MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – “The Show Miami” is coming to the Miami Beach Convention Center next month, bringing top designers and industry leaders to South Florida.
And the students at the Miami Fashion Institute got the opportunity to intern and get hands-on experience for the event, working alongside some of the best in fashion.
“Our mission is to create Miami as a sustainable fashion area,” said The Show Miami co-founder Katarina Hansell-Bakic. “That people don’t need to go to New York anymore or LA or somewhere else -- that you have a fashion ecosystem in Miami, so starting from students, young people that can get their experience, start their brand, that can get jobs.”
Speaking of the future, the students at the Miami Fashion Institute are getting to go all in on being a part of The Show Miami with live, hands-on experience, from retail planning to internships.
“I have to research the brands that are a part of sustainability and have that mindset in the first place. You don’t want to just get brands that are brands. No. You have to target the brands that are upcycling,” student Alicia Perez said.
As an intern, she is focusing on sustainability in fashion.
“What we do right now is buy, wear, throw away,” Perez said. “Instead of throwing it away, we find a new way to use it -- just being creative with what we have.”
This as we know is a huge effort.
Hannah Zimmett, also an intern, is diving headfirst into learning the business side of fashion.
“For me, I’m in the design program, so we’ve really been very hands on making things, but I’ve never really learned the business side of it -- about buyers and trade shows and things, so I thought it would be interesting for my internship to see a different side of the fashion world,” Zimmett said.
“We work with different brands and designers,” The Show Miami co-founder Ivan Herjavc explained. “The largest is Perry Ellis, which is the largest employer in Miami in the fashion industry.”
The students have their hands in all aspects of putting this show together and are learning from top industry leaders.
“Because of what happened a few years back, a lot of New Yorkers and people in LA, they migrated to Miami, so now it is a fashion mecca,” James First Class said.
James First Class, who is bringing his signature Sprayground collection to the show, is a transplant himself as he’s from New York City.
“The guys that were the moguls in those cities now live in Miami, so now the kids don’t have to run out to New York to get the jobs or to LA, because we have the businesses here and we are hiring internally inside Miami,” he said.
XXXX Elo, who has been in the game for decades, uses his creativity and love for cars to engage and inspire the next generation of artists.
“The school, what they are doing is giving kids the opportunity for a lot of young kids to do things and let them express -- Let’s see their creative language, let’s see what they’ve got to do and what they bring to the table,” he said.
Young entrepreneurs will be at the show as well, engaging with the community and speaking love through the game of basketball, joining over 150 brands at the Miami Convention Center.
“The timing is right. Everything is building up and people are seeing everything is growing, so I feel like that’s why people are coming here too because they are seeing that growth,” Perez said.
The Show Miami will also help these young designers with job placement and collaborations with brands in the future.
The social fashion fair runs from March 17 to March 19 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
Click here for more information.