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Comment by staticelf | Hacker News Reader

I disagree. Why would that "trivialize" the work behind building the company? Of course the people involved care deeply about the outcome.

But for me, as a total outsider, this has 0 news worth since from my understanding the company has no real public interest except for their customers and founders/owners. AFAIK the company isn't even public so it isn't like anyone has anything invested in it.

It is for me obvious that the company bankruptcy is covered because of the gender of the founder. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't really see any other reason to why.

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If you live/work someplace like Los Angeles where "fast fashion" startups are doing a significant amount of tech hiring, it's useful to understand what they do and the difficulty of being "disruptive" in that space.

It's also useful, as a man, to have a basic understanding of the fashion industry as part of being an educated human being. You can tell a lot about a woman by how she dresses herself. Especially her shoes. :)

Here I found it. If you require an explanation of why fashion is important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja2fgquYTCg

The company is actually extremely popular among younger women. If you're a male, you aren't really their target market for advertising.

> The company is actually extremely popular among younger women.

Maybe not that popular if they're going bankrupt?

That's the point, that you can be successful and go broke doing it.

The reason fashion is a tough nut to crack is the short business cycle and associated inventory risk. You need to anticipate fashion trends, get product to market quickly, and if you screw up you have to dump your inventory at clearance sale prices and eat that loss. Big retailers are experts at finding ways to manage that risk, and that's why the Forever 21's of the world sell crap clothing made overseas.

Seriously, when Britney Spears popularized low-rise jeans, every teenage female in the USA had to go to the mall and change out her wardrobe. When Clark Gable appeared in a movie wearing a men's dress shirt with no undershirt, the market for men's undershirts tanked.

How does one plan for that sort of thing within the constraints of a VC-backed company?

Fashion is a pretty hard industry especially when you're targeting younger people with less disposable income. If you sell your brand to the mall type retailers, your brand image is pretty much dead. If you don't sell to them, they copy your designs and sell for less anyways.

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