The UPS 10
Meet fashion's future
Thursday, July 27, 2006
(NEW YORK) IMG Fashion and UPS are bringing the brown back to the tents.
As part of the second wave of the “UPS Delivering Fashion’s Future” initiative, the 10 emerging designers who will present their spring/summer 2007 collection at Olympus Fashion Week, Sept. 8-15, were revealed on Wednesday.
They include Alice Ritter, Ashleigh Verrier, Brian Reyes, Erin Fetherston, Michon Schur, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Sari Gueron, Terexov, Toni Maticevski, and Vena Cava. The designers were selected in consultation with a cross section committee of industry professionals from both the publishing—Vogue, Elle, The Daily, and Fashion Wire Daily—and retail—Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Barneys New York, Browns—communities. Parsons the New School of Design, the CFDA, and Gen Art also voiced opinions.
“There’s this fabulous groundswell of young designers out there,” said Fern Mallis, vice president of IMG. “But some people tend to be young emerging designers their whole life. I think this group really defines UPS’ mission of delivering fashion’s future. They’re still fresh and new and we want to give them this great opportunity.” Mallis added that her office received over 200 applications for the 10 coveted slots. Each qualifying candidate was required to be in business for at least two years and have sold for at least two seasons.
UPS will underwrite the venue rental for the designers, which includes professional lighting, sound, and technical elements. The designers will also benefit from special collateral and marketing materials developed by UPS, including a program with each designer’s bio and photo, that will be included in the marketing and communications materials produced by IMG Fashion for Olympus Fashion Week. UPS will provide the shipping of the collection to the venue.
The UPS Hub tent, which can seat anywhere from 232-406, depending on configuration, will feature the company’s signature brown color and be logo-less with the exception of a few gobos.
Karen Cole, international public relations manager for UPS, said, “Our message is to show the fashion community that we’re here and where you need us to be. The main idea here is that UPS and fashion are a perfect fit.”
Mallis explained why international designers were included in the selection. “With Toni Maticevski, it’s not [about being] an Australian designer; it’s about being a world class designer,” she said. “It crosses all borders and UPS is a global company that connects dots around the world.” As for UPS’ involvement, Mallis was candid about the sponsorship. “This is an excellent business opportunity for them,” she said. “They’ve used their venue above and beyond just the shows. They have seminars in there, they bring their clients and future clients to see the space, I mean, they’re no different from any other fashion person in the tents. Everyone’s here to do business. It’s not just fun; it’s a business at every level of this game.”
UPS will host a discussion on “Inside Fashion’s Future” during fashion week too, where fashion students will be invited to ask questions about the process leading up to staging one’s own fashion show, among other topics. Last September, UPS-sponsored designers like Project Alabama’s Natalie Chanin, Doo-Ri Chung, Matthew Earnest, and Tomer Gendler of Tomer participated in the talks, which were moderated by professor Sass Brown from F.I.T. In addition, a pre-show reception will be held on August 15 at 60 Thompson Hotel.
For some designers, they were elated; for others, it came as an unexpected surprise.
Stephanie Schur, designer for the Michon Schur label, is looking forward to her very first fashion show after staging presentations the last two seasons. “It’s so exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time,” she said. “Now I have to consider the motion of the clothes on the runway, not to mention music and seating.” Gueron said, “It was kind of a surprise. I didn’t expect it. We had picked our venue already but it’s a relief. Gueron had shown for the past two seasons at the New Space in Chelsea and was planning to show there again in the fall. She is now scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 10, at 3 p.m. “I saw pictures of people who showed last year at the UPS tent and everything looked top notch so that excited me,” she said. “For PR, it’s great, financially it’s great, and now I get to meet new people in the industry.”
For 25-year-olds Sophie Buhai and Lisa Maycock of Vena Cava, who found each other at Parsons and partnered up when they graduated in 2003, the news that they had been selected couldn’t have come at a better moment. “We were at one of our factories having a tough day when we got the call,” Buhai said. “It was like, complete chaos, but it was a perfect moment for us.” Adds Maycock, “We’re thrilled to be working with UPS. Their tent is brown and it’s funny because we use brown every season. Everyone’s like, ‘brown doesn’t sell, it’s a really tough color,’ but we’ve used it always and it’s worked. It’s good luck for us.” The girls are currently rifting through vintage art books for their Spring ’07 inspirations.
*
San Francisco native Ashleigh Verrier has seen her career blossom since her internship at Proenza Schouler several years ago. Under Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s tutelage, Verrier first realized she could build her own brand—the next year, her senior thesis collection from Parsons was bought by Saks. Though she’s had retail and industry success, the UPS tent marks Verrier’s first runway presentation since college. “You’ll see a juxtaposition of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O on my runway this season,” Verrier said. “I was reading Barbara Learning’s biography of Marilyn [Monroe]…how she never dies, no matter what. It’s fascinating to me.”
While the stress of scouting show venues and paying for everything from lighting to backstage space has been alleviated, perhaps the best bit of news to come out of yesterday’s round of calls was the increase in flexibility these young designers will enjoy come September.
“Now I can invite a few more people,” Gueron laughed.
JIM SHI AND FARAN KRENTCIL
Meet fashion's future
Thursday, July 27, 2006
(NEW YORK) IMG Fashion and UPS are bringing the brown back to the tents.
As part of the second wave of the “UPS Delivering Fashion’s Future” initiative, the 10 emerging designers who will present their spring/summer 2007 collection at Olympus Fashion Week, Sept. 8-15, were revealed on Wednesday.
They include Alice Ritter, Ashleigh Verrier, Brian Reyes, Erin Fetherston, Michon Schur, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Sari Gueron, Terexov, Toni Maticevski, and Vena Cava. The designers were selected in consultation with a cross section committee of industry professionals from both the publishing—Vogue, Elle, The Daily, and Fashion Wire Daily—and retail—Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Barneys New York, Browns—communities. Parsons the New School of Design, the CFDA, and Gen Art also voiced opinions.
“There’s this fabulous groundswell of young designers out there,” said Fern Mallis, vice president of IMG. “But some people tend to be young emerging designers their whole life. I think this group really defines UPS’ mission of delivering fashion’s future. They’re still fresh and new and we want to give them this great opportunity.” Mallis added that her office received over 200 applications for the 10 coveted slots. Each qualifying candidate was required to be in business for at least two years and have sold for at least two seasons.
UPS will underwrite the venue rental for the designers, which includes professional lighting, sound, and technical elements. The designers will also benefit from special collateral and marketing materials developed by UPS, including a program with each designer’s bio and photo, that will be included in the marketing and communications materials produced by IMG Fashion for Olympus Fashion Week. UPS will provide the shipping of the collection to the venue.
The UPS Hub tent, which can seat anywhere from 232-406, depending on configuration, will feature the company’s signature brown color and be logo-less with the exception of a few gobos.
Karen Cole, international public relations manager for UPS, said, “Our message is to show the fashion community that we’re here and where you need us to be. The main idea here is that UPS and fashion are a perfect fit.”
Mallis explained why international designers were included in the selection. “With Toni Maticevski, it’s not [about being] an Australian designer; it’s about being a world class designer,” she said. “It crosses all borders and UPS is a global company that connects dots around the world.” As for UPS’ involvement, Mallis was candid about the sponsorship. “This is an excellent business opportunity for them,” she said. “They’ve used their venue above and beyond just the shows. They have seminars in there, they bring their clients and future clients to see the space, I mean, they’re no different from any other fashion person in the tents. Everyone’s here to do business. It’s not just fun; it’s a business at every level of this game.”
UPS will host a discussion on “Inside Fashion’s Future” during fashion week too, where fashion students will be invited to ask questions about the process leading up to staging one’s own fashion show, among other topics. Last September, UPS-sponsored designers like Project Alabama’s Natalie Chanin, Doo-Ri Chung, Matthew Earnest, and Tomer Gendler of Tomer participated in the talks, which were moderated by professor Sass Brown from F.I.T. In addition, a pre-show reception will be held on August 15 at 60 Thompson Hotel.
For some designers, they were elated; for others, it came as an unexpected surprise.
Stephanie Schur, designer for the Michon Schur label, is looking forward to her very first fashion show after staging presentations the last two seasons. “It’s so exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time,” she said. “Now I have to consider the motion of the clothes on the runway, not to mention music and seating.” Gueron said, “It was kind of a surprise. I didn’t expect it. We had picked our venue already but it’s a relief. Gueron had shown for the past two seasons at the New Space in Chelsea and was planning to show there again in the fall. She is now scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 10, at 3 p.m. “I saw pictures of people who showed last year at the UPS tent and everything looked top notch so that excited me,” she said. “For PR, it’s great, financially it’s great, and now I get to meet new people in the industry.”
For 25-year-olds Sophie Buhai and Lisa Maycock of Vena Cava, who found each other at Parsons and partnered up when they graduated in 2003, the news that they had been selected couldn’t have come at a better moment. “We were at one of our factories having a tough day when we got the call,” Buhai said. “It was like, complete chaos, but it was a perfect moment for us.” Adds Maycock, “We’re thrilled to be working with UPS. Their tent is brown and it’s funny because we use brown every season. Everyone’s like, ‘brown doesn’t sell, it’s a really tough color,’ but we’ve used it always and it’s worked. It’s good luck for us.” The girls are currently rifting through vintage art books for their Spring ’07 inspirations.
*
San Francisco native Ashleigh Verrier has seen her career blossom since her internship at Proenza Schouler several years ago. Under Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s tutelage, Verrier first realized she could build her own brand—the next year, her senior thesis collection from Parsons was bought by Saks. Though she’s had retail and industry success, the UPS tent marks Verrier’s first runway presentation since college. “You’ll see a juxtaposition of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O on my runway this season,” Verrier said. “I was reading Barbara Learning’s biography of Marilyn [Monroe]…how she never dies, no matter what. It’s fascinating to me.”
While the stress of scouting show venues and paying for everything from lighting to backstage space has been alleviated, perhaps the best bit of news to come out of yesterday’s round of calls was the increase in flexibility these young designers will enjoy come September.
“Now I can invite a few more people,” Gueron laughed.
JIM SHI AND FARAN KRENTCIL
