Moda Operandi

Why didn't I think of this?


Moda Operandi

"Collections of dozens of high-end design houses in New York, London, Milan and Paris will be opened up to individual shoppers, who will be able to place orders on a site called Moda Operandi, or modaoperandi.com. The concept pulls back the curtain on exclusive trunk shows, in which a hand-selected group of customers are invited to order directly from designers each season at selling events usually held at retail stores" (WSJ).
Clothes will be shipped 4 months after the order is placed.
This gives customers freedom as to selecting whatever they want from the designers, as opposed to only being limited to what the retailers choose.

"The Moda Operandi site will start out offering four women's collections a year—spring, resort, fall and pre-fall—from roughly 50 designers, says founder Aslaug Magnusdottir, formerly the head of merchandising for Gilt Noir, a private website catering to top spenders at Gilt Groupe, the online sample-sale retailer.
The rest of the year, Moda Operandi will sell jewelry and accessories, and initially it will offer entertainment-type cotent like backstage interviews and stylist recommendations" (WSJ).


Another thing I found interesting:
A former McKinsey consultant is involved in this initiative:
"Ms. Magnusdottir, a former McKinsey consultant and tax attorney, conceived of the Moda Operandi concept a year ago. "I kept hearing from designers that they create these beautiful collections and only a small part of them get purchased by retailers," she says.
She teamed up with Lauren Santo Domingo, a Vogue magazine contributing editor who is well connected among designers. "We are giving women the power to choose from the full collection," Ms. Magnusdottir says" (WSJ).

"There's so much money left on the table today because nobody really knows what's going to sell," says Ms. Magnusdottir. "The big hits sell out immediately and they could have sold more. And the rest winds up on sale racks" (WSJ).


... I believe this is a great, innovative idea and will yield consumer satisfaction and profitable results.