Growing up i was taught a bunch of lessons from my mother - some good, and some better.
One of the more important lessons I was taught is that mixing business and friendship is the eighth deadly sin.
Rebus is in its second rising, 5 years of blood, sweat, and tears. In its first attempt at success, friends have come and friends have gone. Its the nature of the beast.
Now I’m not saying this mixture is always poisonous, but anyone that has been in this situation I’m sure would agree that it is nearly impossible and highly improbable to juggle these two flammable deadly knives.
On one side starting a business is stressful in itself. Any added pressure can make you or break you depending on how you work under these circumstances. Now the ying to this yang is that you have a prior friendship with these people and don’t want to ruin it. This means sometimes navigating around the different personalities in order to find the right mixture of motivation and firmness to get everyone motivated and working at full capacity.
In my time with Rebus right from the beginning concept stage, there have been all
types of problems and fewer solutions. I pride myself on how I deal with such problems
and come to a reasonable solution in a short period of time. From designs to marketing
to shipping there will always be a better way. Better, faster, stronger … and as my main man Kanye would say - Like you all know and have heard lemons make you lemonade.
Im here writing this blog, straight from my heart, late on a chilly November night to let you all know that I eat, sleep, play, think, talk, dance, run, and dream this brand.
Rebus is my life.
Rebus is my all-encompassing passion, and in presenting this first line of Rebus Premium Denim, I will tell you that I have been there from the start. I now have a great team of partners and colleagues that are not only my friends, but my brothers and sisters who share all the beauty and the pain with me. Because don’t get me wrong, this business throws many different complexions at you on an hourly basis.
What a journey it has all been. Five years of conceptualizations and drawings, numerous trips to Istanbul, choosing fabrics, fits, buttons, rivets … I have been there all along to make sure that you all get the best quality product for the price that you pay. I am here to make you look good, feel great, and be the best you can be.
At the the end of the day, isn’t that what everyone really wants?
Sayonara for now,
Adam Bledin
President & Creative Director
Rebus Productions
A DREAM COMES CLOSER TO REALITY
After getting some flak from friends and fans of our aspiring brand as to, well, what the heck is up with REBUS these days, we had to acquiesce and give you all a peek behind the curtains. In this space we talk about a lot of other brands; we love the world of fashion, and that is never going to change. But what about REBUS?
It has been a long journey since Fall 2010 when our managing partners, Adam Bledin, Moshe Modeira, and Julien Abesdris came together and decided to resurrect the REBUS brand.The picture above represents a small microcosm of the massive re-branding and revamp that REBUS went through.
Many start-up fashion houses rush into things without the right mix of personnel in place - either you have a bunch of designers who come together but don’t understand that they need a sound marketing strategy and efficient business administration … or a bunch of marketers come together but don’t have a deep enough passion for fashion … or worse yet a bunch of business administrators come together to simply busy themselves with a side project. Sometimes you have an emerging influential blogger who wants to expand operations but has to painstakingly go out and hire the right mix of people to support them, all the while needing to continue generating content at the breakneck speed that got them the recognition in the first place.
All things being said, to get started, you need entrepreneurial spirit. You need guts. You need gumption. You need chutzpah!
We knew early on that we had to put together a helluva team just to even play the game. Here we are - its May 2011, and if you only knew the blood, sweat and tears that goes into starting a fashion house, you would probably vomit. We had to make sure we implemented a dynamic marketing strategy to take us into S/S 2012 and beyond (which is still organic and ever-developing); we built an incredible design department, headed by the very talented Georgia Varelas, an alumnus of the International Academy of Design and a finalist for Art of Fashion’s 2010 Top Ten Emerging Canadian Designers; we had to have lawyers in place to take care of legal; we had to have accountants to take care of financial matters; we had to secure start-up funding; the list goes on. Last but not least, you need a solid sales veteran to lead your sales team - we recently welcomed Randy Ruiz aka Illa Brown to our team, and he has been a lightning rod of inspiration.
Most of all, we continue to tighten the screws, further define our identity, and seek differentiators that will allow us to be successful in our efforts to bring something unique and inspirational to the Canadian fashion market and the world.
Greatest lessons learned?
For one, in fashion, the margin for error is close to zero in the start-up phase. Hell, it might even be negative 500.
Secondly, you have to tunnel vision and stick to your dream, because the naysayers will come from every walk of life to tear you down. You will have people doubting you that don’t even really care - its just their job to be negative. You need to have a mind and a will of steel.
Lastly, apparently you do indeed need to plan 12-18 months in advance, because fashion is an insatiable beast that waits for no one and keeps needing to be fed. It’s like a fast-moving locomotive that you need to jump on at top speed as it passes through the village; in the start-up phase, you need to start running at top speed along side the locomotive, timing your jump, so that maybe, just maybe, you will hit it right and grab on as you leap.
Funny enough, either way, you’re still going to bruise your knees.
We are working feverishly behind the scenes to bring you a premium denim product that exhibits beauty, function, form and finesse - our denim will be available this fall in our debut S/S 2012 collection, The Nest. We cannot wait, and to our friends, fans and families who have supported us, we thank you.
We will commence photography for our entire collection in the next several weeks with the aid of an incredibly gifted up-and-coming fashion photog who has joined us, Kyle Kaminsky. He will join Matt Feinstein, another member of our extended Rebus family whose photography has helped us sustain ourselves thus far. Between the both of them, we are incredibly lucky to have access to this level of talent prior to our launch.
The most humbling part of it all?
We are just getting started!
