PGHFW20: fashion Week City Collaborations
Pittsburgh is a growing fashion city and while we have plenty to offer in various domains, it is important to establish relationships with other cities that have been in the fashion world.
With this year’s September celebration for fashion week, we are partnering with the following cities and promoting our growing fashion communities in the process:
PGHFW20: Fashion City Broadcast Spotlight Schedule
September 21, 2020: Fashion Week Columbus / Monday Afternoon - 12:40 PM (ET)
September 21, 2020: Baltimore Fashion Week / Monday Evening - 6:50 PM (ET)
September 21, 2020: Nashville Fashion Week / Monday Evening - 7:30 PM (ET)
September 22, 2020: Nashville Fashion Week / Tuesday Afternoon - 1:20 PM (ET)
September 23, 2020: Nashville Fashion Week / Wednesday Afternoon -12:46 PM (ET)
September 24, 2020: Nashville Fashion Week / Thursday Afternoon - 1:18 PM (ET)
September 24, 2020: Indiana Fashion Week / Thursday Evening - 6:37 PM (ET)
September 25, 2020: Nashville Fashion Week / Friday Afternoon - 12:52 PM (ET)
Panel Discussion: How Small Cities Compete in Fashion
WHEN: September 23rd, 2020 - Wednesday evening at 6:20 PM (ET)
Panel moderator, Lisa Washington of KDKA speaks with the heads of three fashion weeks from around the nation. Sharan Nixon of Baltimore Fashion Week, Thomas McClure of Columbus Fashion Week, and Justice Kwarteng of Colorado Fashion Week share their insight in what it takes to build a fashion community in smaller cities across the country. These speakers discuss their experiences with engaging their audience, the shifts in the fashion industry, and building your fashion community where you are.
Thomas McClure, Fashion Week Columbus - is the founder of Fashion Week Columbus, the flagship program of the Columbus Fashion Council. McClure has been featured in the bestseller “Our Towns” as well as The Atlantic, New York Times, Southern Living, and Who’s Who GLBT Columbus.
FWC was founded in 2010. The non-profit organization’s mission is to provide scholarships to fashion design students while also providing a platform for emerging and local fashion designers. Since 2010, the organization has provided $30,000 in scholarship funds to Central Ohio fashion design students, provided a platform for over 130 Central Ohio designers and over 1200 models, and has produced over 100 fashion shows. WWD ranks Columbus #3 in the nation for the number of resident fashion designers. The Columbus Fashion Council continues to develop programs which directly impact Central Ohio’s fashion community and industry.
Fashion Week Columbus 2020 is September 20th - 26th.
Sharan Nixon, Baltimore Fashion Week - is the Founder and Lead Producer of Baltimore Fashion Week and Founder and Chief Volunteer of the Fashion Umbrella Foundation. A true lover of style, fashion, and organization. Her love for production began in 2004 with her first runway production, “And Then There Was Snow.” Nixon is also the proud mother of three handsome sons and two precious grandchildren.
Justice Kwarteng, Colorado Fashion Week - My purpose in life is To Make Everything and Everyone Better. I do this by taking more interest in everyone I come into contact with. I travel around the Country to work 1-on-1 to help Brands, Businesses, Organizations, Startups, and Founders to help solve their biggest business problems. I design Creative Solutions informed by Best Practice from my near 2-decades of experience as a Strategic Consultant.
Simply put, I go wherever the opportunity is and roll up my sleeves to work 1-on-1 alongside my clients to better understand the fundamental problem they are facing as a Business.
When not traveling to help Founders and Organizations, I spend my time designing and developing Business Ideas around ignored Social Problems through my Strategic Investing and content-first Venture Studios: I AM COLLAGE/Affluent (@collageaffluent) & ABIBIMAN Inc. (@iamabibiman).
Pittsburgh Fashion Week 2020 Partners
Marcia Masulla, Nashville Fashion Week - When most people think about Nashville, they are reminded of the bustling city life surrounded by The Grand Ole Opry, country music, and Johnny Cash’s everlasting legacy. What some decline to recognize is the city’s 10th year celebrating Nashville Fashion Week.
Founder and managing partner of Nashville Fashion Week, Marcia Masulla, describes the event as a “city-wide celebration of Nashville’s thriving fashion and retail community and its vast array of creative talent and continues to gain momentum year after year. Featuring local, regional and national designers and industry professionals in an array of creative events throughout the city encourages both Nashvillians and visitors to explore the city’s diverse fashion and retail spaces with promotions, partnerships and educational workshops.” In order to adapt to the COVID - 19 regulations, Masulla and other partners decided to take the event online.
“We launched the We Are Nashville Fashion" campaign to commemorate our 10th anniversary this year to make the point that our fashion week isn't just about the glam, designers, models or events. It's about the people who work within the industry and who contribute so much to this boot-strapped effort. From the florist, production team, caterer and hair and makeup teams to the music director, administrative crew, sponsors and more, it takes a community.”
Denisha “Dlang” Ferguson, Indiana Fashion Week - Close your eyes and imagine an MBA in AAS Fashion Merchandising and 20+ years of producing business, entertainment, and fashion events. Now stop imagining and begin recognizing Denisha–Dlang Ferguson, Executive Director of the Indiana Fashion Foundation and Indiana Fashion Week.
The Indiana Fashion Week® is a program of The Indiana Fashion Foundation (IFF), which is a nonprofit organization 501c3 dedicated to providing educational and professional resources to individuals pursuing careers in fashion within the state of Indiana. Without this year’s fashion week, Ferguson and other directors made a huge pivot and decided to pursue online conferences. This allowed them to maintain their distance and include individuals who would have otherwise participated in live events.
It was important to the organization to still have something for fashion, because it’s such an important thing in a highly competitive “sports” city. Ferguson explained it best with her statement saying that “Indiana is home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the NCAA Hall of Champions, the Indiana Pacers (NBA), the Indianapolis Colts (NFL), and multiple NCAA Division I schools, the state of Indiana is most widely recognized as a sports hub. However, Indiana has a rich fashion history, having been the home of fashion greats such as Norman Norell, Bill Blass, Stephen Sprouse, and Halston. To this day, there is a budding fashion community in Indiana that, until now, has not centralized its efforts to embed fashion into the narrative and legacy of the state. This is why Indiana Fashion Week (INDFW) was created, to aid in achieving the vision of a unified fashion industry in Indiana.” To connect with the INDFW, visit them at www.indianafashionweek.com.
Thomas McClure, Columbus Fashion Week - A decade of promoting local fashion designers, bringing models to big name agencies, and providing thousands of dollars in scholarships are three of a multitude of things that Fashion Week Columbus has to celebrate. As a flagship program of the Columbus Fashion Council, Fashion Week Columbus strives to spotlight local and emerging fashion designers through videos, photography, and presentations on the runway.
In an interview with Thomas McClure, founder and executive director of Columbus Fashion Council, he noted the importance of fashion in the city of Columbus and across the country. “You definitely have to have the talent. You then need to have the resources for that talent to grow their brands. And you need the buyers to sustain those brands. Buyers could be private clients, local boutiques, large retailers, etc... But I also think it's about creating that culture within your city through sharing the stories of designers, models, crew, makeup artists, hair professionals, photographers, and so on. The city's fashion culture feeds into the city, and vice versa.”
Fashion Week Columbus is September 20th - 26th, with access to a few virtual shows through a donation to the non-profit organization. Other shows will take place in person, and feature safety elements to follow COVID-19 guidelines. McClure describes those as including “wellness check forms, registration, temperature checks, mask requirements at all times, and social distancing.” This will help to ensure that everyone involved is kept as safe as possible. For more information, visit the website at: https://fashionweekcolumbus.org/events2020.
Sharan Nixon, Baltimore Fashion Week - Sharan Nixon can best be described as a loving mother and grandmother who always tries to think outside of the box. It’s these outstanding qualities that have made her a great candidate for the director of Baltimore Fashion Week 2021.
Like many other events across the country, Baltimore’s 2020 Fashion Week has been cancelled due to COVID-19. Therefore, this leaves directors and artists with a lot more time to prepare for next year’s event. Although we have to wait some time, it will be yet another great year for Baltimore as they celebrate holding the only fashion week in the city. Because they are stand alone, Nixon and her team have an overall theme of “fashion unifies”. Attempting to create equality among designers in fashion is important, and they strive toward a goal of presenting and marketing the best designers, no matter their situation. With Baltimore’s unique stories and cultures, it won’t be hard for designers to share their brand of style.
Although it may be postponed until 2021, Nixon encourages future attendees to “stay tuned for the best fashion experience ever involving both of these productions and the designers responsible for creating and setting the trends for today, tomorrow, and the future.”
Justice Kwarteng, Colorado Fashion Week - If Justice Kwarteng is anything, he is a problem solver. His work takes him all across the United States working one-on-one with brands, businesses, organizations, and startups to help them resolve what Justice calls, “their biggest and most uncomfortable business problems.” Through this experience, Justice has become well equipped for whatever is thrown at him, including the duties that come with running Colorado Fashion Week.
Colorado Fashion Week has not taken as much of a hit as other fashion week cities due to the structure of their organization. A few years ago, they recognized the change in interest from in person shows to virtual content and had already pivoted to making their business oriented fashion week less about the runway and more about the economic force behind the fashion community in Colorado. The changes that were implemented as long ago as 2013 built a foundation for a stable fashion community, even in times such as these.
Far and wide, each of Colorado’s cities and towns, while unique, share a sense of familiarity and relatability through the differing styles of the outdoor/country lifestyle and tech startup culture and where they meet in the middle.
