Beth Sobol, with more than 30 years of experience in the fashion industry, and Founder of Miami Fashion Week has launched the Council of International Fashion Designers (CIFD)

Founder of Miami Fashion Week launches Council of International Fashion Designers (CIFD)
First Fashion Business Portal for Emerging Designers to Revolutionize Industry

Miami – April 4, 2017 – Beth Sobol, with more than 30 years of experience in the fashion industry, and Founder of Miami Fashion Week has launched the Council of International Fashion Designers (CIFD). The first of its kind for the fashion industry, the CIFD platform provides a direct link to experts, information, and resources to help emerging brands succeed in the United States.

The CIFD is a one-stop shop for designers seeking advice and guidance in positioning their businesses for growth in a complex domestic and international fashion market. Among the many benefits, CIFD members will have access to the industry’s top experts to help them navigate through the critical stages and challenges facing designers and to help them sustain in today’s digital and disruptive market.

“Today’s designers need to be smarter about and more aware of the changing consumer shopping habits than ever before. These monumental changes have precipitated a need for different methods of financing businesses. E-commerce plays a greater and greater role in brand building and it thereby requires a different approach to capital needs and allocations. Wholesale channels of distribution are also morphing daily. The more informed small business owners are, the better prepared they will be to find a path to growth and profitability in this new environment. I look forward to providing insights and financing opportunities through the CIFD to its membership,” said Gary A. Wassner, CEO, Principal, Hilldun Corporation, and shareholder in the CIFD.

The CIFD and its strategic partners have joined forces to create a safety net for the world’s emerging designers providing relevant, current, and correct best business practices and to create unique access, opportunity, and value for new business development with the shared vision of supporting CIFD members by helping them grow their businesses in the American market.

“Our members will have what is essentially a dream team of advisers and experts guiding them every step of the way,” says Beth Sobol. “Our goal is to arm them with innovative information and advice to prepare them for the many challenges facing them in today’s market.”

CIFD members will have access to experts and resources in many phases of retail strategies, fashion law, factoring and finance, branding, social media strategies, e-Commerce, IoT and technology in fashion, trends forecasting, international trade assistance, and much more. “Beth has spent the last two years working diligently to assemble her team of advisers for this much-needed service said Aaron Perry,” Beth’s former business partner with Miami Fashion Week and a shareholder in the CIFD.

The CIFD, together with Bamboo Rose, provider of the product innovation platform that connects retail communities, have collaborated to create the Bamboo Rose “House of Fashion”, a virtual showroom providing CIFD members with access to global buyers and resources never before possible for an emerging brand.

“Designers and brands today are under more pressure to innovate and reach wider markets than ever before. The traditional approach to developing products and reaching buyers doesn’t cut it,” said Sue Welch, CEO of Bamboo Rose. “Designers, retailers and brands need new ways to reach international buyers and quickly receive feedback on their product for their particular markets. The Bamboo Rose House of Fashion provides a unique online community that connects CIFD designers with international retail buyers to ultimately give consumers a more appealing, high quality product.”

Danielle Garno, a shareholder in the Miami Litigation Practice of Greenberg Traurig, serves as a CIFD fashion law partner. “Helping to launch this greatly needed resource for emerging designers who want to take their businesses to the next level and beyond was highly rewarding,” said Garno, whose practice focuses on specific issues faced by the fashion community. “I look forward to working with the CIFD on many more initiatives to support this young business community that is so essential to the future of the fashion industry as a whole.”

To learn more about the Council of International Fashion Designers (CIFD), please visit www.CIFD.net or follow @CIFD on Twitter.

About CIFD
The CIFD Strategic Partners are a group of top experts within the global fashion and business industries that have joined forces in providing information and resources on relevant, current, and correct best business practices for the US market. The purpose of the CIFD and its strategic partners is to create unique access, opportunity, and value for new business development with the shared vision of supporting CIFD members by helping them grow their businesses in the United States. The Council of International Fashion Designers, Inc. (CIFD) is a not-for-profit trade association which offers selective membership to emerging and established fashion, jewelry, accessories and textile designers/brands, fashion retailers, international trade offices, empowerment foundations, fashion councils and related industry professionals.