Susie Breuer

Born in Lancaster, England, I developed an early interest in fashion which led me to work my way from a retail sales associate to leading the development and production departments of global fashion brands like Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, and Tommy Hilfiger.

My knowledge of the fashion industry stems from my extensive hands-on experience setting up production and development teams, building department structures, and creating sourcing strategies. I distilled these experiences into my recent book Blue is the New Black, a 10-step guide to the development and production of a fashion collection. Released in 2012, reprinted in paperback, and available on Kindle, 'Blue' has been enthusiastically received as an "industry Bible", and is currently used by fashion schools and brands across Europe as course work and by fashion companies from Italy to China as a blueprint for development and production.

Blue is the New Black is available internationally, has received a glowing review by the New York Times T magazine, and Sir Paul Smith, and is on it's 3rd print.

I founded the consultancy Co-Lab54 in 2010 providing strategic guidance to large and small fashion companies around the product development process from department setup and range planning to sourcing strategies and procedural information flow.

I have spoken at the Redress Raleigh Eco Fashion and Textile Conference and at the AATCC Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Current projects include a digital lecture series to accompany the book.