Incubator fashions a designer future for downtown
Published October 8, 2014
The list of innovative efforts making St. Louis more competitive and desirable continues to grow. CORTEX. Arch Grants. IKEA. A fashion incubator.
Wait, what was that last one again?
You read that right. If a group of local movers and shakers is successful, it will be up and running by 2016 with a center intended to keep and attract quality designers, conjuring up memories of St. Louis’ historic downtown Garment District.
And the group is engaging the public in the effort, with a major event slated this month.
“We really want to entice young talent to come here and stay,” says Susan Sherman, chairman of the St. Louis Fashion Fund (SLFF), which is championing the effort for a local fashion incubator. “Other cities have begun incubators, where they invite designers to come toil for a year, then move on. We want to draw people interested in staying and building a business here.”
The nonprofit incubator would provide up-and-coming designers with resources to establish and grow their businesses. Each year, six to eight “designers-in-residence” would be given space to live and create, along with opportunities to showcase their designs during St. Louis Fashion Week and other fashion-related events. Sherman hopes the incubator would also include manufacturing capabilities so that the entire design process, from pattern to production, would take place in St. Louis.
Of course, all of this takes money. Sherman and her 32-member board of directors have already raised some, including a $10,000 donation from the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis. But SLFF is hoping to increase that at least tenfold by hosting a $500 per person gala at Union Station on Oct. 17.
The gala, which will cap this fall’s St. Louis Fashion Week (see listings at right for related events), will honor New York-based fashion writer Derek Blasberg and supermodel Karlie Klose, both of whom are St. Louis natives. Fern Mallis, who is credited as the creator of New York Fashion Week, will serve as the evening’s host.
“Part of what we are trying to do with the incubator is connect St. Louis today with its fashion history,” Sherman says.
From the late 19th century to the end of World War II, downtown St. Louis was an American hotspot for fashion design and manufacturing. Its Garment District along Washington Avenue was home to some of the nation’s most prestigious brands, many with Jewish roots, including International Shoe, Knickerbocker Clothing, Fashion Square, Kitty Kay Gloves and the Bee Hat and Cap Co. But by the 1980s, the last of the factories had moved out.
The time is right
The idea of a fashion incubator in downtown St. Louis is not new. It got some traction four years ago with a proposed incubator that would have been housed in the Railway Exchange Building at Sixth and Olive streets, which had been Macy’s downtown store and offices before it was closed in 2008.
However, the Railway Exchange space eventually was used as a tech-startup incubator called T-REx (Technology at the Railway Exchange). In March, the Downtown T-REx co-working space moved to a permanent location in the Lammert Building at 911 Washington Avenue.
Missy Kelly, chief operating officer of the Downtown Partnership, says, “We feel really confident that the timing is right for a fashion incubator because we have the startup culture and momentum in place, not just with T-REx but also Lab 1500, another co-working, entrepreneurial center, and the CORTEX bioscience and technology hub. All of that has built an ecosystem for entrepreneurs here to go from idea to product to profitable business.”
Also propelling the fashion incubator this time is the SLFF board, which includes “some of the city’s top funders and connectors,” Kelly says.
Among them are Alive magazine publisher and St. Louis Fashion Week founder Elizabeth Tucker, Jill McGuire of the Regional Arts Commission, Mary Strauss of Fox Associates, Mary Ann Srenco of the Kranzberg Foundation and Sharon Tucci of Talent Plus.
“Not only do they want to see this initiative move forward, they also are actively fundraising and putting their energy behind it to make it happen,” Kelly says, explaining that in giving the $10,000 donation, Downtown Partnership stipulated that the incubator be located downtown and have “a well thought-through” business plan.
A studied effort
To that end, SLFF has engaged Washington University’s Olin School of Business, which has a program in which student teams tackle for-profit and nonprofit projects. A team of five Olin students, led by a second-year MBA student, is working on a business plan for the incubator and will make a final presentation to the SLFF board in early December.
“Hopefully, this business plan will be a springboard to further action and the realization of a fashion incubator in the future,” says Martin Sneider, an adjunct professor who is serving as faculty adviser to the Olin students. Sneider has taught at the university for 22 years and retired as co-CEO of Edison Brothers in 1995.
“I’m very optimistic,” he says. “The Fashion Fund is extremely enthusiastic about the prospects, and we have a great team in place. That combination usually results in something very good happening.”
