Fashion Incubator San Francisco Designers in Residence: Tamara Jaric, Bethany Meuleners, Sabah Mansoor Husain, Tony Sananikone, Paloma Von Broadley, and Justin Jamison. Photo Courtesy of SF Weekly. 

The inaugural class of Macy’s Fashion Incubator San Francisco showed off their new digs at last night’s launch event. The Fashion Incubator offices and workshop sit on the 7th floor of the Macy’s men’s building – the perfect perch to get those creative juices flowing. Two School of Fashion alums, Bethany Meuleners and Sabah Mansoor Husain, were selected to take part in the year-long mentorship program, which provides the designers with an amazing workspace in the Macy’s offices, as well as crash-courses on everything from the financial aspects of fashion, to production, and media training. The Fashion Incubator program hopes to reinvigorate SF’s fashion industry, which has been on a steady decline for years.

We were lucky enough to tour the designers’ space – which is pretty amazing. Each designer-in-residence, as they’re called, has an office, drawing tables, showroom space, and access to some pretty amazing equipment. It is an amazing opportunity for the young designers to really build their label under the guidance of industry professionals – and we can’ wait to see their progress throughout the year!

We are so excited to announce that School of Fashion alumnae Bethany Meuleners and Sabah Mansoor Husain have been selected to participate in the Macy’s Fashion Incubator program in San Francisco! The program, sponsored by Macy’s West, allows designers to rent sewing workshops at Macy’s and work with fashion, business, and retail experts to build their line.

Bethany and Sabah both graduated from the Academy of Art University in 2010 with Master’s of Fine Arts degrees in Fashion and Knitwear Design. Both designers showed their collections during the Academy of Art University Fall ’10 Fashion Show at New York Fashion Week.

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Bethany Meuleners, 2010 M.F.A. graduate with a degree in Fashion and Knitwear Design, is at it again. She has just been featured in an article in Blü Magazine’s most recent issue. In 2010, she received the Fulbright Scholarship, which allowed her to spend 10 months in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, studying traditional apparel and crafts with local artisans (You can read all about her adventures here!). This year, she is working to put Nepal Fashion Week on the map. She will not be showing her own collection, but is instead helping to produce the event, hoping to increase the visibility of the event around the world. Clearly, she is a woman who can do it all – just one of the many reasons we love her!

Click here to read the entire Blü Magazine article.

Recently, a Newar man turned 77 years, 7 months, 7 weeks and 7 days old. I was able to attend his birthday party.

In Newar tradition, when a man or woman turns 77 there is a ceremony that is held in their honor where they are deified (or made to be a living god). If their spouse is still alive (regardless of their age) they go through the ceremony with them. This ceremony is called jankoo.

Kerry had informed me that she had been invited to attend this auspicious event and asked if I would like to join. Of course, my answer was yes!

After meeting up with Kerry in Patan (which is the city south of Kathmandu separated by the Bagmati River), we arrived at this particular Newar community’s “neighborhood” around 9 a.m. I say “neighborhood” because it’s really more like a large community of family members (immediate family, cousins, distant cousins, etc.) that live in houses that surround one central and pretty large courtyard. Also in this “neighborhood” is the Bahal (monastery).

Before checking out what was going on with the jankoo festivities, we went to check out this community’s Bahal. While there, we noticed a little girl who was dressed all in red and gold and had a lot of Newari gold jewellery on. She was dressed in a traditional wedding outfit (red is the color women wear for weddings here) as today she was to be married to a fruit.

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In Nepal, we’re getting into festival season. Recently, Indra Jatra was celebrated here in Nepal. The festival is related to the God Indra and one of his many realms is the rain and weather.

This festival is supposed to bring the end of the monsoon season (here’s hoping for that). One of the many things that goes on is that the living goddess Kumari is carried out on a chariot.

After meeting up with a totally awesome new friend who works for one of the Nepali publications here, I met up with my friend Kerry to watch Indra Jatra from Durbar Square.

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Bethany Meuleners, a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, is currently in Kathmandu, Nepal and is working with Felt Industries Association of Nepal, the Handi-Crafts Design Centre, the Women’s Entrepreneurs Cooperative, and affiliate organizations for introductions to the artisan communities, local industry and trade. She will be sharing some fun stories with us about her time in the lovely country.

I couldn’t have picked a better time to arrive in Nepal. Just 9 days after I arrived was the start of TGIF Nepal Fashion Week.

All of the advertisements, billboards and articles said that it was invite only, but I decided that I’d still try to make my way in. Afterall, I am here studying fashion.
Determined to make it in, I got dressed up (I managed to make it to Nepal with a few dressy and stylish outfits for such an occasion) and showed up sans ticket. It turned out to be a fashion week fail as I was turned away at the door. Not a complete disaster, as I got the business card of one of the marketing guys at the organizing company. As it was invite only, they were already at capacity for the evening but he told me to come see him the next day.

Defeated, I got in a taxi and headed home. I spoke to my friend Kerry on the phone about my fail for the evening. She informed me that in Nepal, Tuesday is Ganesh’s day and he removes all obstacles, so that the next day was sure to be better.

After having my very first language class, I trekked for 45 minutes in the rain (uphill both ways of course) to the marketing guy’s office. He was able to get me a ticket for Tuesday night’s show.

Determined to not be late, I got ready early and headed out with plenty of time to spare. I got to the hotel 45 minutes before the doors opened. So I wandered around the hotel and checked out the spa and pretended like I was a guest.

When I got to the entrance my new friend led me in and told me I could sit in the front row. I took my seat and the venue slowly filled. The whole set up was very professional and better than some shows I have seen in the U.S.

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This fall, alumni and students from Academy of Art University’s School of Fashion will depart for Nepal, Bangladesh, and India for educational and professional opportunities, including the fulfillment of a Fulbright Scholarship, internships, and a new fashion school student exchange program developed in response to the San Francisco-Bangalore Sister City Initiative.

Fulbright Scholarship
Kathmandu, Nepal

Bethany Meuleners, 2010 Academy of Art University Fashion and Knitwear Design Alumna, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to spend 10 months in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal to study traditional apparel crafts with local artisans, and research how these techniques may be incorporated into global fashion while remaining sustainable for the artisans and beneficial to their economy.

“I strongly believe that the apparel crafts of Nepal will find a place within modern fashion, and that the techniques used can be applied in ways that are sustainable and maintain cultural integrity. I’ve always wanted to visit Nepal, a developing nation rich in apparel crafts; it is the perfect place to focus my Fulbright studies and research.”

As part of her Fulbright Scholarship, Bethany will be working with the Felt Industries Association of Nepal, the Handi-Crafts Design Centre, the Women’s Entrepreneurs Cooperative, and affiliate organizations for introductions to the artisan communities, local industry and trade. Upon completion in the summer of 2011, Bethany plans to create a textile and clothing collection that is culturally relevant, fashion-forward, and upholds sustainable and socially responsible practices.

In February 2010, Bethany debuted her collection during the Academy of Art University fashion show at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week. She recently launched be.sa, a San Francisco-based label with fellow alumna, Sabah Mansoor Husain.

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You may remember MFA grads Bethany Meuleners and Sabah Mansoor Husain when they showed their collections at New York Fashion Week for the F/W 2010 collections– and they are still going at it in a collaborative effort called be.sa. Make sure you check out their upcoming fashion show at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 18 at Supper Club in San Francisco (657 Harrison Street).

Check out the flyer for more details:

New York’s web-based news channel, NY1 recently posted a video piece of our designers and our show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. We can’t embed it, but we can show you a screen shot…

AND you can watch the whole video by clicking here.

For more on Mercedes-Benz Fashion week click here.

Kristy Siefkin, from the School of Multimedia Communications reported from New York during our fashion show and gave us a nice video package to share. Check it out:

Check out our new page on Current.com.