By Claudina Hannon
Elaine Mensah is causing quite a stir in our local fashion scene. To be more specific, she has been doing so since 2007, when she founded her own fashion firm, SVELTE, LLC . But today Mensah is at the forefront of the D.C. metro area fashion industry after releasing the documentary “The Politics of Fashion” in 2014 and “#TheFashionSource,” the ultimate guide to local fashion industry professionals and businesses, last week. And she is only getting started. Mensah is making things happen here by showing locals and the fashion industry at large what makes our area capable of supporting its own fashion industry. Through her admirable work, Mensah is constantly pushing for change and growth of our fashion industry. In “#TheFashionSource,” she puts the spotlight on local professionals who work in fashion, either through public relations, marketing or even as designers. We thought a conversation with Mensah about “#TheFashionSource” and other projects was more than apt, but we also chatted about her knowledge and vision for our local fashion scene, including how we can all make a collective effort to have it succeed in the long run.
What response have you received from people in the fashion industry in other cities such as New York or LA regarding “The Politics of Fashion”?
Well I can’t say I have received a big response from New York or LA, but the movie screened in Miami, and we got a great response there. I think it was mainly because it’s a similar size market as D.C., so I think they could also relate a lot more to what Washington is going through and to the film more so than in New York or LA. What I did find interesting, though, is that the people that I spoke to, who have since left D.C. and moved to New York or just some friends that I knew in New York, that have heard of the movie have said to me that they thought it was interesting because so many New York friends have considered moving into D.C. and coming into our space. Having a film like that gave them a sense of what the landscape here really looked like.
Have you noticed a lot of recent interest from fashion industry professionals or entrepreneurs toward our area?
Yes, there has definitely been an uptick, even from when I started shooting the film until now, whether is entrepreneurs, whether is retailers, whether is e-commerce. One of the things that really motivated me to do “#TheFashionSource” was kind of what I learned having done “The Politics of Fashion.” There were all these pockets of great information and people who have the skill set or people who were interested in transitioning careers but didn’t really know who the players were. Who are the players? What does D.C. look like from an industry perspective? And not just retail but design brands, specialty brands, business improvement district, [fashion] schools. That really prompted the creation of “#TheFashionSource” because I wanted to compile all this information and this data that I had collected over the past several years and put it into something that was manageable and something that was really tangible that people could put in their purse and could use it for research. You could use it as a tourist if you came to town, use it for a business connection and networking if you are an entrepreneur and to really give you a sense of the lay of the land.
So this has been an ongoing project for you?
Yes, I started All Things Fashion D.C. in 2011. and as a matter of fact I started it anonymously. I did that because I wanted people to follow the site organically, that the reason why they were interested in the content was because the content was good and not necessarily because of who was behind it. I found in all four years since I started All Things Fashion D.C. that the scope of what was happening in D.C. had changed. So when I started in 2011, it made sense for it to have a blog feel because it could be a space where people could communicate. Fast-forward four years [and] we have like 600 bloggers that are part of CapFABB. To me that space had saturated, and I thought: what does the D.C. fashion community really and truly need? What kind of impact can All Things Fashion really have? That was really the birthplace for “#TheFashionSource” and a couple other things I have coming out in the next few months. It was really meant to be a business and marketing resource. My hope with “#TheFashionSource” is that people will just see—I mean it’s 158 pages; it’s a big book—and I think that just seeing it, feeling it, will give people a sense that this is a real business and a real industry, and we have an opportunity here in D.C. to take advantage of that.
Is that how you think the book might benefit the D.C. fashion scene?
I do. When I first started doing it, I thought: Oh this is going to be really great, it’s going to be like those little books you get when you go to Fashion Week and you put it in your purse; it’s going to be this cute book. Even I did not realize the breadth of what was available locally. We literally have over 1,000 businesses in the book, and these are fashion businesses. I think it’s going to open people’s eyes to what’s really here, and it will serve as a push for people to have faith and [see] that the fashion industry here is growing and it’s worth investing in.
How have you seen the local fashion industry grow since you started in this business?
It has grown immensely. There’s a section in the book for designer brands and another section on what I call fashion services, so people like myself—consultants, nonprofits, things like that—and those two sections combined have over 100 businesses listed. To think that there are over 50 designer brands and I’m sure I’ve missed some people. There are probably some brands that didn’t make it in the book just because I missed them or because they were new at the time that I collected the data. So just by sheer growth, the numbers are really, really big.
What would you say our fashion scene needs in order to flourish even more in the coming years?
We need to truly support local, for instance Take 5 and Erika Schrieber and Sophie Blake at Mosaic. They carry some amazing items. The more and more people who support local not as a charity case but [who] truly look at what’s available and say “Oh, there’s a lot more options here than I thought.” I think it will encourage more people to get into the market. The second thing I would say is that I think people just need to have a little more faith, and I say that in the sense that when I decided to do the film, everybody told me: “Well who cares about a film about fashion in D.C.? Who’s going watch it? Why are you doing this? This makes no sense.” Then I released the film, and it was like, “Oh my God, this is so informative!” Then I decided to do the book, and it was the same response: “Really? Is it really worth you doing? How much is it going to cost?” I just think if there were more people who were willing to invest in D.C. and not wait for government, not wait for investors or for some big opportunity to come their way, then collectively we could build an industry here that’s suitable for D.C.. It doesn’t have to be like New York, it doesn’t have to be like LA, but we find our own niche and our own voice.
Looking toward the future, what is your ideal vision for our fashion scene?
Ideally we do have the potential to be a major industry city, like a Chicago or San Francisco, in that we have the potential to have a real industry along the entire supply chain from production all the way down to retail. I think we’ve excelled in certain areas, particularly on the marketing side, but we have a long way to go on the production side, the development side, and I think that’s the next step. I also think that we have an opportunity to really build our own identity in a way that we haven’t before. So much of D.C. is defined by our politics, Capitol Hill and that whole culture, but I think D.C. is getting younger, it’s getting cooler, it’s getting hipper, and with that comes a different style, a different language, and we will find our own identity in between.
Do you think that having more local fashion programs might help?
I list all the schools locally that have fashion programs in “#TheFashionSource,” and I think what’s going to happen or what I would like to see happen are more of the fashion institutions taking a forefront role in shaping what that looks like. Similar to what FIT or Parsons does in New York, where people actually look to them to see what is the next generation of great American designers. I think if the local universities that have the fashion programs will take that approach that they too can help create that type of change and that type of growth and development of the fashion industry. I’m an adjunct professor at The Art Institute in the fashion program, and one of the things that I’m big on with my classes is bringing in guest speakers so that students can say, “Oh this is possible in D.C., there’s a great PR company here, there’s a modeling agency here, there’s a designer brand here.” It’s more about making sure that the kids get access and exposure on top of what they’re learning in school.
