FASHION+TECHSF: Fashion Incubation Presentation with INSPIRARE 05.17.12

[Click HERE for more photos from this workshop by Armand Smith. Written by: Robert Burns Nixon]

SFFAMA, FASHION+TECHSF and fashion incubator partnerINSPIRARE held a design presentation and networking event on May 17^th at Pigment Cosmetics. Inspirare Founder and CEO Sean Peng gave an e-commerce industry and business model overview. Anne McEnroe discussed Inspirare’s operations and production. Kate Blank, Inspirare’s Fashion Director, completed the Inspirare team on hand to meet with local fashion designers and view their presentations. SFFAMA Founder and CEO Owen Geronimoadded, “We are thrilled to partner with Inspirare to foster local talent, hone their business skills and introduce other ways of getting their products to the market. I want to offer local designers funding opportunities beyond fashion shows and photo shoots by means of incubation and crowdfunding.”

Design presentations included a leather jacket and accessories line fashioned from custom car seats by Dustin Page, luxury knitwear designs for men from Scott Mcfarland, unique denim pieces byJulian Prince Dash and re-invented hi-end patchwork denim by Gerry Kelly of Sonas Denim. Women’s wear designs included the clean sophisticated silhouettes of Audrey Szeto, the London-meets-Los Gatos effortless glamour looks from Claire Farwell ofClaire Farwell London, strong yet whimsical creations by Mariya Milovidova, a full range of pretty looks, price points and beautiful color palettes by Skylier Blanchard of Skylier Wear, and a collection of visually arresting color, contrast and dramatic detailing by Celina Martin Perez. Inspirare identified four designers for immediate inclusion in the program.

Additional presentations included a discussion on alternative funding sources by SFFAMA advisory board member Gwendolyn Wright, a product presentation by Brian Carey of HipSwap and a new product and category announcement by Gal Rozov, Founder and CEO of Fold4me. ~ Written by: ROBERT BURNS NIXON

FASHION+TECHSF is the longest running monthly workshop and event series in the San Francisco Bay Area focused synergistically on building, promoting and educating the vibrant community of fashion and technology entrepreneurs, designers, developers, bloggers, business professionals, students, investors and numerous enthusiastic companies, schools, groups and individuals who share our vision of a world-class fashion and technology industry that is innovative, disruptive and uniquely San Francisco.

Our mission is to create educational, social and business opportunities for the fashion and technology industries. In the past two years,  has become the leading network for all things fashion and technology in the SF Bay Area.

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• ROBERT BURNS NIXON is the Chief Financial Officer of SFFAMA and Online Editor for sffamainc.org. He is also Chief Economic Officer and Chief Marketing Officer for new venture businesses based in San Francisco. He is an economist, theoretician, executive editor and publisher at the Aesthetica Economica. Previously, Robert worked in consumer and business technology as a director for several private and public corporations in Silicon Valley and in strategic business operations for Sony Corporation in Japan, Europe and North America.

• An artist with classical training, Robert has worked as a consultant for Thomas Pink, Ltd., in Europe and was awarded the LVMH internship in Paris, France during business school. Robert graduated from the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University with an A.B. in International Relations and Economics. He holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and General Management from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and speaks English, French and Japanese.