Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 269 - 264: A Dazzling Entrance (3)

When the creative director launched a special edition collection, all the raw materials and accessories used for the related clothing and accessories were provided by the Y·Y brand.

The price tag would also be more expensive than the regular styles.

Completing such a director’s special edition "outsourcing" could net the designer a few thousand US dollars.

In the United States, studying fashion design is incredibly expensive.

Apart from a few who can get a scholarship and those from very wealthy families, most people need to work and study frugally.

That’s why Y·Y’s crowdsourcing qualification quickly became one of the most sought-after certifications among those studying fashion design in the United States.

Some people with strong design abilities but weak manual skills would even open a small "studio" and gather their classmates to do the outsourcing.

As Y·Y rapidly developed,

the number and variety of special editions also soared.

Now, a special edition means an entire series.

For example, when releasing a set of "America’s Number One Ball" baseball equipment, even the balls and bats have custom versions.

As long as the craftsmanship can meet the "same quality" standard, working anywhere else doesn’t compare to the ease and pleasure of being a Y·Y crowdfunding "studio."

If you don’t have a studio and you’re alone, and you can produce 20 pieces of "same quality clothing" in a few days, then it’s an incredibly profitable venture.

The initial report, claiming Y·Y originated from a small factory in a small city in China, clearly did not match the actual status of the Y·Y brand.

There were too many inaccuracies that simply couldn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Although a small portion of people turned against Y·Y after the media reports, as the truth gradually surfaced, the number of people converting to fans far exceeded those turning their backs.

Prior to this, Y·Y was only widely popular among designers and street youth.

Now, even mainstream media began to discuss the phenomenon sparked by Y·Y and its brand-new business model.

It was a futuristic business model with an unknowable factory location and an overwhelmingly large designer team.

Although Y·Y did have a number of officially contracted designers, without a doubt, many new products "each season" were from part-time or "invited" designers.

These designers came from not just the United States but all over the world.

Some designers who couldn’t conveniently visit Y·Y’s New York studio would entrust their "works" to friends visiting the US on business to be air-freighted for Master Y’s comprehensive review.

At this point, the idea that Y·Y was a shoddy brand from a small Chinese city had basically fallen apart.

When people later looked back on this "farce," the consensus was that the article must have been written by an "intern."

Seasoned journalists with excellent investigative skills also started joining the hot topic of Y·Y.

After the media conducted serious investigations, the Yan Family had a new star.

This person was not Yan Yan, but Yan Ling.

When the second series of reports came out, they completely overturned the previous narratives about a small city and factory.

Yan Ling got thoroughly "investigated."

While it was true that this person was born in China, Yan Ling had come to the United States at a young age, attending a private high school in New York, then Columbia University, and later Wharton Business School.

The epitome of a young global citizen’s "American Dream."

America’s "elite class," those from the Ivy League, who originally sneered at trendy brands, had certainly not been too keen on Y·Y.

But after Yan Ling’s background was "fully disclosed," there began a sense of identification.

Y·Y’s success was traceable.

Besides these, Yan Ling’s former dancer wife was also dug up by the media.

After inheriting Lingyan Shoe Industry, Yan Ling no longer lived in the United States.

New York journalists couldn’t easily corner him, so they turned to harass Yan Yan’s former sister-in-law instead.

Reporters had many questions.

For example, how did Y·Y develop?

Why does Y·Y only open for half the month every month?

What is the future direction of Y·Y?

How many retail stores does Y·Y plan to open this year?

Does Y·Y have plans to go public?

Yan Yan’s former sister-in-law, no stranger to the media as a renowned dancer, had also frequently accepted specialized interviews.

But those were about dance in professional magazines or interviews specifically about dance itself.

This kind of being cornered by major networks and mainstream media, bombarding her with questions about her ex-husband, was absolutely unprecedented.

Yan Ling’s ex-wife expressed her helplessness:

"I really don’t know who the owner of Y·Y is, and when I was with my ex-husband, this brand didn’t even exist. If you’re interested in this brand, you might try finding him or see if he has a current partner."

Annoyed beyond belief, the former sister-in-law made a call to have Yan Ling come and clean up the mess.

The marriage was over, but the friendship remained.

With just one call from the former sister-in-law, Yan Ling unhesitatingly came over.

The Y·Y brand was using an entirely new business model.

Crowdsourcing wasn’t a new concept; as early as the beginning of the 20th century, there were already many successful cases of crowdsourcing via the internet.

If we disregard the internet as a medium, then they were even more numerous.

"Since ancient times," there were plenty of housewives using spare time to assemble accessories for clothing factories or attach features to toys.

This was a practice as old as it gets.

But these old jobs were simple and repetitive.

More importantly, such "work" lacked creativity and was extremely cheap.

Slightly more demanding clothing companies regarding quality and output would never do such a thing.

These traditional forms of subcontracting, besides being highly wasteful and having uncontrollable quality, also required special arrangements for "quality inspection."

This kind of primitive subcontracting "manual labor" wouldn’t involve anything valuable and would need large quantities to make "contracting" meaningful.

The establishment of the Y·Y brand for Yan Yan was entirely out of a desire not to see the New York studio become covered in dust after his absence.

When Y·Y opened its first store in the United States, all the trendy products were designed and manufactured by Yan Yan’s "pre-signed" designers in the New York studio.

In the beginning, Yan Yan was staying in the American studio.

Yan Ling suggested trying to open a store, and Yan Yan really did open one to give it a try.

Yan Yan didn’t have much time to manage it, and Yan Ling, wanting to test the waters, naturally agreed to open a store but likewise did not have the time to manage.

It was an impulsive decision to open a store, with no experience and no clue.