South by Southwest (SXSW), the annual film, music and interactive conference, is adding fashion to its celebrated mix. The inaugural Style X (pronounced Style By), an exhibition aimed at showcasing emerging talent in the fashion industry, will debut at the conference’s 25th anniversary in March 2011.
Style X will be a free event, open to the public, and will present dozens of up-and-coming brands through retail pop-ups and runway shows. The goal is to celebrate fashion in Austin and around the world, with new designers being announced as the launch date comes closer. The group has been actively seeking emerging talent via twitter.
Joah Spearman, owner of Sneak Attack, a pop-up sneaker boutique and Jon Pattillo, co-owner of Sanctuary Printshop, approached SXSW executives with the idea about a year ago. They see it as an opportunity to replicate SXSW influence on music and art with fashion and are touring the country looking for designers that fit the bill. Spearman tells the Austin Business Journal that he doesn’t “want this event to scream, ‘Oh, you have to be some high fashion industry snob to appreciate this event. SXSW succeeds because it does a great job of reaching out to that general public, and creating a base of buzz among them.”
Are you a designer or representing a designer who will be presenting at StyleX. What do you think of SXSW foray into fashion?
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it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with this…there’s always been some fashion representation at SXSW, but not in an “organized” way.
before this was even announced, indiana (adoredaustin.com) and I started organizing a fashion blogger conference march 12-13 during the first part of SXSW to bring newer bloggers together with professional bloggers (jennine from IFB is our keynote speaker!!) for learning & networking. there aren’t a lot of good opportunities for fashion bloggers in the “official” SXSW stuff – and it’s REALLY expensive – so we decided to create our own
http://www.texasstylecouncil.com
hi grechen,
that’s great to hear! perhaps there are some co-promotional opportunities between your organization and StyleX – they seem to still be in the planning stages. great to know you have jennine as a speaker, that will be a lot of fun. hopefully i will be able to make it out to Austin and can come by! xo crosby
Thanks so much for covering the announcement of Style X. I really think this is going to bring an exciting new element to both SXSW and the fashion industry. Please come see for yourself in March!
Lots of Style X buzz around here. Joah is awesome and is building this thing from scratch. Since his event is for the public whereas ours is for bloggers and shop owners w/ blogs, we can definitely work together. Joah will be doing our kickoff intro and I’ll be writing content for the StyleX blog. Austin has more than just cowboy boots and chaps, y’all! :0)
I was actually searching for something like this for my SXSW experience this year.I’m an aspiring graphic designer and I think Fashion is the unspoken element of SXSW. Whether your attending an event of just walking around, everyone tends to dress a bit better for SXSW. I’ll be there!