Five Questions With: Rosanna Ortiz

A California native, Rosanna Ortiz co-founded the SEED: Innovation Meets Education, which fosters innovation and education in apparel and accessory design through peer mentorship. The organization, first conceived in 2011 with co-founder Jonathan Joseph Peters, is an outgrowth of StyleWeek LLC, a company Ortiz created in 2009 as a platform for emerging fashion designers. Ortiz is also CEO of StyleWeek. The nonprofit has just received 501c-3 status. Here she discusses the nonprofit’s mission and how it will be implemented.

PBN: How did you get the idea to set up SEED and why did you make it a nonprofit?
ORTIZ:
We wanted to incorporate student designers on the StyleWeek runway in 2011. We had been brainstorming how we could do so, while also providing them a learning experience with showcasing their design in a professional trade event. We decided that we wanted to make it challenging and fun for the student but also thought-provoking and avant garde. So we came up with SEED which would be a student design competition where local universities would choose students to participate. This runway show competition happened during the winter StyleWeeks for the past four years. We provided the designer parameters to create one garment made of sustainable materials which would be judged by a panel of industry and press insiders. The competition was a huge success from the beginning.

PBN: What is SEED’s primary mission and how do you fulfill it?
ORTIZ:
SEED’s ultimate goal is to provide student designers with the real world skills needed to succeed in the fashion and accessory design industry.
An incubator program for young designers, a new mentorship will be offered by a selected group of business professionals that are a part of the network that StyleWeek has created over the past 10 seasons. Third- and fourth-year students will be nominated by the directors of their university fashion program to partake in this supplemental secondary education program.
Many feel that the work stops when is the collection is completed, however that is when the real work begins and we want to be the organization that supports them while in school and early career.

PBN: How does SEED collaborate with the region’s colleges and universities? Any key relationships that stand out?
ORTIZ:
In the beginning we simply reached out to the department heads at regional universities and spoke with them about this competition which was inspired by Jonathan’s time on Project Runway. We have continued to showcase student designers from Rhode Island School of Design; University of Rhode Island; Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston; Fashion Institute of Technology in N.Y.C. and the School of Fashion Design Boston since 2011.
All of the universities that have had students partake in the competition have been heavily involved with this program, they are all outstanding and all have attributed to the SEED program. We are always looking for other students who would want to be involved from any university.

- Advertisement -

PBN: How do mentors work with apparel and accessory design students and entrepreneurs?
ORTIZ
: Our mentor program will focus on but not be limited to these key elements: marketing, textile manipulation, branding, accounting and design.
Our mentors will provide the student designers with not only the business tools but the social skills they will need to cultivate a successful business in apparel and accessory design after they graduate, while focusing to have them stay here in Rhode Island to build their brand.

PBN: What are your long-range goals for the organization?
ORTIZ
: Long-term goals are achieved by short-term successes. That said, we are in our fourth year with a lot of success from our designer competition show and our long-term goal is to be able to build on the design community in Rhode Island that already exists. Furthermore, we have great examples of extremely successful businesses in the design community here in Rhode Island for students to be inspired by. From multi-million dollar companies such as Alex and Ani who have set the bar to newer companies like Kent Stetson Handbags who in a few short years has made a national name for himself, there are high profile fashion leaders in the community who believe in Rhode Island. Leaders include Giovanni Feroce, CEO of Benrus who is dedicated to keeping and growing his business based in Rhode Island; then you have Project Runway alum such as Jonathan Peters who has a successful shop, Nude Boutique, which is committed to creating high-end custom clothing by regional designers at an attainable cost.
Our long-term goals are to emulate and build off of successful examples as the aforementioned while mentoring new talent for the future in all areas of the fashion industry. This could include possible 3-D printed garments and work space for student designers to work on their trade.

No posts to display