NYCEDC and D&A select the first Made in NY Collective winners

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Jul 27, 2016

New York City’s Economic Develoment Corporation and Designers & Agents announced the winners of the first-ever Made in NY Collective. The winning designers and brands will receive a fully subsidized exhibition space for the Designers & Agents Spring 2017 show in September.

 
The Made in NY Collective is one of many NYCEDC initiatives, along with Design Entrepreneurs NYC and the Fashion Manufacturing Initiative, that elevates local fashion entrepreneurs and helps to grow the city’s fashion industry. New York City-based brands that produce their collections in NYC as well were invited to apply for the Collective, and of those applicants only 12 were selected. The 12 designers and brands are Alasdair, Christine Alcalay, Dan-yell, Elise Ballegeer, Kordal, Nikki Chasin, Noorism, Off Season, Sabre Jewelry, SamChurch, William Okpo and Xiao Wang Jewelry.
 
“The screening committee took into consideration the key attributes of each brand, focusing on originality, quality and marketability. The ultimate goal was to build a balanced group of both experiences and novice designers, casual and sophisticated collections that reflect the wide range of NY-based design talent,” said Meryl Mandelbaum, Designers & Agents Managing Director.

In addition to receiving an exhibition space, the designers will take part in individual and group workshops leading up to the show where they will learn creative direction, product development and other successful business building skills.
 
“The Made in NY Collective will provide a wonderful opportunity to the NYC based design community supported by this initiative,” said Ed Mandelbaum, Designers & Agents co-founder. “The result is a win/win; the selected brands will gain exposure to D&A’ leading retail audience and buyers will be introduced to a fresh crop of talented designers, many of which have not previously had the resources to exhibit in a tradeshow.”
 
Designers & Agents, a world-renowned independent trade event in the women’s fashion industry, was selected by the NYCEDC to develop this initiative. D&A was founded in 1997 by Barbara Kramer and Ed Mandelbaum to introduce global brands from the US, Europe and Japan to the marketplace in New York and Los Angeles.
 
The Made in NY Collective designers will have the exhibition space for the D&A Spring 2017 show from September 17 through 19.