success is a choice made over and over and over again. Many times it's the choice to surrender to the process of getting up after you fall off the horse just so that you can fall off and get back up again. Other times it's the choice to work well after you have nothing left to give. It's the lessons learned in that process that work together with principles of opportunity that breed success. The more any of those factors increase the more successful you become.

Outliers are indeed "Outliers" for the very reason that they find extraordinary resolve and focus to achieve extraordinary success. It's true that luck and opportunity find such people and it's true that upbringing plays an important part but the single most important ingredient is CHOICE. You have to choose to pursue success at any cost. God can lead you to mountains of gold but He won't make you pick it up...let alone sell it at a profit.

You're not a designer!

I often call myself "the designer who isn't". My journey into fashion is unconventional at best. What started off as ideas for concepts 8 years ago has evolved into actual pieces, lines, etc. Am I designer? Yes, by definition...I do design things. Did I go to fashion school, have I been mentored by the world's reknown designers, do I go to fashion week in New York? No. In fact I'm still learning how to sew! Moral of the story? You are as you do.

The majority of people I meet and know have one thing in common. They have dreams to be something else...or something more. Unfortunately, when they awake from these dreams they find themselves bombarded by all of the reasons they cannot do or achieve those dreams. My story is like so many other stories of "unexpected" success. The only endorsement you need in order to follow your dreams is the fact that they are indeed your dreams. It's true that there is tremendous value in mentorship and formal education paths. But you may be suprised at how good you'll really be at that one thing you've always dreamed to be. Start where you're at. The information is out there. And if you can get over any fear of asking for help...the help is out there too.

The image attached is an image of the DiVA Rising concept bra. It is one of my first designs. I knew absolutely nothing about bra design when we built this piece. I started with an exisiting plain black demi-cup bra. I resurfaced the cups. My original vision feature a jacquard print but in lieu of the fabric we did used heat-transfer. It is made from bamboo fabric and features diamond accents. We fabricated it by hand and showcased it in our first fashion show. After we recieved the bamboo fabric the entire process, including dying the fabric to this gorgeous blue color, only took about 10 hours.

Why lingerie?

Most people who know me or know about me also know that many of my start-ups have been technology companies and they inevitably are compelled to ask..."so...how did you make the jump from software and technology to lingerie?!?"

It always makes me smile, but there are really 3 primary reasons for it and they're pretty straightforward:

1. Fashion has always interested me and been a part of my life. I believed that my foray into fashion should start the same way we all get dressed in the morning.
2. I see a tremendous opportunity in this highly fragmented and extremely profitable industry.
3. I'm good at it. The fashion industry is one where my eye for detail is a great asset.

From a business standpoint, people understand intimate apparel. The brand we've created in Marc Wayne easily conveys the image of classy, sexy, sophistication we're going for. But mostly, since the inception of Marc Wayne Intimates (formerly Vertu Lingerie) our customers and potential customers have created so much momentum for us that it would be really hard to ignore the opportunity.

So, "why lingerie"? It just made sense, it's fun and the customer is extremely passionate about the product. Also, the industry is fairly accessible to newcomers. The toughest challenges are creating a distinctive product and creating brand authenticity. But I would argue those challenges apply to any product.

What has always made me successful is my ability to give the customer what they want. However, in addition to giving them what they want, to go beyond and impress them. Make them say, "wow!" Marcel Wanders, a phenomenal designer says it best: "always give them the unexpected."

It's true becoming a lingerie designer seems like a jump but really the same principles apply; get the requirements from the customer, deliver accordingly and exceed their expectations.

That being said, becoming a public figure as Marc Wayne has been an interesting journey. The fashion shows, gorgeous people, flashing lights...even the silk and lace are glamorous in every way. Fashion has the same seductive appeal as Hollywood and it's easy to get caught up in the persona. But at the end of the day, my life is full of meetings and design sessions. In some ways it's not as exciting as many people would expect. But as a businessman it's the most exciting business I've ever been a part of.

As an entrepreneur I've started several companies and I've consulted for countless others. After a while you begin to get a "feel" for momentum and success. You can tell when things are clicking and when a team is executing. More importantly, you can tell when your customers are excited about what you're doing. Marc Wayne Intimates, I'm proud to say, has all of the above.