Project Pop-Up Launches in NYC to Promote Growth in the City’s Fashion Industry

Pop-up shops and the efforts used to market them have proved to be a successful way of building business and driving attention to a brand and in New York there is no shortage of them, so why not use them to the city’s advantage?

The city wants to help give smaller fashion businesses the tools that will allow them to keep generating employment and add an increasing amount of cash flow to the city’s economy, so during Fashion Week and through the end of the month, the city is running a Project Pop-Up store where the city has given 11 new tech businesses, including Perch Interactive, FashionGPS, and Acustom with mentoring, PR exposure and space to help them connect with small businesses of the fashion industry. The stores will be hosted at the retail curation complex STORY, on 10th Avenue in Chelsea.

Project Pop-Up, originated as a competition in June from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Fashion.NYC.2020 initiative under  the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). Launched in January 2010, the initiative aims to help sustain growth in New York’s fashion industry.

NYCEDC’s six part plan includes a fashion production fund to finance local production, a ‘fashion draft’ designed to help business-minded fashion students find management track positions, mentoring opportunities for rising stars in fashion management, fashion career fairs and an mini-MBA program for emerging designers. 

Judges for Project Pop-Up included fashion designer Norma Kamali; Brandon Holley, editor-in-chief of Lucky magazine; Vanessa von Bismarck, founder of Bismarck Phillips and NYCEDC program chairs involved in moving the project forward include fashion industry veterens like Diane von Furstenberg; Terry Lundgren, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Macy’s, Inc., Andrew Rosen, chief executive officer of Theory, and Kevin Ryan, chief executive officer of Gilt Groupe.

The fashion industry has been revolutionized by technology, social media and extreme changes as a result globalization and digitizing the economy so selecting tech entrepreneurs like Perch Interactive and Fashion GPS who are aiding to redefine how small local retailers sell to consumers, will hopefully prove to the added success that NYCEDC has created for the city.

By: Ashley Paintsil

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