Part 2 of 2: Working With Friends

Continuing from Part 1 of 2: The Silk Road to London, today St. Piece co-founder, Ting Hsu, talks about the process of forming a business and learning how to best work with a partner.

How did you two prepare for entrepreneurship?

Sandy graduated from Central St. Martin and knew of an evening course on how to start a business so we got in touch with the school to ask if I, as her business partner, could join the course even though I wasn't an alumni, and they permitted it. After that we spoke to people in the industry and learned about resources for young designers. We decided along the way that we wanted to do something that would best display Sandy's art and that's how we started making scarves. In our third season we started working with Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf's. Prior to that we thought St. Piece would be a fun side project!

What was it like those first few seasons?

When Sandy and I first starting going to shows and people asked if we had a lookbook, or a line sheet, etc., we said, "Yes of course," and then would turn to each other and say, "We should have done that!" and then we'd wing it.

What have you learned about working as a team?

Sandy is a great designer and like many creative people she feels very personal about her work. I act as a buffer between her and the buyers. I've learned to reposition the feedback we get so it's positive and will improve Sandy’s work rather than critique it. For example, one season we had lots of yellows and oranges, and I was told by some of our European and North American stockists that those colors don't work well with Caucasian skin tone. So when I spoke to Sandy I explained that the designs were good, but the stores would prefer different colors that work better against a Caucasian skin tone. That's a reason that she can accept and as the designer she needs to know this information about our customers. It works well for us to work as a team.

Thank you to Ting for the interview! Additional information about St. Piece is available on the brand’s website and Instagram. This was Part 2 of 2 so be sure to read Part 1 of 2!