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It’s a quiet Saturday morning at an unassuming industrial park off Nolensville Road. Most warehouses are closed, but one building is bustling. Cars line the street near Elizabeth Suzann’s South Nashville headquarters, where throngs of young women — some of whom drove seven hours for the occasion — swarm the apparel production facility and showroom, unfazed by drizzly skies and long lines.
- Elizabeth Suzann Signature Collection
“Our sample sales are always pretty crazy — they grow every time we have them,” explains Elizabeth Pape, the designer and owner of Elizabeth Suzann, who is manning one of the cash registers in the packed space. “We typically only sell online. We only open up the showroom for appointments and events. We don’t usually run sales, because everything we do is made to order, so there aren’t many opportunities for sales or discounts, so people respond really well.”
Though she’s only been in business since 2013, Pape’s minimalist designs — loose silhouettes that leave something to the imagination, natural fibers that stand the test of time, seasonless pieces in a universally flattering neutral palette — rapidly earned her a cult-like following of women seeking high-quality, comfortable clothing that’s both elegant and utilitarian. In less than three years, Pape went from a one-woman shop in a spare bedroom to a 10,000-square-foot facility with 15 employees. Last year, fashion-industry bible Women’s Wear Daily reported that Elizabeth Suzann had reached $1 million in sales.
Pape is in good company. Nashville is now home to many growing fashion brands. The rise of now-established brands including Imogene + Willie, Kayce Hughes, Peter Nappi, Ola Mai, Ceri Hoover, Otis James, Emil Erwin, Jamie + the Jones, Margaret Ellis Jewelry, Black by Maria Silver, and Nisolo paved the way for the next wave of Nashville-based designers. Savannah Yarborough, who opened her private studio AtelierSavas on Cannery Row last year, has caught the attention of Bloomberg, Esquire and The Wall Street Journal, commanding upwards of $5,000 for her luxury bespoke leather and fur jackets. Cavanagh Baker, who designed Mayor Megan Barry’s Symphony Ball gown in December, moved from Boston to Nashville to open her flagship design studio Stowe in Cummins Station earlier this year.
- Stowe
If these brands have anything in common, it’s that they’re a far cry from the rhinestones-and-boots persona of Nashville fashion past; each has built a reputation for well-crafted pieces made from superior materials, meeting the demands of a consumer base that is fed up with fast fashion and willing to pay a premium price for a product that will stand the tests of time and trend alike.
Another thing these brands have in common? They’re supported by a trade organization that assembled for the sole purpose of building a sustainable and globally recognized fashion industry in Nashville. The Nashville Fashion Alliance launched in April 2015, pledging to support the local fashion industry by focusing on four pillars — advocacy, economic development, shared resources and education — in order to incubate and accelerate emerging fashion brands. Last year, the NFA executed a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $100,000 to implement strategies involving those four pillars, working with more than 150 fashion businesses in Middle Tennessee and beyond, several opting to move to Nashville to open a business, indicating that this industry could be a key economic driver in the city’s growth.
Here’s what the NFA has done in their first year, what they’re working on now, and why you should be paying attention — regardless of who you’re wearing.
The NFA operates from an office in The Skillery, a co-working space in Germantown. The collaborative entity is led by CEO Van Tucker, who led the first national entertainment industry team at Bank of America and was one of the founders of Avenue Bank. Tucker took an interest in the regional fashion scene in 2013.
- Libby Callaway
One year later, supported by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Metro Arts Commission and the Arts and Business Council, Tucker presented a white paper, Nashville Fashion Industry Report, to 40 fashion industry leaders, reporting that our region has the largest concentration per capita of independent fashion brands and companies in the nation. This group subsequently formed the NFA to serve as a governing body to represent the regional industry. According to veteran fashion journalist, media consultant and NFA board chair Libby Callaway, Tucker’s involvement was exactly what the area fashion community needed to mobilize.
“I think that Van is the secret weapon,” says Callaway, who recently launched a namesake boutique marketing and PR company The Callaway. “Her business and banking background is the secret sauce. For years we’ve been talking about it; we had people who wanted to build and lead the brands here, but the problem has been the sustainable ecosystem that Van talks about. That needed to be put in place.”
This sustainable ecosystem must connect local and regional fashion brands with the necessary resources to grow and also provide a creative business environment to attract new brands. The NFA seeks to have individual companies speak and act together as an industry, sending out a cohesive message about the successful brands that already called Nashville home.
“We’ve generated awareness that there is a fashion industry,” says Tucker. “Three years ago when we’d go to different entities and say, ‘We’re here representing the fashion industry,’ the immediate response I’d get was, ‘We have a fashion industry?’ Now I probably get six to eight calls or emails a week from brands in other cities — Chicago, Denver, Austin, Dallas, Birmingham, Destin, Miami, Charlotte — wanting to know what the benefit is of being a part of the fashion alliance.”
Callaway notes that Nashville Fashion Week, which launched in 2011 — and which Forbes Travel Guide recently noted as one of the five reasons why “Nashville is heating up” — helped raise awareness early on. “Fashion shows are a very important part of any marketing strategy for a fashion brand,” she says.
Tucker says advocacy also includes being a catalyst for resource development — giving area brands access to the resources they need to be successful, and attracting new brands to plant roots in Tennessee.
“Whether you’re a technology company that wants to develop a 3-D knitted sneaker, or a traditional men’s shirt manufacturer, or a children’s clothing designer, or a luxury women’s wear designer, we want this area to be known as a great place to incubate and accelerate your business,” she says. “As much as we want to complain about the traffic or how our rent has increased, the truth is, when you compare Nashville to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle or Dallas, our cost of living is way lower.”
To move the needle on economic development and shared resources, the NFA has enlisted the help of leading consulting firm Gherzi to conduct an economic impact analysis to identify opportunities in the region around which the NFA should build an infrastructure — an infrastructure to benefit not only area brands, but also fashion lines around the country. According to Tucker, many emerging brands — and even established ones — are increasingly seeking domestic production for their garments, which largely moved overseas in the 1980s and ’90s.
“We have an opportunity to solve the small-batch manufacturing and risk management issues associated with startup brands,” Tucker says. “We have the ability to help them mitigate risk in a meaningful way, whether it’s through financing or manufacturing or distribution.”
- Van Tucker
If anyone can speak to the economic opportunities around apparel production, it’s Dean Wegner, CEO of Omega Apparel. Wegner had only one client, the U.S. military, when he purchased the Smithville-based apparel manufacturing company in 2012. After learning more about the apparel industry’s needs — and meeting with Tucker — he dedicated a portion of his facility to small-batch production. Demand grew so quickly that in 2015, Wegner was able to open a second facility in Nashville that exclusively caters to smaller and emerging brands.
“We added 100 new employees over the past year, and we’ve worked with more than 100 customers, a wide mix of large and small,” Wegner tells the Scene. “We’re working with VF, one of the world’s largest apparel companies, and a long list of smaller local entrepreneurs and fashion designers, including Morton and Mabel, Fringe Supply, ShaveFace and Two Son.”
“Omega has opened so many people’s eyes to what’s available in terms of manufacturing,” Callaway adds. “They’re a game-changer for small designers, including designers who were literally sewing their own garments — they offer an affordable and reasonable alternative to that. And they’re also a catalyst for other companies to move here.”
In January, Wegner announced the appointment of Shelley Sarmiento, a 35-year fashion industry veteran and one of the founders of retail giant White House | Black Market, as Omega’s chief strategy officer. Together they launched a student sewing shift program, creating jobs to fit college students’ schedules and to develop young talent. Omega also employs several graduates of Catholic Charities of Tennessee’s Sewing Training Academy — another venture of the NFA, designed to create jobs for underserved populations — including 38 refugees representing 14 countries.
But manufacturing is just one part of the process, and there are other parts of the supply chain where Nashville has the opportunity to fulfill a need.
“We’re the sixth-largest provider of cotton in the United States,” Tucker says. “A lot of people are looking at the attractiveness of the reshoring of the apparel manufacturing, whether it’s weaving and spinning raw materials or cut-and-sew operations. There are a lot of people searching for models they can make work in the U.S. I’m hoping through this partnership with Gherzi, this is a problem we’ll be able to solve.”
In addition to looking for solutions that are not only economical but sustainable — Tucker notes the progress of Goodlettsville-based Stony Creek Colors, which worked with farmers in Montgomery, Robertson and Sumner counties to develop a sustainable indigo dye — the NFA plans to open a low-cost incubation space in 2017. This space will give emerging brands convenient access to the resources they need, including educational programming, fabrics, legal services, financial services, studio space and equipment.
“It’s more efficient for the NFA to put these kinds of things together than it is for individual companies to do it on their own,” she explains.
- Dean Wegner
To fulfill the education portion of their initiative, the NFA launched a yearlong educational program offering workshops that focus on the training and development of business skills and providing access to mentors, serving fashion companies and college students interested in pursuing a career in the fashion industry. They completed their first accelerator program in March and will offer another in the fall. Later this spring, they’ll open a fashion lab called House Of with Belmont’s Center for Entrepreneurship, which will give participants the opportunity to run a boutique featuring local designers.
“Not everyone wants to be a designer — there’s a whole ecosystem out there,” Tucker explains. “House Of will be a Belmont entrepreneurship student-led retail venture. They’re creating the whole concept, from brands to logistics. They’re working with Fort Houston to redo the interior, and we’re working on the marketing plan now.”
The NFA also enjoys a close relationship with O’More College of Design, which, along with Belmont University, co-sponsors the yearlong professional education program. David Rosen, president of O’More, believes it’s important for Nashvillians to recognize how fashion fits into a region’s culture.
“What’s interesting about fashion is how it involves so many different areas — graphic design, photography, merchandising, video, all of the media assets,” Rosen says. “But fashion also represents the cultural center for a region; it’s both intimate and public, expressive and representative. It’s a very powerful language. It can be a driver of growth in many other areas.”
Growth in the regional fashion industry isn’t exclusive to apparel design and production. Nashville’s retail scene is thriving; Draper James, Stowe and Two Son are among the boutiques that opened in the past six months. The local menswear scene will see a boost with the spring openings of J. Crew’s men’s store in Edgehill Village and the second outpost of Memphis-based upscale men’s store Oak Hall in the Hill Center in Green Hills. Additionally, the NFA brought two COAST fashion trade exhibition shows to Nashville in the past year, and will host another in the fall, bringing buyers and brands to the city — for reference, the Miami COAST show grew from 30 exhibitors to 400 in just a few years.
“Fifteen years ago, people took trips to Atlanta or New York for shopping,” Tucker says. “We don’t have to do that anymore. Part of it is the maturation of our city. We’ve grown and matured to a place where those retailers want to be here. But if you look at the Billy Reids or the Imogene + Willies of the world, in the early days, they didn’t do a lot of wholesale. They built their own retail stores and sold e-commerce. They built their story, they talked to their consumers directly. Brands like Elizabeth Suzann have had a lot of success with that. They’re able to capture those margins instead of giving it away to a retailer, and I think that’s how you’ll see more emerging brands who are figuring out that they can sell directly to the consumer.”
If the consumer’s attention is essential, so is the support of the community.
“It all goes back to supporting your own, and that’s something the creative community has here,” Callaway adds. “I feel like the NFA is firing on all cylinders now. I think the leadership is in place, and now it depends on if the community backs us up on it.”
