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 Live Webinar
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 @ 12 - 1:30 pm ET, 9 - 10:30 am PT
The Future of the Virtual Fashion Show: A Technology Summit
2020 was a year of innovation, creativity and disruption. The traditional Fashion Show has been altered. Whether it's for the short, medium or long term basis no one knows. Lynn University, the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) and the Global Fashion Business Alliance (GFBA) join forces to co-produce and co-promote a unique and special 90 min event showcasing technology, entrepreneurs and innovators behind Digital Fashion Shows. The Summit is FREE to attend.
Presented By
Anouk Wipprecht
FashionTech Designer, Engineer, Roboticist, Technologist, Innovator, Educator
Gonçalo Cruz
PlatformE Co-Founder, CEO
Daria Shapovalova
DressX Co-Founder, CEO
Natalia Modenova
DressX Co-Founder, COO
Moderated By
Beth Sobol
Founder, Global Fashion Business Alliance
Andrew Burnstine
Associate Professor, Marketing, Lynn University
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.
Industry Updates
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.
The Future of the Virtual Fashion Show: A Technology Summit
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 @ 12 - 1:30 pm ET, 9 - 10:30 am PT
Presented By:
Anouk Wipprecht, FashionTech Designer, Engineer, Roboticist, Technologist, Innovator, Educator
Gonçalo Cruz, PlatformE Co-Founder, CEO
Daria Shapovalova, DressX Co-Founder, CEO
Natalia Modenova, DressX Co-Founder, COO
Moderated By:
Beth Sobol, Founder, Global Fashion Business Alliance
Andrew Burnstine, Associate Professor, Marketing, Lynn University
2020 was a year of innovation, creativity and disruption. The traditional Fashion Show has been altered. Whether it's for the short, medium or long term basis no one knows. Lynn University, the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) and the Global Fashion Business Alliance (GFBA) join forces to co-produce and co-promote a unique and special 90 min event showcasing technology, entrepreneurs and innovators behind Digital Fashion Shows. The Summit is FREE to attend.
About Anouk Wipprecht
Anouk Wipprecht is a Dutch FashionTech Designer, Engineer, and Innovator living in Miami. She is working in the field of wearable robotics with a focus on behavioral aspects of the interactions of body-based electronic design. She wants her garments to facilitate and augment the interactions we have with ourselves and our surroundings. Her Spider Dress is a perfect example of this aesthetic, where sensors and moveable arms on the dress help to create a more defined boundary of personal space while employing a fierce style. Partnering up with companies such as Intel, AutoDesk, Google, Arduino, Microsoft, Samsung, Adobe, Adidas, Cirque Du Soleil, Audi, Disney, Swarovski, and 3D printing company Shapeways she researches how our future would look as we continue to embed technology into what we wear, and more importantly – how this will change our perspective on how we will interface with technology.
anoukwipprecht.nl
About Gonçalo Cruz
Gonçalo Cruz is an Industrial Engineer. Business Designer. Avid Entrepreneur. He co-founded PlatformE - the fashion industry platform for On-Demand Manufacturing - that powers MTO and mass digital experiences for some of the biggest fashion houses at LVMH, Kering, and independent groups. Gonçalo is passionate about Tech (namely for web, commerce, retail) and Virtual (3D, AR, VR) and sits on the Advisory Board of MyDidimo and MOXY. He is interested primarily in learning with people and helping them achieve what was previously unachievable and is always looking for deep literature, beautiful songs, and breathtaking landscapes.
platforme.com
About Daria Shapovalova
Prior to DressX, Daria established Mercedes-Benz Kiev Fashion Days and More Dash. Called ‘Kiev Fashion’s Queen Bee’ by Vogue UK, Daria is famous for putting Ukraine on the world’s fashion map. Daria is featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe and BOF 500 Most Influential People lists.
Under Daria’s creative guidance, Mercedes-Benz Kiev Fashion Days quickly became the largest fashion event in the region. Shapovalova later crossed her fashion career into the education and technology industries. She established Kiev Fashion Institute and a Fashion Tech Summit. There, she spearheaded discussions focused on bridging fashion with technology. As the next spin in her career, Daria moved to San Francisco, got an MBA, and undertook her internship at Walmart.
dress-x.com
About Natalia Modenova
Natalia has more than 10 years of experience in the fashion industry, her main activities include founding a showroom More Dash in Paris and international conference Fashion Tech Summit alongside her business partner Daria Shapovalova. Natalia was a curator of the Fashion Business course at Kiev Fashion Institute, an expert at Google Woman Digital Academy.
After 4 seasons as press-attaché at Mercedes-Benz Kiev Fashion Days, Natalia became it’s COO. Later she co-founded More Dash showroom in Paris, initiating and curating showcases for promotion and sales of the designers' collections internationally. In 2019 More Dash expanded to the US with its Fashion Experience Pop-Up Stores in Los Angeles. In 2020 Natalia (along with her co-founder) launched their first tech company DressX.
dress-x.com
About Beth Sobol
Beth Sobol is the founder of the Global Fashion Business Alliance, an out growth of the Fashion Business Association of America. The GFBA is a fashion business development organization for designers, brands, retailers and entrepreneurs around the world. She is also the creator of the original Miami Fashion Week, one of the largest fashion events in the USA and developed the platform that gave thousands of international designers their initial launch into the American market. MiaFW began in 1999 and after nearly 20 years she sold the brand to European investors. Beth now focuses on the development of educational programming for fashion entrepreneurs, is a sought-after speaker at international fashion events and universities, and is a mentor to young brands vying to scale their business and enter the American market.
About Andrew Burnstine
Dr. Andrew Burnstine is an experienced educator, business executive, On-Air fashion and retail commentator and reporter, and entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry. Dr. Burnstine is skilled in nonprofit, retail and fashion management, and is an education professional with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) focused in Education from New York University.