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Cover StroyThe company: eFashionSolutions. The product: Hip-hop clothing lines. The clients: J.Lo, Russell Simmons, Nelly and more. The key? Read on Date published: 2/10/2005
YOUTH CORRESPONDENT Everyone wonders how life would be if they could only come up with that one brilliant idea that nobody else thought of. A machine that toasts your bread in seconds; a small piece of paper that you can write down notes and stick in places to remind you later; prepackaged water in a bottle; Velcro! How about an Internet company that groups together all the leading hip-hop fashion labels and makes their clothes more accessible to consumers? That's exactly what Ed Foy Jr. and his wife, Jennifer, did. The young couple saw an opportunity to bring urban fashion to the masses and they grabbed it, fed it and raised it. Now they are the proud parents of a 4-year-old company: eFashionSolutions. Ed and Jennifer started eFashionSolutions with only $3,000, and turned their company into a multimillion-dollar venture. The tag team represents just about everybody who's anybody in the hip-hop fashion world--from J.Lo to Rocawear, Baby Phat to Applebottoms (that would be Nelly's line), and even the infamous Members Only. That's right: Members Only is still pushing out those jackets that your dad used to wear (or still does). "It's the same damn jacket. It's the hottest-selling jacket in Manhattan right now. It's the retro--it's Urban Outfitters' No. 1-selling outerwear piece," says Ed. The Foys carry a roster of approximately 15 fashion labels. Mix business and pleasureEd Foy Jr. got his degree in finance from Iona College. Jennifer Foy graduated from Berkeley College with a degree in fashion marketing and management. The two met up as execs at Calvin Klein Jeans before striking out on their own. For a lot of couples, working together can be extremely stressful and in turn yield poor results--"Gigli," for instance--but the Foys find a way to make it work. "I guess because we've always worked together it helps a lot. It's the foundation to our relationship--we started dating when we worked together at Calvin Klein," Jennifer says. "It's definitely not easy. I know it sounds corny, but Jen's strengths are my weaknesses and my strengths are her weaknesses," pipes Ed. Being college graduates, Ed and Jen respect the discipline of the educated individual--but recognize that a paper in a frame doesn't mean everything.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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