The Columbus Fashion Council led by founder Thomas McClure and president Lubna Najjar is making advancements in the city’s fashion ecosystem through is educational initiatives, programming for emerging designers, professional development opportunities, and most recently, a new fashion and retail district. McClure and Najjar currently serve on the CFDA Connects Leadership Committee along with CFDA’s regional fashion organization founders and directors. In light of the upcoming Business of Fashion Roundtable event, we caught up with these leaders to share more about how they amplify fashion in their region.
Tell us about how the Columbus Fashion Council came to be and why your organization is necessary to the industry and your region.
Thomas McClure: Since 2010, Fashion Week Columbus, our flagship program, has been helping to develop the fashion scene and the fashion ecosystem in Central Ohio. By 2018, we felt it was the right time to create the Columbus Fashion Council to oversee Fashion Week Columbus and to develop additional high-impact programs. As a non-profit, our mission is to provide scholarships to fashion design students and a platform for local & emerging designers. The Columbus Fashion Council helps designers and other fashion related brands become sustainable businesses in Central Ohio, contributing to the city’s economic growth and to American Fashion as a whole.
What does Fashion Week Columbus bring to the industry and how does the experience elevate your designers?
Lubna Najjar: Fashion Week Columbus is a platform, a community, and a series of pertinent resources to designers. We offer so many incredible and invaluable learning and connection opportunities to designers and aspiring creatives.
Do you have a success story from the Fashion Week Columbus runway that you’d like to share?
L.N.: I started my brands and my business, IL Moda Brands, by way of my involvement in Fashion Week Columbus. Our agency was built on the discovery of the needs of these small businesses. Our agency has helped over 100 brands across the country build a business from concept to market, product development to quality testing. We started right here in Columbus. We are building stores for businesses and aiding in their growth year over year. This all lead to the new Fashion and Retail District we spearheaded in Downtown Columbus.
T.M.: Most recently, the Columbus Fashion Council (in partnership with IL Moda Brand Development and the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation) developed and opened Columbus’s first Fashion & Retail District – Common Thread Shops On Third, a whole block of eight boutiques. Most of the brands’ designers have showcased at Fashion Week Columbus and all of them are members of the Columbus Fashion Council. Our next step with the district is to expand with a sample room, which would assist Central Ohio based brands with mini manufacturing.
What should your market and the industry be watching out for with Fashion Week Columbus and the Columbus Fashion Council now?
T.M.: We have so much planned for 2023! A few new programs include a Fashion Film Festival, which is in partnership with the Columbus Museum of Art. We’re also moving our Columbus Fashion Awards off the Fashion Week Columbus runway and into its own event, recognizing those who have made an impact through fashion.
The Columbus Fashion Council is in gear to present its Fashion Roundtable, which is announced to be quite a moment for the City of Columbus. Tell us what you’re excited about for this event and why you’re encouraging fashion creatives & professionals in the region to attend.
T.M.: The Business of Fashion Roundtable brings together various central Ohio fashion organizations, fashion schools, the fashion retail sector, the fashion community, and public officials under one roof to network, share knowledge, and to build bridges to one another. This momentous event will unite the central Ohio fashion community and industry to continue to put fashion at the forefront of our city’s culture and keep Columbus, Ohio as a major player on the national level with American fashion.
How has being part of CFDA Connects been beneficial to you and the ecosystem you’re building in Columbus?
L.N.: We believe our relationship with the CFDA is pertinent for our regional industry growth. Not only do we utilize the CFDA access for Columbus, but we have taken our CFC designers to the CFDA Runway 360 stage opportunity where we don’t feel like NY and Columbus, we feel like one large industry of designers working together to elevate American fashion.
For more information about the Columbus Fashion Council, visit the website.
For more information about CFDA Connects, click here.
