I don't believe in naming clients to get press. I hated it when I was a couture client. If the dresses don't sell themselves, there is something wrong.
There is always going to be that luxury customer out there. I have clients who buy $10,000 dresses and clients who buy $60 dresses. It's not so much about the money. Design is a mentality.
Somebody needs to position you and introduce you, but after that, most of the bankers get represented with their large clients; mostly investors are their long-term clients and an investee is a short term client.
I've worn dresses from all different price ranges, and the thing that couture dresses have in common is that the fit is amazing.
To be a couture designer is not only to create dresses but to adapt your line to your private customers. It is why couture is expensive. You are like a doctor.
Couture is more your own world, they come and buy head-to-toe - they buy the jewelry, bags, coats, dresses, bodies underneath.... But couture is not dead - it's taken another shape.
As long as society tells men to be the salespersons of sex, it is sexist for society to put only men in jail if they sell well. We don't put other salespersons in jail for buying clients drinks and successfully transforming a "no" into a "maybe" into a "yes." If the client makes a choice to drink too much and the "yes" turns out to be a bad decision, it is the client who gets fired, not the salesperson.
With couture, it means I get to show fall in July with delivery in September. My clients will be getting their pieces in season.
I think that designers have an incredibly broad creative repertoire. They solve. They create images of perfection for any number of clients. I could never do that. I'm my client. That's the difference between an artist and a designer; it's a client relationship.
I refer the largest number of my clients to Payce Payroll because the specialize in the restaurant and contractors industries. I am pleased with the service they provide, competitive fees and responsiveness to clients. What most impressed me was that one of the founders, Gus, came to personally meet with me and a client to establish their payroll software. They truly care about their clients.
Advertising agencies primary goal is to advertise and sell themselves to the client. Selling the product to the public comes second.
I wanted an agent who would actually sell stuff. After two British agents failed comprehensively, I was reading Locus (the SF field's trade journal) and noticed a press release about an experienced editor leaving her job to join an agent in setting up a new agency. And I went "aha!" - because what you need is an agent who knows the industry but who doesn't have a huge list of famous clients whose needs will inevitably be put ahead of you. So I emailed her, and ... well, 11 years later I am the client listed at the top of her masthead!
We're in the business of selling pleasure. We don't sell handbags or haute couture. We sell dreams.
Criminal law is one of the few professions where the client buys someone else's luck. The luck of most people is strictly non-transferrable. But a good criminal lawyer can sell all his luck to a client, and the more luck he sells the more he has to sell.
We're trying to win business by doing a good job for the clients, as opposed to, "We think being big and universal is just a great, wonderful thing." It's not a morality thing. It's a "Does it work for the client?" thing. Everything we do is because a client uses us. Everything we do is because a client chose to use us of his own free volition.
I've never had a problem with a dumb client. There is no such thing as a bad client. Part of our job is to do good work and get the client to accept it.
With couture, you're going right to the consumer, and that's something we learned from doing trunk shows. You're meeting the client; you're finding out what they like and what they don't like. You've really got your customer there in front of you, so you know what works and what doesn't.