California Apparel News

Former designer Frances Harder created Fashion Business Inc. in 1999 as a Los Angeles nonprofit group to help emerging fashion companies get off the ground. Currently, there are about 250 full-time FBI members, and 90 percent of the organization’s clients are minorities or women.

From her 7,000-square-foot headquarters in the California Market Center, Harder and her staff have been busy this year getting designers more exposure on the runway and in trade shows, putting together webinars that serve as a crash course in how to run a fashion business and organizing seminars at trade shows to educate the fashion industry on topics such as sourcing, merchandising and costing.

This year, FBI held two intensive job-training programs for unemployed workers to boost their job skills with computer training. They studied everything from Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator to Excel software. Patternmakers were introduced to the PAD software system, which helps create patterns on computers. “There are a lot of middle-aged workers who have good skills but don’t have the computer skills,” Harder said. This year, the training courses were sponsored by Joyce Eisenberg, president of the Ben and Joyce Eisenberg Foundation, which owns The New Mart showroom building.

Recently, the MAGIC trade show in Las Vegas started offering booth space for a small group of emerging designers selected by Harder and her FBI staff. “We send out emails to members to apply,” Harder said. “We don’t select them if they are not prepared to do business. They need to have proven sales and money to produce if they get orders.” Last August, about 10 new designers were in the emerging designer showcase, held at the WWDMAGIC section of the show.

During Los Angeles International Textile Week, held twice a year at the CMC, Harder holds a wide array of seminars on everything from starting your own business to finding a sales representative for your line.

At the DG Expo, a textile resource trade show held in San Francisco and New York for designers looking for small minimums, Harder gives seminars on numerous subjects that include costing, sourcing and merchandising.

For FBI, the fashion year culminates in the organization’s annual fundraising fashion show at the train-centric Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. The show, called “All Aboard at Union Station” and sponsored by the Moss Adams accounting firm, is an inexpensive way for young designers to be on the runway and get their brand in front of the community. The cost is $3,500 per runway show, which includes a video and photographs. This year, FBI raised $48,000 from the event.