Fashion & Retail Entrepreneurial Business Management Program
About GFBA
The Global Fashion Business Alliance (GFBA) has created a Virtual Fashion Education program for entrepreneurs, designers, and companies within the international fashion and retail industry. The GFBA Academy provides programs to designers and nascent entrepreneurs in emerging markets with best practices and guidance in building sustainable businesses as well as offer advanced individual and cohort based training and support focused on scaling, internationalization, and all aspects of brand and company growth.
The program was developed in partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN). GEN fosters cross platform collaboration among entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policymakers and ecosystem builders supporting businesses in over 180 countries. GEN helps celebrate, understand, support and connect entrepreneurs and those who champion them.
Fashion Business Management Accelerator Program
The GFBA has launched the Fashion & Retail Entrepreneurial Business Management Program accessible through Flitepath, a digital platform for entrepreneurship acceleration and incubation programs worldwide.
The Fashion & Retail Entrepreneurial Business Management Program provides the latest information, contacts and resources in collaboration with North America’s top consultants in finance and factoring, supply chain management, digital marketing and retail technologies, legal issues for protecting your brand, accounting, taxes and compliance, experiential branding, marketing and merchandising, and building a sustainable brand.
The Fashion & Retail Entrepreneurial Business Management Program is aimed at all professional levels in the industry - from CEOs and directors to managers, showroom sales account executives, entry-level associates and students studying fashion design, marketing and merchandising. Professionals with diverse industry backgrounds (fashion, retail, design, beauty, cosmetics, media, art, gastronomy, etc.) and with high levels of creativity are welcome to join.
Our Live Webinar Series
Our webinar series, started in 2020, is hosted by Beth Sobol, founder and CEO of the GFBA and has featured top fashion business experts from the United States representing respected organizations such as Hilldun Corporation, American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) Hawke Media, Columbus Consulting, PM Business Advisors, Prager Metis CPAs, Pilnick & Associates, Cozen O'Connor P.A., and The Barbarian Agency.
Next Upcoming Webinar
Wednesday, February 24, 2021 @ 11:00am ET
Meet the Fashionistas: A Conversation With Elysze Held
Style Out Of The City founder Elysze Held, is an inspiring and well known stylist, closet editor, Fashion Event Emcee, Trunk Show extraordinaire, image refresher, and STYLE discussion host. For over 30 years she has dressed everyone from ceo’s, supermodels, famous celebrities and socialites with her deeply personal and vibrantly versatile approach to building a wardrobe.
Live Webinar Schedule
Meet the Fashionistas: A Conversation With...
A Global Fashion Business Alliance (GFBA) on-going LIVE webinar series. Every two weeks, on Wednesdays at 11:00 am ET, we showcase impressive, interesting and inspiring fashion business conversations / stories with those on the front line. The visionaries, the doers, the disruptors, from all facets of the fashion landscape (apparel, footwear, accessories, etc.) from the US and around the world as well as the ancillary industries that support them in technology, sustainability, logistics, public relations, marketing, etc.
Participating Members
Sponsorship Opportunities
GFBA’s virtual programs are designed to help drive the engagement and connections that propel your business to new heights. To learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and reach our global audience.
GFBA Founder
Beth Sobol
Beth Sobol, founder and CEO of the GFBA is a premier fashion business expert and consultant with a focus on launching the careers of International emerging designers into the American market. Sobol is the founder of the original Miami Fashion Week, one of the top fashion weeks in the world, and developed the platform that gave thousands of international designers their initial launch into the American market. In 2015 she sold the brand to European investors and now focuses on developing educational programming for entrepreneurs in the fashion and retail brand markets.
Meet the Fashionistas: A Conversation With Elysze Held
Wednesday, February 24, 2021 @ 11:00am ET
Style Out Of The City founder Elysze Held, is an inspiring and well known stylist, closet editor, Fashion Event Emcee, Trunk Show extraordinaire, image refresher, and STYLE discussion host. For over 30 years she has dressed everyone from ceo’s, supermodels, famous celebrities and socialites with her deeply personal and vibrantly versatile approach to building a wardrobe.
About Elysze Held
In South Florida, the name Elysze Held is synonymous with style-Elysze has been heralded as ‘Miami's own fashion expert'.
Elysze is the Senior Contributing Fashion Editor of the Miami Herald's Luxury Magazine, INDULGE (Producing and Styling the covers and inside features) Elysze's column in, Eye on Style, through the eyes of a stylist have provided valuable insight and research on the pulse of Miami Fashion.
An industry veteran, Elysze been featured in the majority of South Florida publications: Miami Modern Luxury Magazine's as Miami's 2015 Trendsetter - "The Doyenne"; Brickell Magazine "Haute Hero"; Aventura Magazine "Power Player"; Ocean Drive Magazine "Shop Savvy"; Miami Herald; Palm Beach Woman; and World Red Eye. She has provided on-air fashion commentary for CBS 4 for the the Oscar and Emmy Awards for the 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Award season; been interviewed countless times for the Miami Herald, WSVN 7 Style Files and Deco Drive; is featured on CBS 4's Women to Watch as a Style Icon in South Florida; was chosen by Conrad Hotels International as one of the (4) ‘Style Stars' of Miami; was recently tapped by the Ritz Carlton Hotels as their "Couture Concierge" consultant .
Elysze is also featured in the documentary film on Style/Fashion icon Iris Apfel, shot in Palm Beach and New York by acclaimed documentary filmmaker, the late Albert Maysles(of Grey Gardens fame) and also credited in the film. Elysze has also styled editorial, commercial and fashion features. Ms. Held is the Founder and President of the Miami fashion/image consulting firm, Style Out of the City, and counts among her personal clients CEO's, celebrities, socialites and fashionistas, and soccer moms!!
A veteran of the fashion industry, Elysze begin in San Francisco: I. Magnin, and Wilkes Bashford, both iconic establishments in the field of luxury, and has been in every part of the fashion industry as a stylist, producer, fashion director and fashion editor. Elysze is the former fashion and visual director of Florida landmarks Lillie Rubin Stores and Burdines.
As the stylist and image consultant for WSVN 7's Deco Drive anchors Elysze has guided the stars of this long running news entertainment show from a whimsical ‘Sobe' look to a chic uptown style, working with high end international, national and especially local designers and stores. Elysze maintains dual residents in Key Biscayne and New York, and has been behind the scenes at Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week as both a stylist and a producer.. is a South Florida favorite. Elysze is on the Board of Directors at DASH School (Design & Architecture High School) as well as the newly developed Fashion Department of Miami Dade College.