We have to admit, we wouldn’t be where we are today without those influential mentors we had in our lives and careers. (Erin trained alongside W Magazine’s Alex White and Cov-alum Susie Sheffman, while Stephanie was shown the ropes by ELLE’s Kate Lanphear and celeb stylists-turned-Coveteurs Leslie Fremar and Annabel Tollman.) It’s a wild, wild world out there for young, budding designers so having a friendly helping hand to guide you through the trenches is, well, a godsend. Cue: CFDA {FASHION INCUBATOR} - a business development program designed to support the next generation of fashion designers in N.Y.C.
The program hand-picks 10 on-the-rise brands based in NYC and spends the next two years fostering the designers' talent by providing them with a low-cost design space, networking opportunities and (duh, could have seen this one coming) a team of valuable mentors to guide them. Think: Roopal Patel, Steven Alan and many more. There’s another impressive partner in this whole thing - the fine folks at W Hotels. The cutting edge hotel brand is obsessed with what’s new and next and has a longstanding passion for fashion, so it’s no wonder they teamed up to support the CFDA’s next generation of talent. As part of the partnership, the designers will embark on once-in-lifetime inspiration trips for their Spring 2014 collections to like anywhere in the world where there’s a W; St. Petersburg, Bali, Istanbul, you name it. Pretty glam, right? And all will be revealed at New York Fashion Week. Also, with the help of W Hotels, each designer will be given unprecedented opportunities to showcase their collection in regional markets across the country (think: Atlanta, Dallas, etc.) to local retailers and media; now that's what we like to call getting by with a little help from our friends!
So where do we come in? Well we tagged along for the ride… kind of. We hopped in the suitcase of ISAORA and ARI DEIN to bring you on the road of their creative trips. First stop? The West Coast with Marc and Ricky of ISAORA. The team started their trip being welcomed by W Seattle, made their way down to W San Fransisco, and said their last good-byes at W San Diego. We then made a hop, skip and a jump to Russia with Arielle Shapiro of ARI DEIN, where W St.Peterburg graciously rolled out a very fancy welcome mat. As for the other participating designers: Burkman Bros, Daniel Vosovic, Emanuela Duca, Jonathan Simkhai, Reece Hudson, Whit and Timo Weiland? We’ll be getting – how do we put this? – postcards from their travels to ease our mild case of FOMO and live vicariously through their photos and fables.
Now boarding, #WFCDA!