Dress Code: The Good, Bad and Ugly in 2011

Welcome to the Dress Code, where we celebrate, critique, commend and (on occasion) condemn fashion trends, shows, designers, boutiques, events and everything in between. From the couturiers and costumers to the retail clothiers and quirky DIY crafters, fashion--good and bad--is everywhere. The Dress Code is where we wear our hearts on our sleeves and write about it all.

In our last Dress Code, we reflected on some of our favorite articles and experiences over the past year. This week, we look ahead and make a few predictions about what the Seattle fashion community can expect in 2011. Overall assessment? It’s gonna be a year full of goods, bads and ugliness.

The Good: In 2011, look forward to Seattle-based fashion enthusiast and entrepreneur, Nick Jordan, and his new online start-up business, TonightsOutfit.com, to possibly revolutionize the "What to wear?" predicament we all know too well. Look out for TonightsOutfit.com to launch in just a week (in the meantime, follow them on Twitter at @TonightsOutfit), where you can go to upload up to three contending looks (for a job interview, party, club, first date, etc) and get immediate feedback from other fashion enthusiasts.

Another good pick in 2011: the Burlesque Boutique. Well, it's about time someone capitalized on Seattle's booming burlesque obsession with a retail concept. In 2011, look out for the adorable Ruby Mimosa of the Atomic Bombshells to open up the Burlesque Boutique sometime in April in Capitol Hill, where she will feature all the glitzy goods of the business: rhinestoned ties, pasties galore, feathered fans and boas, and resources of all sorts for Seattle’s burlesque circuit and beyond.

The Bad:

Unlike the Council of Fashion Designers of America, a non-profit organization established after WWII to convene on behalf of American fashion designers and produce what is now known as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, here in Seattle it's entrepreneurs who are behind most of the movements to develop the local fashion community. Some of Seattle’s fashion shows are just that-- a show or party lacking purpose beyond nightlife promotion and/or surface-level entertainment. What is missing in Seattle is a sustainable platform for designers to not just showcase their work, but a cohesive infrastructure to build upon itself.

That’s why this year we are rooting for renegade fashionier and entrepreneur, Steve Matsumoto, Seattle Fashion Week challenger and executive producer of Emerald City Fashion Week/Seattle Fashion Incubator and his partners, Robert Chinn Foundation. The vision of SFI, in Matsumoto’s own words: “is to build the glass dish that the sundae is in—I’m not worried about the cherry and all the other toppings. We want to help build the infrastructure—the business side of Seattle’s fashion community.”

The Seattle Fashion Incubator intends not to just produce another superfluous fashion show—the concept goes about 20 steps further. The goal is to become the premiere business incubator for the fashion industry in the Northwest, providing up and coming designers with entrepreneurial development, resources and training to support its growth and profitability. SFI will offer targeted business education, sourcing, networking opportunities, marketing and consulting services through its incubator and business partnerships. If this sounds self-serving in anyway, hear this: statistics show that businesses that leave an incubator are not only still in business five years later, but increase in sales by $250,000.

All this means turning SoDo into a garment district (showrooms, production sites, etc), and with the support of the Robert Chinn Foundation as a fiscal agent in the process, Matsumoto is onto something. Enterprise Seattle: King County’s 2010 Economic Development Plan, specifically calls for an incubator-model for the local $8 billion dollar fashion industry. So in the 2nd quarter of 2011 look for the launch of the Seattle Fashion Incubator, and from there we anticipate some big changes in Seattle’s fashion community.

The Ugly: Prepare for Seattle fashion blogging to become bleaker in 2011. This year we say "au revoir" to Seattle's top street fashion photographer and blogger, Adam Sinding, creator of 21arrondissement.com, as he takes off to New York City this January. You can still visit his blog (same site) to check out NYC's stylish folk.