Albuquerque Fashion Incubator & New Mexico Fashion Week!
The founders (Kathleen and Eric) of the Albuquerque Fashion Incubator have decided it’s time to start something serious in this town. Collectively, we have over 50 years of genuine garment industry experience working for designers and manufacturers or being designers and manufacturers ourselves.You can find out more about us here.
We’ve realized that fashion promotion businesses like New Mexico Fashion Week have generated enthusiasm for fashion careers in New Mexico but the business owner doesn’t have any industrial experience or connections in the trade so the promoter cannot (or has not) referred designers to long standing local resources and services to help designers move their careers forward. Or maybe there is no interest in producing fashion in NM? We don’t know, we only know that none of us, in spite of having long standing international reputations, have ever gotten a referral from NMFW or its promoter in spite of her frequent assertions to create networks of opportunity.
So, being that design, patterns, buying wholesale fabric, finding sales representatives sewing and production, are our bread and butter, it makes sense for us to become proactive to overcome barriers between the fashion promotion side and the production end. In doing so, we also have the resources to provide dedicated work space, equipment, tools and hard skills to other New Mexicans who would like to pursue a career in apparel.
Toward that end, our expanded and newly remodeled sewing factory and training facility will open on June 21st @ 410 Old Coors Dr SW, Albuquerque NM 87121. The facility has two 50 foot cutting tables, a cutting knife, 2 spreaders, a CAD system, digitizer, 72″ roll plotter for markers, 40 industrial sewing machines -all in a shared workspace.
We look forward to meeting the needs of local designers, helping them to become prepared while working within Albuquerque Fashion Incubator’s small production centric, sewing factory. In the meantime, please visit us on Facebook, Instagram and we hope to meet you soon!
Board of Albuquerque Fashion Incubator:
Kathleen Fasanella -President
Eric Husman -Vice President
Dustin Martin -Board Member
Jamie Hirano -Board Member
Feel free to drop us a note (email protocol is one’s first name @abqfi.com). You can also call 505-877-1713 during regular office hours. Don’t hesitate to make an appointment to tour our facility but please be scent free and wear closed toe shoes with no heels.
Congratulations. That is wonderful news. I wonder if you’ll be able to offer internships or work with the high schools some day too? All the best!
These are all possibilities Beth but there are limits if only in the short term.
Anything we have is donated -meaning, the location, tools, skills, equipment etc. Those of us doing the donating still need to earn a living so the incubator’s activity will be based on need -it won’t be a full time office open to the public whenever they decide to drop in. We’re not a funded social service agency, we have no paid staff. We’re working on incorporating as a not for profit.
I don’t know how much demand there is for this incubator locally, none of us do. Our strategy will mostly be responsive rather than focusing on solicitation of participants. Sure, we’ll set up workshops and invite participants but we suspect it will mostly be highly targeted to individual businesses, designing programs specific to their needs.
I don’t know how interns would work out; they could be involved with our businesses apart from the incubator but as adjuncts to the incubator itself, we don’t see enough activity to keep them busy, at least at the outset. Likewise, high schools would be welcome to tour the facility and if one has a proposal for formal or long standing engagement, I think we’d welcome the dialog.