From left Erin Beatty, Max Osterweis, Juan Carlos Obando, Elyse Walker, Veronica Swanson Beard, Veronica Miele Beard and Ashley Sandall of CFDA. Photo by Donato Sardella/Getty Images for FORWARD by Elyse Walker.
CFDA'S EMERGING DESIGNERS
Elyse Walker & CFDA's Gala For Mentorship Program
They all earned their stripes as designers. But Council of Fashion Designers of America and entrepreneur Elyse Walker arranged a master class for a handful of emerging designers in developing a luxury brand business.
The formal name for the mentorship program was Rising Talent Program for Emerging Designers. The program was conducted by Walker and the team of executives from FORWARD by ElyseWalker e-commerce emporium. Since the brands were luxe, since the classes were held in Los Angeles, and yes, because it was fashion, there was a swank party for the designers Nov. 17 at the Lombardi House. It is an elegant events space tucked away in a somewhat gritty part of Hollywood.
Between fancy drinks, we debriefed the designers on their master class with Elyse. The designers were Juan Carlos Obando, Erin Beatty and Max Osterweis of Suno, and Veronica Miele Beard and Veronica Swanson Beard of Veronica Beard.
Some of the masterclass sessions were held in Elyse Walker’s home, Oceana Hotel in Santa Monica and the Elyse Walker’s self-named Elyse Walker boutique in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
Walker gave frank and detailed talks about how she developed her business, said the co-founders of Veronica Beard. “These are things that you’d keep secret,” said Veronica Miele Beard.
For Juan Carlos Obando, it was an exercise in using the left side of his brain - this after a career in focusing on creativity and the right side of the brain. ”You can be a great designer. But if you combine creativity with business acumen, you get to tell stories and expand the story and tell it to a bigger audience,” he said.
For all of the flexing of left brain abilities during the mentorship program, Elyse stressed that the designers embrace something very right brain, said Erin Beatty of Suno. “Elyse said that you have to trust in your intuition…you do something when the world tells you to do it.”
With the Forward buying team, each brand developed an exclusive capsule collection for the Spring/Summer 2016 season.
Said Walker, “FORWARD has always been a champion of emerging designers, and with the current shake-ups in the fashion industry, from e-commerce and fast fashion to social shopping, it’s a challenging time for early talent to achieve that critical next stage in their growth….As we continually work to support top creative talent in the industry, it was natural to collaborate with The CFDA. This is simply another progression of our mission and we are thrilled to launch this program.”
