Business of Fashion, Modeling Key at Fashion Summit
Fashion entrepreneurs turned out for business advice at the West Coast Fashion Summit, a conference program held in conjunction with the Los Angeles Black Business Expo, which ran Sept. 22–23 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The program ran in two segments, covering the fashion industry and the modeling business. The fashion industry segment included a discussion on securing financing by Sharon Evans, president and chief executive officer of Business Resource Group, and a seminar on learning the business of fashion from Los Angeles Trade-Technical College professor Adriene Zinn. Marketing and public relations issues were covered by Davide Stennett, owner of marketing consulting firm Davide Enterprises; Mel Grayson, partner of the Designer Collective, an apparel and lifestyle store in Los Angeles; and Alison A. Nieder, executive editor of California Apparel News.
But it was Mikel Kilgour, co-owner of couture collection Kilgour & Sweet and publication creative director for new magazine Urban Flava, who stole the show with his seminar, “The Psychology of Fashion: The First Step to Success.” Kilgour’s talk touched on issues ranging from the absence of many African-American designers in the fashion pages of publications targeting African-American readers to the overuse of the term “urban.”
“The word ’urban’ has been overused and underestimated in recent years,” he said, noting that the word has become a blanket term covering “inner city and suburbia, hip hop and jazz.” Kilgour said the urban tag is applied to streetwear designers including Karl Kani and contemporary designers including Brian McKinney.
McKinney served as moderator of the modeling business segment, which included seminars by Ambokil Kokayi, owner of Ambokil Model Management, and Michael Maddox, model scout for Wilhelmina Models and coordinator of the West Coast Fashion Summit fashion show held on Sept. 23 (click here for event coverage).
The West Coast Fashion Summit is held annually as part of the Los Angeles Black Business Expo.
