In the Club
The ultimate podcast for kids activity clubs! ClassForKids is an award-winning booking and management software trusted by 3000+ kids activity clubs.
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In the Club
EP 32: Elevating Youth Fashion with Project Fashion Ireland
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We hand over the In The Club interviewer mic to our very own Michaela from the CFK customer success team as she expertly interviews Paul from Project Fashion... an incredible fashion school (and on of our oldest customers) based in Ireland.
Discover how this program is transforming the lives of kids as young as seven by teaching them the art of design and sewing. Now reaching over 850 kids each week...Project Fashion showcases creativity, safety, and sustainable growth, all managed efficiently though the ClassForKids system.
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We've just started this episode with a gauntlet throwdown from Brian a challenge.
Speaker 2:I'm looking into the camera like dismayed, like I think it's good, I think it's good but I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1:Let's discuss what it's about.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we've got so well, do we mention who our?
Speaker 1:interview yeah, absolutely we need to. We need to top that.
Speaker 2:We are interviewing on the podcast in. In fact, it's not even us, it's Michaela from our customer success team, project Fashion, one of our longstanding customers based in Ireland who, funnily enough, from the name, run a fashion school and every time in any meeting we've had about this in the last two or three weeks, every time the word fashion is mentioned.
Speaker 1:what do I do?
Speaker 2:Fashion- Fashion, fashion, fashion. I just think that's pretty cool, yeah, but now, brian, because he's the one that's always behind the camera, he's just come up with the idea that we're to design. Was it a high-end fashion outfit?
Speaker 1:High fashion. Oh, it's really going to be tricky for me. Okay, let's.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, first of all, I'm thinking season. We're coming into autumn like that is a big season. It's totally commercialised now. Have you seen things on?
Speaker 1:TikTok, so mini skirts and crop tops.
Speaker 2:No more like you would wear like a mini skirt, so maybe like knee length boots, and then like a nice polo neck colour, and then I would probably accessorise mine with this thing that I've seen.
Speaker 1:So that was for me, no, that's me. But then you went, but I would wear. You kind of went.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're going to put you in a miniskirt and boots and boots, and then like a nice kind of black polo top with a blazer on. And then I'm going to go for a nice bag to accessorise, which is this lovely coach bag. I don't know if that means anything to you, stephen oh yeah, I totally know what coach means and it's kind of like. It's kind of like an aubergine, kind of nice autumny colour, so that's probably what.
Speaker 1:I would go with. It sounds like right. This was a very well-timed question from Brian, because it sounds like you already had this entire outfit planned out.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've got a lot of it in my wardrobe, I just don't have the coach bag Is?
Speaker 1:this on your Etsy? I've got a lot of them in my wardrobe, I just don't have the coach bag. Is this on your? What is it Etsy? What do they call it when you pin?
Speaker 2:stuff Pinterest, not Etsy Pinterest. Yeah, yeah, I use Pinterest to plan my outfits, but no, I've seen the bag, so right now.
Speaker 1:Pretty much what you've described is up there right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably Okay cool, then when?
Speaker 1:it comes to high fashion.
Speaker 2:You're kind of like a class for kids t-shirt and jeans guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I quite enjoy the fact that we've got branded clothes Because it allows me not to think, although I'm not wearing branded clothes today.
Speaker 2:But you could do something similar to me, because polo necks are quite what's. It called Polo neck. Yeah, sorry, I'm thinking of a polo shirt. A polo neck might be quite good for you.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, I bought a polo neck last year. Do you remember this story? No, no, no, no, no, I bought a polo neck last year.
Speaker 3:Do you remember this story?
Speaker 1:And I went to my wife and I was like look at the polo neck. And she's like, oh my God, I look like a turtle.
Speaker 2:It pushed a hole my entire neck up.
Speaker 1:It was the same time that I bought that thing for my tummy. Remember that? Yeah, so for those listening, I bought, like this T-shirt TikTok is a crime to answer for a t-shirt that was definitely going to hold in all my belly. The guy in the video was like huge and he put it on and he was like suddenly tall and slender and I put it on and, yeah, it just looked like I'd pulled a pair of tights up over my belly also, like steven's, always talking about how thick his neck is.
Speaker 2:Is that what you mean by?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, you can't get a poor neck, that even okay, but that's what all the like.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking about what people in high-end fashion on a runway, if they were male, would wear, and I mean other than like silly stuff, flamboyant like, kind of like, maybe revealing shirts, like. I feel, like a polo neck is quite an autumnal outfit.
Speaker 1:That could be quite classy and you could have like a nice long coat well, I was going to say the coat I've got down right, a bit like if I cut about in those. I'm quite short. I know that with people that have only ever listened probably think I'm about nine foot, because obviously that's the kind of voice. I'm about four foot two and a big long coat just makes me look like I'm either a child that stole his dad's coat or kind of, yeah, an inappropriate coat wearer like a flasher.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll try to keep that word off this podcast.
Speaker 2:But yeah, a flasher can you bleep that out, brian?
Speaker 1:but yeah, so okay. So there I am. I've got my turtleneck on with my big coat that actually goes over my feet, and some preferably some trousers drags behind me. Yeah, I should put some trousers on. What would I wear, cordu?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no, not for that, no, I think like a nice pair of really smart chinos, like navy kind of chinos. Okay, remember, this is high end. Do you know who you could take inspiration from who In our office? Melly?
Speaker 1:He's a good dresser. Oh, melly, everybody's talking about Melly's fashion sense. Well, melly, if you're listening to this, you are quite fashionable, yeah.
Speaker 2:He's actually going through to Edinburgh Sunday for a specific perfume. I can't remember the name of the company. They're based in New York but they do signature scents by city and only during September.
Speaker 1:Hang on Signature. Scents by city in September.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so signature scents they do normally by cities year round. So, for example, tokyo has a specific scent, new York will have a specific scent, and then only in September or the weekend that he's going do they open it up worldwide so that you could buy Tokyo and Edinburgh.
Speaker 1:I think Brian's going as well. That's the sort of thing that Brian's totally into. He's totally into his. Like his fat, he's fat he's fat.
Speaker 2:That's a bit harsh he's into his scents.
Speaker 1:He goes all over the country for his scents, don't you Brian?
Speaker 2:yeah, so Melly is. Melly is probably who you should look to for inspiration if you had a Pinterest post.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, I think he's inspired by me, though I think he was asking me where I got my shoes and stuff from when I was at Primark. Maybe he was taking the mic right. We don't know enough about fashion to continue this conversation, no but yeah, michaela's interviewing Paul from Project Fashion and catching up on all things that are happening there let's jump to that interview, right now shall we
Speaker 4:let's do it. So let's start off. Do you want to tell me a little bit about yourself and also about how Project Fashion happened?
Speaker 3:absolutely yeah. So back in 2000 I graduated from fashion college and one of the big things that I found in fashion college was that a lot of students on the degree course were not able to sew, so they spent a lot of their time learning how to sew as well as trying to get creative and find themselves as a designer. So that always stuck with me and then I went on and set my own label up and everything else, and, and one day my son plays rugby. So I'm down, sat in the cafeteria there and see all these girls sitting around on their laptops waiting for their son, waiting for their brothers to finish. So I thought, right next week I'm going to bring a couple of sewing machines down, see if they're interested. So brought them down and they all were swarming on top of them. And that's how we're initiated. We set up a little club there then and I opened up other venues and I was running it five days a week and then it started snowballing from the employing people and now we employ 50 staff all across the country.
Speaker 3:And yeah, the whole idea is to teach these kids at a young age a lovely skill set. Yeah, whether they go on to do it professionally or not, it's a great skill set to have, especially with this whole sustainable thing coming on at the moment.
Speaker 3:But, um, yeah, and then if they do go on to study, they've, they're back to where I was on on the course, on on the fashion course, on the degree course. They, um, they will have the skill set on the degree course and then they can just focus on being creative rather than learning how to sew. So, that's the plan, you know.
Speaker 4:So you mentioned that you've got about 50 staff. How many kids do you think just a rough estimate how many kids do you think that you're impacting on a weekly basis or a monthly basis?
Speaker 3:Probably about 850 kids across the country.
Speaker 4:That's incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're always looking to open new venues and in different territory. But, yeah, it's great, these kids love it and we put on a big fashion show for them at the end of the year and we coincide that with a bit of a charity event as well, so we raise funds for children's charities, so it's like kids raising funds for kids, you know, and we call it the young designer of the year awards, okay, and all the children from all over the country get together and showcase the work that they've been working on all year and we have, like, celebrities hosting the show and and, yeah, it's a proper red carpet event and the kids are petrified coming out. You know it's great.
Speaker 4:I can imagine I'd be petrified, let let alone back when I was a lot younger. No, that's amazing. And what a skill set to learn. And you've got kids as young as seven attending these classes as well. So we're starting them really young, bringing them all the way up and setting them up with really it's a life skill. It is Essentially being able to not only design, be creative, but also mend the sustainability of it. It's incredible what, what an incredible idea um that's came from a really a really random place it is.
Speaker 3:Sometimes they come from. You know the best ideas come from. You know something that's really in your face nearly, and random, but uh. But going back to the kids at seven years old, one of the big things we focus on is safety to start with. So you know, even though I know when I first started sewing you'd be scared of this machine, you know, with the needle going up and down and everything else. But the kids, they come in we've got guards on them. Yeah, you know safety guards and we teach them how to work safely on it and everything else. So amazing, yeah, they, they hit the ground running quite quickly, you know, I could imagine, especially when they're that age.
Speaker 4:They're just little sponges, aren't they? And that's it. They take it on. You know, that's one of the things actually is.
Speaker 3:It's we're trying to, we're launching adult classes now as well, but the kids it's. It's like, like you said, no, the ideas are crazy and off the wall, and that's the fun part of it. They're so creative and it's just great to embrace that, and the parents love seeing them being creative anyway, but then learning this lovely skill set to go along with it, it's just a really good after school class. I think that's why it's worked.
Speaker 4:And if you could give advice to somebody that was in your shoes all those years ago, that had an idea and thought, okay, this, I could make this into something, what advice would that be?
Speaker 3:yeah, that's. That's a good question, my gosh, I think if you're, if you've got a good idea and you're passionate about it, then you know. See, we started this business from our house, right, and I literally set it up from the bedroom my office table was the ironing board right, and we slowly built it up from there and the best advice I could give is to do it one step at a time. Okay, don't try and get there too quickly. We never had to take a loan out, we never had to borrow money. You know it was one class at a time. Yeah, fill that up, run it successfully. Put a lot of energy into running a really good class, yeah, and I think if you run in a good class, the best form of marketing then is people talking about this great class that's going on and that's going to kind of help set up the other classes. Obviously, we're trying to market all across the country and that's when you know the funds come in for a marketing budget.
Speaker 4:But I think initially start slow and get it right from the beginning, do you know? Of course, because then you can end up somewhere like this with the amount of classes and the amount of staff that you've got so great advice. No, definitely that's amazing, um, and obviously you use class for kids for your booking um, and is that something you'd recommend to somebody?
Speaker 3:else. That is one of the things I'd recommend as well, because when we initially started we would literally have Word documents with all our customers' details on and their telephone numbers on, and to manage that it's nearly impossible, you know and to have the transactions coming through and everything through the system and there's so many great things about the class for kids. That just takes care of all that and you can just focus on the classes then rather than, you know, focusing on the classes, thinking about all your customers and you've got all the details and you know it's a really good way of communicating to your customers, you know.
Speaker 4:Amazing, and I mean it's great that because then it means that you can really focus on what's communicating to your customers. You know, amazing and I mean it's great that because then it means that you can really focus on what's important to you guys, which is providing these sessions, providing the skill set to these kids, and things like that.
Speaker 3:Amazing, I think that's one of the big differences we found when we got class for kids on board was that it took away the headache of of, you know, maintaining our customers and communication and everything else you know.
Speaker 4:It allowed us, like you said, just to focus on on what we do best and that's when the class is, you know, yeah, and then obviously with those classes there's qualifications that come alongside. That, isn't there? Do?
Speaker 3:you want to tell me a little bit about that and what people can achieve well, I think you know, for for anything you're learning, it's always good to have you know where you started, how you're progressing and where you're going to.
Speaker 3:So we, we set up a certificate based plan whereby a child starts with us at a real beginner level doing, doing simple little tasks and they get a certificate for that and they slowly grade up through the certificates until they graduate from beginner into intermediate. And yeah, I think you know, having this kind of certificate plan, you know, encourages the kids to want to get the next certificate, but also it communicates to the parents of what they're actually getting out of these classes. Yeah, because it's an investment isn't it, it is, it is.
Speaker 4:Like I take my little boy to dance. I know that people do football and that's great. That's good, that's a skill. They really love it. But if you can take your child somewhere, that's a social skill they're meeting friends. But also it's an investment in your child's future that they're learning these skills that they can take into adulthood, etc.
Speaker 3:Then what price can you put on that? Really, a lot of our kids we've been trading now for 10 years so a lot of our kids have come from our classes and gone on to the degree courses. So all this kind of documentation of history, of all the work they've achieved, the garments they've made, the certificates, this all kind of goes towards that big interview of trying to get into college, you know. So yeah, it's really good in that way that you know they have a portfolio nearly before they go along for the interview. You know, amazing.
Speaker 4:So, in terms of aspirations, of where you're wanting Project Fashion to go, tell me a little bit more about that. What's the plan? What's the big goals?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you know, we have grown from just running classes to having our own fabric shop. Yeah, so the plan was and and is successfully happening at the moment. It's we. We listen to our customers. So the customers would say, um, what kind of fabric do we need, and whatnot. So, through listening to them, we thought to ourselves well, let's set up a, let's set up a shop. Yeah, so we currently service and provide fabric and sell fabric to our current kids that are in our classes.
Speaker 3:But we're trying to open that up now to new markets.
Speaker 3:So not people that just come to our classes, maybe crafters maybe college students or designers, and so we source our fabrics from all over Europe and even Japan. We get fabrics in and we get design off cuts all over Europe and even Japan. We get fabrics in and we get design off cuts of some of the designer labels and that sort of thing. So that's something that we're really trying to promote now is that fabric shop. Now we've moved into this fantastic venue we are looking to start up adult classes and start pushing that end of things. We also are trying to take to build and build relations with colleges and heads of colleges and that so we can supply not only the fabrics but try and supply these, put on these classes for students that might be struggling with the sewing end on their degree course, Of course.
Speaker 3:So we can put on these kind of classes for students and skilled people, yeah. And then we're looking at brands that are out there and getting them to come and do talks about their brand, their fashion brand.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like there's this really cool denim brand that's set up in Dublin and it's set up around the Guinness brand, right. So they found all the paperwork, all the patterns or something from the 1800s and they were making all the uniforms and that for Guinness. So now they're making these amazing denims.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it'd just be great to get brands like that to come up, talk about their story, inspire young designers. Yeah, and then maybe just run a course off the back of that. That's a jean making class. Yeah, it's almost like a collaboration between the two, Exactly collaborating with brands, which it'll heighten our profile a little bit well, of course yeah, we know.
Speaker 4:We know as consumers that when you interact and have a good interaction with a brand from a really young age, you almost grow up with that brand and that becomes something that's part of your life, as cheesy as that sounds. So that's such a good idea. It really is so.
Speaker 3:That's the plan, is to get brands on board and and it's going to inspire all our children, students, seeing these brands and what they do yeah, it kind of gives them ideas about, um, the way they were successful, that brand was successful, and maybe realizing what they want to achieve. But applying things from these different brands to inspire them to go and do what they want to do, you know, amazing, yeah. And then eventually maybe we'll start to export our product and even come over to the UK and wherever else you never know where they'll take us.
Speaker 3:You know we are very ambitious.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think that's going back to you know, the question you said earlier there about what advice would you give to people starting off? That's one of the things I would say is to sorry, I've totally forgotten what I was going to say. What was I saying?
Speaker 4:so you were saying that, moving over to the UK, you're looking to like branch out?
Speaker 3:expand, expand and export.
Speaker 4:You're looking to like branch out, expand, yeah, expand and export.
Speaker 4:It's gone sorry, it's alright no, no worries, it'll come back to you. It's fine. I mean, in terms of everything that you're saying, I definitely think that there's a massive gap in the market, especially in the UK, for things like this. I think that's why you've not only had success from the you know here, but it's something that I can see a lot of people, especially in the UK, for things like this. I think that's why you've not only had success from here, but it's something that I can see a lot of people putting their kids into, and adults into it's a definite it's a real skill.
Speaker 4:So no, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:I think you know, that kind of whole sustainability thing really goes in our favour at the moment, Of course. I think even teaching people how to sew and repair and reinvent and all that kind of thing lends itself to being sustainable anyway of course yeah, so, yeah, that, that. That that's something we'll probably look into in the future as well as is, you know, setting up classes based around that, you know yeah, and there's probably a few mums and dads out there that are looking at their curtains thinking, oh no, don't please don't make.
Speaker 4:Don't make yourself a top out of them. So no amazing and well, they don't need to. You've got your fabric shop for the for the kids. So no great. And in your own words, how important do you think having this creative outlet is for for kids?
Speaker 3:yeah, I think it's really important because, um, not everybody's a sport. You know into the sport and everything else, so it does allow creative kids. You know they might. There's lots of classes out there for drawing and painting and everything else, but you know it's, it's a new way of of bringing in this creative outlet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but you know it's it's a new way of bringing in this creative outlet yeah, but you know it'd be in fashion. Yeah, and there is an opportunity to move on and build a career from it, which is fantastic. And a lot of kids as well.
Speaker 3:In school they might not be that academic yeah and they um, you know that you know a lot of kids that are dyslexic and that they're quite creative and it's an outlet for them to get out of that academic environment in school. Yeah, come and learn. You know they learn in a different way. Yeah, so you know this could be the route to their future really is by not going that academic route. Yeah, but they learn all about fashion and design and garment construction and pattern cutting and fabrics and colours and you know trends and all this sort of thing and it is a real, it is a real career development thing, you know.
Speaker 4:So I just want to thank you for, you know, being on the podcast with us and for giving us such great insight. I want to wish you all the best of luck with all your future plans. Obviously, we've been around for a little bit of that and we're looking forward to being with you, you know, going forward into it. So yeah, thank you so much. It's been lovely speaking to you.
Speaker 3:And yourself, yeah.
Speaker 2:I look forward to working with you as we um, as we grow the business to this amazing empire. Yeah, I'm really worried. What are you worried about? Because other people are quite good at interviewing our customers.
Speaker 1:I know this is getting a bit of a bit of an issue, isn't it?
Speaker 2:I mean, we are, you know, ever since that brian came along, he's just been getting other people finding other talent news Finding other talent scouting about asking them to do things instead of us.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's not like we have the time to do every single bit of it.
Speaker 2:Not a massive well done to Michaela, I think.
Speaker 1:I don't know why.
Speaker 2:I'm pointing to her, like she's there.
Speaker 1:Well done, Michaela. For those listening who have no idea what we're even doing, we're pointing to an empty seat.
Speaker 2:Michaela did a fantastic job interviewing Paul from Project Fashion and really digging into what they're doing and why they're so successful.
Speaker 1:We've been waiting to go and see them for years, literally years, because they're one of our biggest customers, one of our longest customers, and it's a very interesting concept. It's not in any of our can. I mean verticals, as Miss Marketing here would say, yeah, Verticals being.
Speaker 2:Basically different activity types that Class for Kids serves, and what's our main ones Dance, football and gymnastics, performing arts, ball sports but not fashion.
Speaker 2:However, we do see this kind of Other category that we refer to and I think you know fashion, the concept of project fashion is very Unique to Class for Kids is what I would say and they're doing something very different, very special, and the fact that they were in a kitchen For the longest period of time. When Brian came back and told me that and sort of listened to the podcast, I was very astonished at how just successful they were from a kitchen.
Speaker 1:So I don't think there was much else to say about that other than it was a fantastic interview, well conducted by our colleague Michaela, and lots of great takeaways for clubs right across all of our activity types.
Speaker 2:I think that's the thing about the podcast. You know, if anybody that is listening that maybe you're thinking how do I apply tips from a project sorry, from a fashion school. Or if I'm a gymnastics club listening to a dance interview, it's never just thinking about that's a dance school. It's not applicable to me. It's about what is that person learned in their journey of business and how do I take those things away and apply it so you know whether they've got something really innovative in customer retention or whether they're talking about how they increase their prices, how they improve the parent booking experience, all of those kind of things. It's just not thinking about it from an activity point of view. That's maybe something different. It's more what are they doing as a business owner? That's actually really clever and how could I apply that to my club? Because I think there's so much to learn because different you know types of businesses. Whether it's a dance school or a gymnastics club, they'll be doing things so differently, but actually there's so much to learn In the world of business.
Speaker 1:We would call that cross-pollination, cross-pollination eh, that's very nice, and do you?
Speaker 2:know the other thing I love that we are getting out to Ireland to visit more of our customers, because we've been to loads of places in England.
Speaker 1:Obviously local clubs coming to us in Glasgow and going out to different places in Scotland, but we're really pushing the boundaries in that Ireland space the next few months we're going to be over there a lot more as well, and getting into next year we're pretty much moving in.
Speaker 2:so we're coming to get you Ireland so if you are listening and you're from Ireland and you think could Class for Kids, come and visit me, do drop us a DM on socials and we'll just rock up at your house one day, unannounced, with a microphone no, but seriously, if you, we would absolutely love to hear from you and come over and do a visit with you.
Speaker 1:We would love to and we look forward to seeing you soon and you'll hear us all again soon on the next episode, but for now we're going to learn how to count One.
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't start that way. What does it do? Three, two, one bye, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, it's been a bit of a time. I think, anyway, it's been a moment right.
