The Fashion Business Incubator opened in downtown L.A. in 1999 amid much hype, its backers promising to do for apparel visionaries what tech incubators were doing for dot-coms.
A year later, the comparison seems an apt one. Tech hatcheries haven’t spawned many sustainable successes, and the FBI is a long way from realizing its goal of filling downtown’s empty industrial spaces with apparel designers and manufacturers.
Still, by all accounts, the FBI’s first year has been a productive one.
Program’s focus
Since its launch last September, the FBI has picked up 86 members and run 30 people through its program for start-up apparel businesses.
The organization runs a six-week course designed to provide fledgling apparel designers and manufacturers with some common-sense business tools, such as ways to obtain the proper licenses, marketing techniques and e-commerce development, as well as helping entrepreneurs obtain industry contacts. It also helps them find inexpensive work space in the downtown area and puts on seminars with industry panel discussions and other events.
A fourth cycle of FBI’s program for startups is set to begin Sept. 12.
None of the startups formed since the incubator was founded has yet made much of a mark on the apparel scene, although the organization’s directors say a handful of pre-existing companies whose founders passed through the incubator’s programs have grown dramatically in the time since. These include Sky David Park, Fleure de Peche, Eisbar and Hartnell.
“They helped us a lot with costing our line, and through the program we were also able to do a lot of networking with industry sources that we use now,” said Elena Bates, owner of the Fleure de Peche women’s wear line.
A second tier of designers such as Tease, WearUnder and DES swimwear are still “incubating,” but have plenty of good things to say about the start-up program.
Tease is a line of salsa dancewear being developed by cable-TV talk-show host Teresa Gordon, who took the FBI course after studying fashion design in Milan.
“I had these pretty drawings, but didn’t know how to get them made,” she said. “FBI showed me what the processes are, and how to make a business out of it. I wouldn’t be able to swim in this business without that guidance.” Gordon has yet to sell the line to any stores.
Designer Stephanie Turk is planning to start marketing her WearUnder line to national retailers in November. Her creations are “foundation” garments (bras and panties) for plus-size or full-breasted women. Turk was a construction-industry engineer who returned to business school for a master’s degree and was required to do a feasibility study when she came upon the market niche. The start-up program, she says, “helped tremendously.”
In addition to getting up to speed on the industry’s nuts and bolts, Turk made contact with a financial officer who was a participant in an FBI panel discussion. The officer helped her get a Small Business Administration loan for which she had been rejected two times prior.
The incubator has funded its programs on the strength of two grants: one of $25,000 from the Department of Water & Power, and another of $15,000 from Bank of America. It operates out of donated office space in the New Mart building on Ninth Street.
“Now we have to get some major grants,” said the nonprofit’s co-director Sandy Bleifer. “We need about $500,000 to become truly operational.”
To that end, the FBI recently applied for two grants of undisclosed sums from the city of Los Angeles Community Development Department.
Success as a matchmaker
David Hoye, Bank of America’s specialist on the Southern California apparel industry, said the FBI has exceeded expectations this year.
“They have 80 or 90 members and are not only getting people who dream of starting their own business, but also getting members with their own businesses recognizing the value of their network of contacts and resources,” Hoye said.
Indeed, both Bleifer and co-director Francis Harder have been surprised by the FBI’s success as a matchmaker. Established designers such as Monah Li are taking advantage of the group’s contacts with pattern-makers, contractors, fabric and trim resources, financial officers and fashion sales reps.
Even contractors (industry parlance for garment makers), feeling the squeeze as the North American Free Trade Agreement pulls apparel assembly overseas, have come knocking. The FBI is helping them link up with designers to create new labels, Bleifer said.
Another important focus of the project, Bleifer points out, is bringing new tenants to the downtown area’s old buildings. Included in its mission statement is the goal of “supporting and reinforcing downtown as the center of the apparel industry in Southern California through real estate location services.”
Truth be told, few of those interviewed plan to move downtown, however.
“I’m not interested in the hustle and bustle of downtown,” said Turk, who lives in Pasadena. “I want to be close to it, but not in it.”
Bleifer remains determined to bring more apparel operations downtown, letting them know that L.A.’s urban core sits in both a federal empowerment zone and a city enterprise zone, and there are advantages to be had in terms of tax relief and energy discounts.
“It makes sense to bring these startups here,” she said. “The proximity to resources is here, the action is here. We’re trying to give bulk to these companies and make them viable tenants. This is the center of the fashion industry in Southern California.”
