Seize sur Vingt Re-Imagines the Future of Menswear and Retail with the Launch of Multi-Brand Incubator GROUPE at 198 Bowery
New York, NY (PRWEB) January 18, 2017 -- Seize sur Vingt announces the launch of GROUPE at 198 Bowery in downtown Manhattan, a vertically integrated platform created to support independent fashion designers. GROUPE is initially focused on menswear, but that’s just the beginning.
GROUPE identifies, and collaborates with promising designers to create capsule collections and launch new brands. GROUPE provides all of the infrastructure – from design resources, to funding and production, all the way through to marketing and distribution. GROUPE then brings the work of these designers to a curated audience through their e-commerce platform and immersive retail experience at 198 Bowery.
GROUPE’s novel retail experience brings customers into the creative process. The front of the space showcases capsule collections from emerging designers within the collective. The back of the retail space is where the creative process begins – featuring a Design Lab, a Development Lab, and a Content Lab complete with a photo studio. “With GROUPE we want to reinvent the fashion and retail model. For customers, it’s a place to experience the creative process and become patrons of design. For designers, it’s a place to have their visions seen and voices heard.” said James Jurney, founder of Seize sur Vingt and GROUPE.
GROUPE is the brainchild of James and Gwen Jurney, who founded Seize sur Vingt 18 years ago. In many ways, their newest venture is equal parts collective, incubator, and curatorial. GROUPE already has emerging designers including Jon-Paul Rodriguez, Isabella Spataro, Adi Mucktar-Barnes, Luke McCann and Katya Guseva, and as part of the collective.
ABOUT GROUPE: GROUPE started with a question. How do we foster and support the voice and vision of emerging designers?
The traditional model for the fashion industry is broken, with no real support for its emerging artists. Young talent spend their most unjaded creative years in support roles making tech packs. Imagine telling Adele that she would have to sing backup for 15 years. There simply aren’t opportunities for new designers to have a credible chance at independence unless they have both business acumen and access to significant capital. If we are going to change the narrative, we need to rethink the power structures and roadblocks that exist today in the fashion industry.
That is why we created GROUPE. To change the narrative, and to flip the model on its head. We are creating the first genuine and sustainable platform that connects independent, emerging and aspiring designers to a community of early-adopters who are looking for more meaning in the things they wear.
We are a collective of young designers who will shape the fashion dialogue. We are an incubator that supports the growth of today's most exciting talent. And we are a curator of design -- offering our clients the chance to become fashion patrons and support emerging talent. Together, let’s redefine the future of design.
James Jurney, GROUPE Inc., +1 212-625-1620, [email protected]
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