Simeon and I’m here to talk about
fashion in Iowa as Rachel mentioned yes
you heard that correctly fashion and
Iowa no I’m not crazy give me some time
i’ll explain but there are a group of us
in iowa we’re calling ourselves the iowa
fashion project and we believe we hope
that we’re working on something that can
not only be transformative for the state
of iowa but change the fashion industry
throughout the country and possibly have
a global impact as well but a bit about
me first the interesting thing is I’m
not originally from Iowa I came to Iowa
from Ohio to work on the Obama campaign
in 2008 I was one of the first foot
organizers from the Iowa caucus and I
follow the campaign all the way through
the primary to the general coyness
states all across the country and ended
up in Washington DC working on the
transition team and staying for the
inauguration after all right after all
of that I came back to I would have
finished my degree but to be perfectly
honest with all of you I never thought I
would stay I never thought it would be
my final destination point I like many
of you like many people across the
country didn’t really appreciate that
Iowa had a cool and creative community
economy that there were entrepreneurs
doing things my understanding of the
state was very surface level but I would
soon be proved wrong so back to Iowa
fashion this article here is a article
in The Onion kind of satirizing Iowa
Fashion Week it’s funny I know it’s
really really funny it gets thousands of
retweets and likes and comments every
single time is pushed out during Fashion
Week this woman probably has bedazzled
jeans on it says that Iowa is fashion
backwards that the fashion and design
talent is lacking it’s non-existent in
or the perception of Iowa is corn its
rule its agricultural that there’s corn
as far and as wide as the eye can see
but what you don’t see you don’t see
pictures like this this is not LA this
is not New York this isn’t some European
fashion capital this is Ames Iowa
population 20,000 people soaking wet
this is their student produced fashion
show every single year they produce a
fashion show and it’s considered the
best student-run student design fashion
show of the entire country iowa state
university has a really cool fashion and
design program that is ranked one of the
top ten fashion programs in the entire
country it’s a top 20 program at the
entire world a top 20 fashion and design
program in Ames Iowa or you don’t hear
about todd snider and i were born bred
and raised designer who just sold his
line to american eagle for an ungodly
amount of money you don’t hear about
bird hours a menswear boutique that’s
been there for 20 years in Des Moines GQ
recently raided the store a top-five
men’s boutique in the entire country you
don’t see images like this this is a
fashion show that we produced for
Matthew Christopher Matthew Christopher
is another I will born bred raised
designer he lives in New York City right
now but he actually manufactures bridal
couture couture gowns in Iowa and ships
them all across the world so what’s the
problem here why is there this massive
disconnect between the perception in the
reality well there’s a lack of community
all those efforts that I described are
looked at in isolation no one’s
connecting the dots there’s not a way
for for people that are wanting to
design and wanting to build brands in
Iowa to plugins what community vested or
support them there’s this push in this
pool to move the places like New York or
San Francisco or maybe even Chicago and
no one’s telling the story no one’s
telling a compelling coherent story
about fashion in Iowa for the world to
see but the biggest the biggest problem
and the one that we’re out too soft is
that there’s no community creating
isolation it’s awfully depressing often
times people get up give up and they
don’t recognize their part of a larger
fabric of a community and there’s no way
there’s no community there’s no entity
there’s no organization for people to
plug in if I want to be a part of a
fashion community if I’m looking for
help where do I go who can help me
oftentimes you just give up and we came
about this Iowa fashion project thing
this fashion community building effort
by accident we produced a fashion show
dr. fest which is a yearly conference
for entrepreneurs for small business
owners gets about a thousand people each
year and growing and last year we wanted
to use the the conference the event as a
platform to showcase this this fashion
thing these are this emerging fashion
community but it wasn’t a conventional
fashion show that’s about one designer
or one brand that you’re there to see it
was a collaboration it was a combined
effort of designers of independent
brands of boutiques of stylist of
photographers of creatives saying hey
let’s all band together let’s
collaborate collaborate and showcase
this community using this event and that
fashion show was a huge success we had
400 plus people show up after the show
people were demanding when our next
fashion show was going to be when’s the
next fashion event happening how do i
plug in I really like what you guys are
doing the energy and the excitement
there’s great momentum at that event
what you guys are doing what’s net and
it cost us to take a step back and think
about how do we how do we take that that
moment how do we take that momentum and
turn it into a movement so created the
Iowa fashion project we have a launch
party in the first event was a test
we wanted to test would people show up
would a fashion community show up with
designers and brands and people looking
to plug in or people looking people who
had ideas and they wanted to figure out
how to make that happen would they show
up to an event is there a consumer
community out there who want to support
local designers and manufacturers and
boutiques will they show up to Iowa
fashion project launch event and that’s
this picture suggests they did and it
was a success but to be perfectly honest
with all of you we got some things wrong
initially rather naively we thought that
we were going to do this thing rubaru
going to announce that we’re here and
the skies would open up the heavens
would bequeath themselves to us and we
would get lots of funding and we will be
able to partner with large institutions
and organizations because fashion and
Iowa was cool it was creative it was
sexy how could you not want to be a part
of this well you know needless to say
that’s not how things went down but what
we did find is that if we focused on
community building if we focus on
providing a platform and an entry point
for people to plug in if we kept doing
events if we have fashion shows and
fashion mixers and if we did that
collaboratively we could build our brand
everything would take care of itself in
all of that work over the court of the
course of the year really culminated in
Iowa’s first fashion festival flyover
fashion fest Iowa among many in the
Midwest is considered a flyover state so
we decided just to own it let’s fly have
her fashion fest let’s do it let’s make
it cool let’s make it big and let’s just
keep this thing going so the festival
was was really part fashion week we had
for fashion shows over the course of two
days it was part conference we had
panels and exhibitions and workshops and
presentations explaining how people can
build their brand connecting designers
and so forth and it was part music
festival I’m every single night we had a
really cool music performance and people
could dance the night away so what we’ve
learned
over the course of about a year or so is
that we’re really onto something that
this fashion thing is legit there’s this
community out there and if we focused on
building community if we focus on
providing a way for people to plug in an
entry point that we can be successful
and that that initial assumption that
basic insight that talent exists in Iowa
it just needs a home and that if we if
we mark it if we promote if we become an
advocate for what’s really possible in
Iowa then we’ll be okay so why should
some of you may be so cynical like why
should I care you know this fashion
thing is cool Simeon nice speech pat on
the back okay first of all fashions big
business can create jobs it can
stimulate and be the focal point of a
creative economy but there’s a larger
point here we’ve long accepted that
Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly
on ideas or talent that you don’t have
to live in Silicon Valley are Boston or
New York to start a company why can’t
that same principle apply to fashion and
ultimately big picture if we’re
successful transforming the perception
of what’s possible creating this this
fashion community and building it up it
really makes a point about what’s
possible in the state that regardless of
your idea of your creative ambition that
there’s a home for you in Iowa that you
don’t have to go elsewhere and that’s
what it’s all about and I suspect in
fact I know that if we can do this in
Iowa if we can do this in Iowa you all
can do the same thing as well here and
ready in fact it seems like you already are thank you very much