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The Digital Weave - Decentralized Production Network

Anya Ayoung-Chee is a Trinidadian fashion designer, entrepreneur, and cultural innovator using technology and AI across her business to redefine what independent fashion brands can achieve. Known globally for winning Project Runway and featured in main media outlets, she blends Caribbean heritage with bold, future-focused business models. Besides being a designer Anya is also a tech entrepreneur. Her recently launched venture connects designers and brands with independent seamstresses and small manufacturers, creating a thriving decentralized ecosystem.

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LinkedIn

link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anyaayoungchee/

info@anyaayoungchee.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/anyaayoungchee/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/spool.community/

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In this conversation, Adriana Pereira sits down with Anya Ayoung-Chee to explore how fashion, technology, and social impact intersect in today’s creative economy. Anya reflects on her unconventional journey into fashion, from growing up in Trinidad and Tobago to winning Project Runway, and how intuition rather than formal training shaped her design philosophy.

The discussion dives into how Anya is integrating AI and emerging tools across her workflow—from strategy and marketing to content creation and “vibe coding” software—allowing her small team to operate at a global standard with dramatically reduced costs. Beyond her label, Anya shares her vision for a new platform that connects skilled makers around the world directly with consumers, empowering micro-manufacturing, preserving artisanal craft, and expanding economic opportunities for women.

Throughout the conversation, both speakers emphasize a values-driven approach to technology: using AI to increase efficiency while protecting creativity, culture, and human skill. Anya closes with practical advice for emerging designers—start small, collaborate with your community, stay authentic, and boldly use today’s tools to bring ideas to market—highlighting a hopeful, inclusive future for fashion.

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TRANSCRIPTION ---

00:00:03,740 --> 00:00:42,050 - Adriana Pereira
... Hi, Anya. Thank you so much again for joining us in the Fabricant Speakers Series, where we're spotlighting creators and innovators like yourself that are shaping the future of pres- or of fashion. And I actually should say the present of fashion, because, uh, we are already shaping it, right? And, uh, in this conversation, we're gonna be exploring how you're doing it, because you have been such a- an innovator. Uh, like, I always find amazing how a fashion designer can actually do vibe coding and launch the label and an enterprise, and you still have children. You have so much to share.

00:00:42,050 --> 00:00:42,100 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Mm.

00:00:42,100 --> 00:00:57,460 - Adriana Pereira
So, um, yeah, I can't, can't wait to dive i- in with you. And the first question, which I always ask, is: uh, can you share a bit about your background and what inspired your journey into fashion?

00:00:57,460 --> 00:02:15,380 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Well, Adriana, first of all, I just wanna say it's always such a pleasure to be speaking with you, chatting with you. Um, so thank you again for inviting me. Um, I am from Trinidad and Tobago, in the Caribbean. I started doing fashion as a final acceptance, that fashion is something that I always wanted to do since I was a little girl. But growing up in the Caribbean, it was not something that I saw much of. It wasn't a professional track that was even remotely on anybody's radar. And, you know, in parts of the world like this, where we have a very post-colonial education system, very traditional tracks of professional life are what are celebrated and honored, so medicine, engineering, um, finance, and business. So because I was good enough at, at medicine and science, I, I was kinda good- going in that direction, you know? And I think this is a very common story that you hear about creatives who eventually embrace their calling. So it wasn't until I actually was going to Miss Trini- I was, I was Miss Trinidad and Tobago, and I went to Miss Universe in 1998, and I got a chance to design some of my wardrobe. And I had a tragic loss of one of my brothers the year before that. He died very young, and I was still very young. And I think it was the confluence of those two big life moments-

00:02:15,380 --> 00:02:15,780 - Adriana Pereira
Mm

00:02:15,780 --> 00:02:49,260 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... that propelled me to just dive in, to just fully surrender to this profession that I ... Like I said, I was a little girl in a very typical way, always dressing up, always changing my, you know, changing around my outfits, and I loved, loved fashion. So that, I went into it in a very informal way. Um, I don't have a formal background in fashion design, but I think because of that, my, my experience of fashion has always been a bit scrappy [chuckles] um, and, uh, and a bit informal, and I kind of embrace that. I embrace that in all of my ... of how I approach it.

00:02:49,260 --> 00:02:51,989 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah, yeah. I would say intuitive. Very intuitive. [laughing]

00:02:51,989 --> 00:02:54,680 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
[laughing] Okay, that's the word. That's the word, much better.

00:02:54,680 --> 00:03:08,780 - Adriana Pereira
That's definitely the word, definitely. Not, not scrappy at all. I, I love everything, everything you have done. And of course, you became world-known through, um, the TV series, right? And, and then from there, what happened?

00:03:08,780 --> 00:03:22,350 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
So I won Project Runway. Um, again, I love your word "intuitive," very intuitively, because I did not know how to sew. And if anyone knows about how that format of that show works, is you really have to sew everything that you, [chuckles] that you present.

00:03:22,350 --> 00:03:22,420 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah.

00:03:22,420 --> 00:03:31,240 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
So I entered it with full faith, and ... But I think by then I had honed my aesthetic. I had a clear sense of how I, what, as a designer, what my voice was.

00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:31,680 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm.

00:03:31,680 --> 00:04:40,140 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
And so after that, I think, you know, it became, like, this avalanche of opportunity. I was thrust onto a world stage, um, and I got so many different versions of how I could position my line, how I could position my brand. And, uh, to be honest, it was overwhelming, because without a lot of direction or experience, it's very hard [chuckles] to strategically decide w- who, what you are as a designer from a business perspective, you know? Um, and so I think it took me quite a while to really refine how I show up from a business perspective, how I position my line, and I took kind of, of a big break in between. I, I, I did about four or five years of social innovation, um, which kind of brings us back to how you and I met, um, because of think School of Change in Amsterdam. And, um, and so, uh, you know, it's, it's, it, it gave me a combination of global brand opportunity and, at the same time, a very dive-in-the-deep-end, um, experience of figuring out, "Okay, now it's not just about being a designer. Now it's about running a business." So I think in the last 10 years or so, I've, I've really focused on, on that.

00:04:40,140 --> 00:05:15,860 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah, and I think more than, than running a business is running a business and impacting society and impacting your community, right? Uh, it's, uh... Yeah, again, I, I'm in awe of everything that you do. Uh, you're even in Davos representing fashion innovation, uh, right, and, and technology, and that kind of combination, which is in itself is super unique. So if you, if you are- take a picture of you now, right, as a designer, that you are, as a social innovator, that you are, how are you integrating technology into your business model?

00:05:15,860 --> 00:06:20,944 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Well, the more recent, of course, at the tip of everybody's tongue, is the, um, access to AI and the application of AI across a ver- variety of different parts of our workflow. I apply it, uh, and I, I've been, you know, training my team to help them learn how to apply across everything from ideation phases of, from a creative perspective, but also from a business strategy perspective. How do we use all of the tools available to us to build more efficiencies in the business operations, as well as in the content creation and product development parts of our process?... and more recently, as you mentioned at the top, I've been using vibe coding apps to develop actual software. So, uh, being able to very quickly at least take from, you know, very simple idea to a functional, usable app or, or website, it, it just really creates a lot more agility in how we are developing products for ourselves, developing solutions that are both internal and potentially used for external use. And so, I mean, it's just the full gamut, the full gamut of-

00:06:20,944 --> 00:06:21,054 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah

00:06:21,054 --> 00:06:23,484 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... um, application of AI [laughs] that has-

00:06:23,484 --> 00:06:23,884 - Adriana Pereira
Okay, let-

00:06:23,884 --> 00:06:25,484 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... has changed my world. [laughs]

00:06:25,484 --> 00:06:48,204 - Adriana Pereira
Let's take step by step. First, on your, on your label, uh, can you walk me through, like, your workflow? Uh, now, and maybe you can also compare, like, before and after you have access to these tools, because to your point, AI is, is definitely game-changing, but there are other tools that are involved in the, in the creative process as well. So could you walk me through, like, how it is right now?

00:06:48,204 --> 00:07:35,374 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Sure. So where we have not yet done a lot of work, and I'm excited to learn more about the Fabricant tools, is the use of AI in the product development cycle from the very beginning. That still remains quite hands-on. So we're still designing, prototyping, and creating our patterns, and going straight to production in, in the traditional sense right now. Um, where we, from an operational standpoint, all the strategic developments of how we're positioning the line, how we're doing market research, how we're establishing access to markets, and how we're then going to markets, we're using all the, you know, accessible LLMs. So ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, um, are primarily the LLMs that we are using internally.

00:07:35,374 --> 00:07:35,683 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm.

00:07:35,683 --> 00:08:21,704 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
And then from the point of the development of the strategy, we use a, a whole range of somewhat half-baked tools [laughs] to take, um... For instance, our e-commerce photography then got converted to GenAI, um, outputs. So, and that, that, to be honest, happened entirely out of need. I did a photo shoot. It was too rushed. I made some, you know, choices that I don't think really worked out, so the, the end product was something that I felt like wasn't quite what I wanted. So I just spent 48 hours one af- one weekend, and I just... I used Perplexity to find out, okay, what are all the tools I could do- use to trans- to convert these images to the output that I was looking for? And by the end, we had a full campaign of-

00:08:21,704 --> 00:08:21,804 - Adriana Pereira
Wow

00:08:21,804 --> 00:09:25,274 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... of imagery, of videos, of, you know, usable for a wide variety of reasons, not just the reason that I intended, which was just for the website. Um, and, and, you know, I mean, things are happening so quickly that I'm sure there are better tools even now than when I did it two months ago, you know? Um, so I wouldn't even mention which tools I used then, because they were just all sort of free, whatever I could find. Um, and, and then, of course, building the website itself, there's lots of AI built into the back end of Shopify already, and so that helped me. I built the website myself. I created all the content myself. Um, and then from there, we're looking at how do we use sales agents to sort of create leads and then follow through on, on the sale of, of the clothing line itself, which prior to this, there's no way, there's no way from a cost perspective, from the size of my team, to, to the location of where I am in the Caribbean. One day, I have to go through and actually price the two different approaches and, and, and, and have a comparative as to what-

00:09:25,274 --> 00:09:25,274 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah

00:09:25,274 --> 00:09:33,284 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... is the cost, what is the time, cost of time, what is the resource, cost of resources? I mean, it, it just... There's no comparison.

00:09:33,284 --> 00:09:33,684 - Adriana Pereira
I'll, I'll-

00:09:33,684 --> 00:09:33,954 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
And-

00:09:33,954 --> 00:09:48,804 - Adriana Pereira
... I would love to, to see that picture, because I, I can only imagine, to your point, like, just, just roughly, if you would need to build what you're building right now in the amount of time you build, how many people you think you would need to have in your team?

00:09:48,804 --> 00:10:09,804 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Even if they were teams that were outsourced, I would say collectively, at a minimum, 15 people. When you add up photography, videography, editing, marketing, marketing strategy, uh, I'm being, I'm being reasonable. I mean, if you really added up the number of people from an operational standpoint, a creative standpoint, and a marketing standpoint-

00:10:09,804 --> 00:10:10,084 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm

00:10:10,084 --> 00:10:12,664 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... it, it would be 15 to 20 people.

00:10:12,664 --> 00:10:15,483 - Adriana Pereira
Wow, and how many do you have now?

00:10:15,483 --> 00:10:15,504 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
And I-

00:10:15,504 --> 00:10:16,723 - Adriana Pereira
How many do you, do you have? [laughs]

00:10:16,723 --> 00:10:19,544 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Three. [laughs] There's three of us. [laughs]

00:10:19,544 --> 00:10:23,404 - Adriana Pereira
And probably doing more than those 15 people would do together, right? In, in much-

00:10:23,404 --> 00:10:23,844 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Exactly

00:10:23,844 --> 00:10:25,123 - Adriana Pereira
... less amount of time. Yeah, it's, it's incredible.

00:10:25,124 --> 00:11:22,364 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Exactly. Yes, not to mention the cost. And, and also, um, what it's doing is it- it's bridging the gap in terms of output quality. When you think about, uh, campaigns and digital marketing and, um, you know, the sort of advertising collateral that we can create with very accessible tools, the- we are now able to position ourselves as a global standard brand operating in Trinidad and the Caribbean for a m- a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the access to expertise. You know, the... It's just a reality of when you, when you live in a part of the world like this, accessibility is a major gap, but this has now closed that gap. Um, and so I think what, what it gives us is the opportunity to deliver on a, on a global scale that, and compete on a global scale. That also increases... You- It's almost like you're reducing costs, and you're i- increasing your potential to sell in markets that you couldn't before.

00:11:22,364 --> 00:11:28,654 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah. Oh, my God, this is like... This is such a gospel. This is such a gospel. Please keep preaching it.

00:11:28,654 --> 00:11:28,704 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
[laughs]

00:11:28,704 --> 00:12:23,016 - Adriana Pereira
'Cause I love how, you know, uh, first of all, you made your career in fashion by being an intuitive designer, right? And now you're using the full range of tools to actually take your business to the next level, amplify it, distribute it to higher scale, right, with, with higher quality, as you're saying, and lower costs. And I think it's such an inspiration for so many designers that are out there that, uh, would like to launch their labels but feel that they don't have the means, right, for that. And, and you're a, a living proof that it's possible.... and that is amazing. [inhales] And, uh, you mentioned, like, uh, the, the, uh, you- you're already using quite a lot of tools, but, uh, there are parts of your process that you are still kind of being manual or that, uh, you would... you'd rather be manual, and nothing wrong with that. But if you think about the way technology is evolving, [lips smack] how would you expect your business to evolve with it?

00:12:23,016 --> 00:12:57,156 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Well, that's a great question. I feel very committed, and I think we have the shared value that the technologies that are evolving are best used when they enhance our, uh, ability to create authentically, our ability to maintain certain indigenous and artisanal, um, crafts and, and skill sets that are extremely valuable to us, not just in the ability to, to, to use them, but maintaining those skill sets maintains its community life, maintains the fabric of cultures-

00:12:57,156 --> 00:12:57,476 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm

00:12:57,476 --> 00:13:32,486 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... maintains, um, unique identity, you know? And I feel that what actually is the best-case scenario is that the technologies like AI increase efficiency across all the workflows and, and aspects of workflows that are not the best use of our time, um, don't celebrate the, the magic of being human, you know, and in fact, give you more space and room to amplify, refine, grow, um, emphasize the, the type of skill sets that, that make us inherently who we are, one, as human beings, and two, as the unique cultures that we come from.

00:13:32,486 --> 00:13:32,795 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm.

00:13:32,795 --> 00:14:07,675 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
So, you know, that... To me, that we can't con- we can't control that that become the outcome, but every single aspect of my business life is designed to accomplish that in my space as best as I can. You know, I have a manufacturing facility that is, uh, the, the intent of it has been to train and upskill and hire women all from at-risk backgrounds. They come from both Venezuela and Trinidadian backgrounds, and we have done that. We've trained 94 women to date. Um, and the more we can stabilize their lives-

00:14:07,675 --> 00:14:08,016 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm

00:14:08,016 --> 00:14:32,976 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... by expanding on the opportunities that we just discussed, the more successful, like, my clothing brand is from an export perspective, is more sustainable my employee base can be in Trinidad. So it's sort of, you know, the best-case complement of two worlds bridged by the access to technology, bridged by, you know, an understanding of, like, where values align across, across countries, across communities, and across cultures.

00:14:32,976 --> 00:15:18,316 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah, no, I, I love that aspect of local manufacturing and also your vision of, uh, indeed, the more your business grow, the more your community flourishes, and, and I, and I find it so special in itself. I get always goosebump, [laughs] goosebumps hearing it. Like, and also the, yeah, the whole women side of things a- as well, uh, very... is also very close to my heart. But, uh, let's talk a bit about that because I know you have a very specific angle on these, uh, micro-manufacturing and empowering, indeed, your community to flourish. And next to your beautiful label and your amazing design work, you also have another enterprise that, uh, is related to how to enable that micro-manufacturing to flourish, right? And, and also operates on global scale. Could you tell us a bit about that?

00:15:18,316 --> 00:16:13,095 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Yes. Uh, so this is why the vibe coding has become my favorite pastime, because I have used all the various different apps, from Replit to, um, Lovable, to Cursor, to, um, Rockets, just to build the same app over and over again, find what is the best iteration of what it's going to be or it's becoming, is a market- - it's a matchmaking platform that matches makers of apparel and accessories directly to consumers and clients around the world. So you need something for a very special occasion that has a particular, um, look and feel, and you want whoever in the world is the most expert at making that particular thing, be it a sari, be it a costume, be it a, a wedding dress, you know, whatever the case. Um, and this, this platform, I describe it as the Fiverr for fashion. It's, it's a gig, uh, marketplace for skilled, uh, um, designers. Well, not designers per se. Really, the emphasis is on makers.

00:16:13,096 --> 00:16:13,356 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah.

00:16:13,356 --> 00:17:07,755 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
There's room for designers to play a part from a styling, consulting, and, and refinement perspective, but really this is about... The way I grew up, honestly, is that we didn't have access to a lot of imported fashion. [chuckles] Um, and so we were very accustomed to having our school uniforms made, our graduation dresses made. Uh, you've always had an auntie or a grandma who could sew. [chuckles] And so this was a very normal practice until, of course, we got flooded with import goods, but it's a return to that, and of course, a marriage with what the, the, the, the more developed world would consider bespoke fashion, one-off, customized, um, tailor-made, made-to-measure, um, garments. So this, ideally, you know, the concept is that if we onboard thousands of makers all over the world, you are now creating a bridge between the micro-manufacturing in what tends to be women in their homes-

00:17:07,755 --> 00:17:08,596 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm

00:17:08,596 --> 00:17:34,416 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... sewing, you know, for their clients, now can sew for anyone in the world. And before now, the technology that would have allowed for that remote kind of collaboration didn't exist. It was a concept in my mind when I was at Think [chuckles] um, eight years ago. And so now between AR fitting, trying on, um, and the ability to co-create a garment entirely digitally, which is what I understand your tool can do-

00:17:34,416 --> 00:17:34,755 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm

00:17:34,755 --> 00:18:14,116 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... and create all the way to, uh, a pattern or a tech pack, because this will also allow for small, independent designer brands to do micro-manufacturing through factories around the world. And, um, but it really hinges on the success of the tools that allow for that remote experience from a production standpoint. So I'm just, uh, like, the way you're getting goosebumps just now, like, this just gives me the, the best, um, [inhales]-... feeling that we could use technology to actually bridge in this way that will allow to maintain the indigenous craft, provide, you know, special products that is not something off the shelf-

00:18:14,116 --> 00:18:14,196 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm

00:18:14,196 --> 00:18:23,716 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... to the c- the consumer base, and use the technology to do what it does best, and not, and it not replace anything that ought not to be replaced.

00:18:23,716 --> 00:18:38,116 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah. No, I absolutely love everything you're saying. And, you know, I, you know I grew up in Brazil, right? So I'm so familiar with the... We would hire sew- a, a, a person to actually be sewing the whole day at a, at our place, right? I would go-

00:18:38,116 --> 00:18:38,636 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Really?

00:18:38,636 --> 00:18:47,396 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah, I would go to fabric shops with my mom. That was like, honestly, when that happened, that angel woman, this would be the treat of the year, right? [laughing]

00:18:47,396 --> 00:18:48,216 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
[laughing]

00:18:48,216 --> 00:20:17,716 - Adriana Pereira
We would be leaving with all the, our little dresses, just like what we want. Uh, and I think just going back to that is, you know, it's so also in the zeitgeist, right? As, uh, it's more sustainable because so, you know, you're not kind of creating stock. It's, uh, more authentic, it's one-of-a-kind. It's really what you want, different than what everybody else has, right? And ultimately, to your point, it gives the access for independent people or independent designers to really create that micro-manufacturing model that, uh, right now is, is hard to crack, right? It's still a bit hard to crack. I, I talked to a lot of, um, independent designers and small brands, and, uh, you know, Europe used to be a c- uh, a continent full of micro-manufacturing, and over time they have been having a really hard time, right? And that has been reducing. And now you start to see a bit of a revival, a bit of, uh... Yes, Portugal, or Romania, or Lithuania. Still maybe not Central Europe, but it, it, you know, it start to bubble to say, "No, we actually, we're finding these new ateliers back again," and if you could have a global platform that would be connecting us, right, with all those, uh, small enterprise, which can also be com- uh, like, small enterprise, not only one person, right? But maybe a cooperative, uh, of the- of seamstress, uh, that's, uh, yeah, unlocks such a, a full c- circle of, of wealth distribution, right? And-

00:20:17,716 --> 00:20:18,775 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
I love that.

00:20:18,776 --> 00:20:19,176 - Adriana Pereira
I just-

00:20:19,176 --> 00:20:20,066 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Exactly.

00:20:20,066 --> 00:20:20,096 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah.

00:20:20,096 --> 00:21:00,856 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Exactly. And, and I, I wouldn't- I would be lying to tell you that when I conceived of this that many years ago, that I was doing it with this, um, consideration for the sustainability aspect of it. You know, uh, back then, it was really more about how do I... I, I have benefited so much from having skilled, extremely talented women who have created and produced my clothing line for me because of my lack of production skill. Um, and there's always been this sense to me, when I won Project Runway, I, of course, celebrated the fact that it encouraged many, many young people, young Caribbean people, to consider a, a career in fashion. But the truth is, you can only have so many designers. [chuckles]

00:21:00,856 --> 00:21:01,316 - Adriana Pereira
Yes.

00:21:01,316 --> 00:21:27,036 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
If there's no one making the clothes, then, you know... Um, so I've always been adamantly trying to celebrate the makers, you know, celebrate the, the, the skill, celebrate the, the tradition of what it takes to produce the clothes. Um, and then the other side of it is I, I have a hypothesis that the more robotics and the more automation kind of come into the o- o- our everyday operational life, is the more anything handmade is going to become even more valuable.

00:21:27,036 --> 00:21:27,516 - Adriana Pereira
Mm.

00:21:27,516 --> 00:21:40,396 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
It, it's not that it can't be made by a robot or automation, but the fact that it, it- whatever is made by somebody highly skilled, with a tradition of that expertise, that has taken the time to make it a certain way-

00:21:40,396 --> 00:21:40,936 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm

00:21:40,936 --> 00:22:46,736 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
... it's about to be golden, you know? Um, and so it just so happens that that serves this, uh, sustainability need of reducing the amount of waste, um, of, you know, reducing the amount of homogeny even in our fashion landscape, and, and, and, and re-establishing, to your point, the relationship between ateliers and, and, and the consumer. And I think whatever can do that, we should do- be doing as much of it as we can. Um, but it, it has all sort of lined up, is really what my point I was getting to, is that over the eight years that I started this idea, and I've tried it very many different versions of how to make this, this platform work, this, it's now sort of a perfect storm. The technology is available. The, the fashion industry has been disrupted to the degree that it is... It's a timely moment, to your point. It's the zeitgeist of the, of the, of the fashion moment. Um, and I think the, the, the fear, I guess, of losing the craft and losing the artisanal value is, is at, is at a height. So it's how do you bring all those things together?

00:22:46,736 --> 00:22:54,776 - Adriana Pereira
Mm. Oh, that's amazing. It's almost like all the trends are coming up to the perfect turmoil. So when is it launching?

00:22:54,776 --> 00:23:38,356 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
We're launching the MVP in a month. So as soon as it's ready, I'm going to send you a version so you can have a try. Um, we're onboarding the pilots, uh, makers, and cl- and clients right now, and we've been working on a lot of offline projects over the last six months, so we just test the workflow and understand, um... It, it's gonna be a feat. It's gonna be a feat, but, um, 'cause a lot of it is mindset, you know? A lot of what I... To me, it's, it, it acts as a Trojan horse for digital upskilling as well, for people in, in the Caribbean, uh, and people around the world who still don't quite understand how to use AI tools, don't quite understand how it applies to their own workflows. Um, I don't want to, to sort of sit back and watch parts of the world like ours get left behind, you know?

00:23:38,356 --> 00:23:39,086 - Adriana Pereira
Mm.

00:23:39,086 --> 00:23:47,096 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Um, and so for me, building a platform does a double job of helping people who are, you know, less likely to be

00:23:47,156 --> 00:23:51,406 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
given access to these tools, have to, have to learn it to be able to use the platform.

00:23:51,406 --> 00:23:51,556 - Adriana Pereira
Mm.

00:23:51,556 --> 00:24:01,556 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
So a lot of the upskilling is, is gonna be, I think, the learning curve and the, and, um-... so we'll see, but anyway, we launch the MVP in, in- at the end of November.

00:24:01,556 --> 00:24:36,495 - Adriana Pereira
Amazing, amazing. So I think by the time we are launching, this recording is gonna be the launch of your MVP, which is very, very exciting. Um, and with all the, you know, all this experience of all these years, Anya, and again, being a pioneer in your field, both from a design aesthetic point of view, message, uh, tech, uh, educator, I can add so many ands, ands, ands, what i- what is your message for the fashion industry today, and anybody that will be listening to it?

00:24:36,495 --> 00:24:42,836 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Yeah, such great questions, Adriana. Um, my message:

00:24:42,836 --> 00:25:08,735 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
to continue, as I always have said, to continue to remain true to who you are, particularly speaking to the designers. Um, because taking a risk on who you are authentically and, and putting that into the marketplace is your- one, your best bet at maintaining and growing a business and, and, and connecting to a customer base because there's just so much noise, there, there's, there's so many versions of the same, the- your best bet is to be you.

00:25:08,735 --> 00:25:09,136 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm.

00:25:09,136 --> 00:25:34,056 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Um, and I think, again, the message I've said over and over today is like, leverage the, the technology, dive in, be curious, um, and use it to amplify who you authentically are. And I think it's, it's that, that curiosity meets courage to be just authentic is really the, the sweet spot for anybody attempting to succeed in this industry.

00:25:34,056 --> 00:25:45,346 - Adriana Pereira
Love it. And if I'm, like, a young designer just graduating in today's world, what, what... and I want to launch my label, what would be the one, two, three steps you would suggest?

00:25:45,346 --> 00:25:47,336 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
The one... Say that one more time?

00:25:47,336 --> 00:25:48,796 - Adriana Pereira
Steps that-

00:25:48,796 --> 00:25:49,576 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
One, two, three steps?

00:25:49,576 --> 00:25:51,155 - Adriana Pereira
Yeah.

00:25:51,156 --> 00:25:55,036 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Okay.

00:25:55,036 --> 00:27:13,956 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
The first thing I ever did was establish a very small, uh, line SKUs, a few, five designs, let's just say, that, uh, you want to wear, that you feel that you would want guaranteed to pull off the shelf and put on every day. And, uh, keep it simple. This was advice that Michael Kors gave me after I won Project Runway. He said, "Anya, just do five SKUs." You know, think about Diane von Furstenberg. She had one SKU. [chuckles] She had one dress, you know? And then you can start to add the coats and the jackets and the, you know, whatever else, you know. Um, so, so do- design five looks, and it doesn't have to be five. The point is, keep it simple, and make sure that they're, they're pieces that you love, that you wanna wear, and you wanna wear every day. Then, I would collaborate with as many of your creative partners and friends and community around you as you can. So your photographer friends, your musician friends, your, you know, all the people that are around you that inspire you. The more of that you do, especially when you begin, is the more exclusive it feels, and the joy just comes through. You know? It's very important, I think, in the beginning, to just emphasize the joy, emphasize the experience of why you even wanna do this work, and, and, and veer away from it being heavy and, and too much about business, you know?

00:27:13,956 --> 00:27:14,626 - Adriana Pereira
Mm-hmm.

00:27:14,626 --> 00:27:23,196 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Um, and then the third thing would be, yeah, like, leverage as many of these AI tools from, you know, Shopify and level have this integration now. You can build a website in a day.

00:27:23,196 --> 00:27:23,275 - Adriana Pereira
Wow!

00:27:23,275 --> 00:28:30,615 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Be, be loose and, and, and brave about everything that you're gonna use to go to market because it's going to have to evo- evolve and refine anyway. You know, when I launched my first website in 2014, nobody was using e-commerce. ... So things that have happened between then and now, you know, it's like, just go for it, you know? Um, and experience the joy of somebody making your first sale. I'll never forget the first sale I ever made. It changed my life because [chuckles] I was blown away that I could create something that I loved, that somebody else wanted, and they wanted it enough that they paid me, you know? So I think it's the simple ideation and creation phase, it's the collaboration with friends and, and people you admire and, and, and want to be around, and then it's the courage to just, just put it out there and, and use all the tools. If I was growing up at this time of, of the world and had access to all of these tools, my God, I would be going crazy. Like [chuckles] it's just so much to bring your product to market with such ease. So I would just use as much of that as you can.

00:28:30,616 --> 00:29:09,586 - Adriana Pereira
Amazing tips, and I love that you actually brought first the people around you and that inspires you, and then the tools, right? Which is absolutely... Actually, even for y- your own design and what you love, bring the humans that inspire you, and then use the tools. And, uh, yeah, the order for me was, was perfect and, uh, absolutely great, great, uh, advice. Thank you. Thank you so much, Anya. Uh, thank you for being this journey, for inspiring us and many others around you. Thank you for taking the leadership in this space. And, uh, yeah, looking forward to meet you again very soon. Maybe after the platform is launched, we do it again?

00:29:09,586 --> 00:29:09,596 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Yes.

00:29:09,596 --> 00:29:11,616 - Adriana Pereira
It will be my pleasure. Thank you so much.

00:29:11,616 --> 00:29:15,554 - Anya Ayoung-Chee
Absolutely. Thank you, Adriana. Thank you.

00:29:15,556 --> 00:29:52,476 - Adriana Pereira
This is The Digital Weave, a space where I sit down with the creators and innovators reshaping fashion through technology. Here, we dive into their real stories, from brands and makers who are using tech to build labels and systems that are more sustainable, more profitable, and uniquely their own. This series is all about sharing their journeys to spark ideas for yours. The Digital Weave is powered by The Fabricant, a leading fashion tech company rewriting fashion through AI.

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