Fashion and San Francisco are very few times found in the same sentence.
However, right in the heart of downtown, at the ground floor of the Bloomingdales shopping center, it lays the Fashion Accelerator, a full fledged studio space to support the most promising fashion-focused entrepreneurs.
Sponsored by some of the largest retailers like Bloomingdales / Macys, the no-profit hosts and mentors half a dozen upcoming designers for 6-18 months since 2012.
It might not be as mainstream as tech, but SF has actually been a hub for the fashion industry, right after LA and NYC for a long time.
Home of athletic and performance brands like Patagonia, North Face, Levi’s, Gap, now SF is emerging as the fashion hub with a strong focus on organic and sustainable apparel.
And of course tech, with winners like Stitchfix and the growing role of social media (Instagram and Pinterest in particular) as the de-facto new brand-builders with the right influencers.
About this and more (ie what laws regulate the engagement between influencers and brands), we discuss with Rachel Fischbein, the SF Fashion Accelerator director in this new Mind-the-chat.
Rachel Fischbein, the Fashion Accelerator
0.43 stuck between Law School and Fashion Marketing
2.06 starting sewing in high school
3.09 story of the Fashion Accelerator
3.30 from Macys Chicago Fashion Accelerator in 2001 to SF
5.10 SF and fashion industry
9.42 sewing machines and the largest cutting table
12.30 the ideal founder (designer) who fits well
19.20 the incubator KPI: number of jobs created
21.20 the economics of fashion: retailers cut & fulfillment
24.21 how far are we from just-in-time manufactory
25.54 how social media is changing the whole industry
29.15 the current laws of transparency of influencers and fashion (disclaimer)
33.40 wearable technology: fad or opportunity?
38.40 current roles and models of accelerators in general
41.05 new business models emerging