7 minute read
FASHION MINGLE
FASHION MINGLE
A NETWORK FOR FASHION INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS
It was a chance conversation that started Melissa Shea on her path to create the first global network for fashion industry professionals. This fortuitous meeting was the spark that launched Fashion Mingle, a fashion tech platform with over 8000 fashion industry entrepreneurs in 120+ categories, connecting apparel and accessory designers with the skilled professionals they need from concept to customer.
In 2008 Shea was a freelancer building websites for businesses in Austin, TX when she met an aspiring fashion blogger who explained how hard it was for fashion businesses to survive, and with a few pointed questions, Shea quickly realized that the key to solving this problem was connecting the local fashion industry into a directory. That was the beginning of a journey that has taken her around the world with a home base in the Capital Region for the last 10 years.
Always eager to learn about “the next new thing”, Shea immersed herself in the fashion community and instantly fell in love with the wildly creative designers, photographers, makeup artists and hairstylists she met. Realizing this new passion might also be a way to get into New York Fashion Week, she partnered with a blogger and a team of photographers to launch a fashion website and within a year she was an accredited member of the press at NYFW. Shea has led a media team covering fashion week for over 20 seasons, interviewing many of the top
BY MELISSA SHEA
fashion designers in the world.
Fashion Mingle Cofounders, Beth Smith, Melissa Shea, Sneha Andani
After relocating from Austin to Upstate New York in 2011 due to her husband’s new job at Global Foundries, Shea got down to business growing the Fashion Mingle brand, continuing to cover
fashion week and the professionals working in the industry behind the scenes. Securing an Angel investor and a partner with previous startup experience in fashion ecommerce, Long Island native Beth Smith came on board in 2015 to help Shea begin the serious work of launching a fashion tech startup, then added Sneha Andani in 2018, who originally hails from Bangalore, India, as a cofounder to help with business development in NYC and international partnerships.
NYFW Networking Party - Fashion Mingle launch party
The platform officially launched during New York Fashion Week in September of 2017 with a red carpet event for fashion industry professionals. The global fashion directory now has members in over 40 countries, facilitated by hosting their signature NYFW Networking Party every season of fashion week to connect professionals from around the world to New York’s fashion industry.
Shea says, “Covering fashion week with a media team year after year was like being a fly on the wall” and is how a web designer from Texas learned what she needed to know to build a thriving fashion business in New York. Shea discovered that while the global fashion industry is a $2.5 trillion dollar market, it still runs on word of mouth referrals and is slow to adopt technology. With a fast growing gig economy expected to reach $8.4 billion by 2023, connecting this global engine with resources in every corner of the world is critical to providing jobs to skilled fashion professionals not only in the United States, but in rapidly expanding economies desperate to bring more opportunities to their countries.
Tommy Hilfiger and Melissa Shea Melissa Shea, Costume Designer Bob
Mackey, and Influencer Will Rafeh Sydney Opera House, Sneha Andani, Jude Kingston (Fashion Mingle Australia), Melissa Shea Influencers Unscripted Event (LtoR) Influencer Renee Willett and Ann Caruso, Founders Beth Smith and Melissa Shea, TV personality Daphne Oz & Managing Editor of The Beauty Influencers Christine Schott
Shea has managed a New York Fashion Week media team for over 20 seasons, interviewing fashion industry icons such as Tommy Hilfiger, Bob Mackey, Nicole Miller, Jill Stuart, Tadashi Shoji, Naeem Kahn, and more. From Times Square to the Sydney Opera House, Shea is known for creating experiential events in unique venues. Fashion Mingle clients include international trade organizations, fashion designers, and beauty brands for whom Fashion Mingle produces runway shows, fashion industry tours, popups, and more.
MELISSA SHEA AND TIMES SQUARE FASHION WEEK TEAM
Fashion Mingle services include event production for international clients, providing a “team in New York” for brands and trade organizations who want access to the New York market but don’t have the team on the ground. From providing fashion week experience for students from India’s Pearl Academy, to producing a concert and fashion show in Times Square for Indonesian designers and music artists, Fashion Mingle prides itself on providing anything their clients need, having the most expansive database of fashion industry professionals at their fingertips, in their very own platform.
In the coming months Fashion Mingle is launching their latest technology, a career portal that will allow members to post and find jobs, freelance gigs, internships,
volunteers, and bartering for services is just as important to corporate brands as it is to a startup, as margins are thin at every level.
The Fashion Mingle Career Portal will also solve a huge problem for college students trying to find internships in the fashion industry. After conducting extensive surveys with over 200 fashion school students, Shea was surprised to learn that 57% of students surveyed did not know where to find internships with fashion companies. The new platform will solve that problem by having one platform where fashion companies can have direct contact with fashion students, eliminating the barriers to finding the right internship match for the student as well as the company.
MELISSA SHEA AND TRACY SIMONE
Fashion Mingle members from the Albany network include Capital Woman magazine co - founder, model and actress Tracy Simone, event producer Corey Aldrich, designer consultant Christy Hutchins, and more. You can join Fashion Mingle for free at www. fashionmingle.com to become a member of the Albany fashion community. As a member of the Fashion Directory, you’ll be able to promote your skills, portfolio, website, and social media networks as well as network with members online and get invitations to special opportunities in NYC exclusively for fashion professionals. The career portal will be launching summer 2022 which will enable members to connect with each other about jobs, internships, and opportunities to grow their careers.
