A few months ago, a New York Times article by Guy Trebay about San Francisco fashion (or, more specifically, the lack thereof) raised my hackles a bit. Articles and opinion pieces about the Bay Area’s subpar fashion scene abound, but little is written about what we do well and how we can do it even better.

San Francisco’s fashion community is growing quickly. Stores featuring primarily local designers are popping up all over San Francisco and the East Bay: Union Square’s Shotwell carries two floors' worth of drool-worthy designs produced mainly by local talents, and the SF-born and -bred House of Hengst recently received a flurry of press — although sadly, most of the attention was because they moved to New York.

[There's also Project San Francisco, an annual runway show made by locals, on Feb. 17 --Ed.]

So, on the eve of New York's semiannual Fashion Week (which runs Feb. 9-17), The Bay Citizen approached Owen Geronimo, creator of the San Francisco Fashion and Merchants Alliance, or SFFAMA, and producer of San Francisco Fashion Week, about the current state and future of San Francisco's fashion scene. He had a lot to say about how San Francisco can build a strong local fashion economy that works well for designers, merchants and the fashionably independently minded citizens of our fair city.

The Bay Citizen: Unlike New York or LA, San Francisco is often thought of as having "no style" and no emphasis on fashion. In a city with such a reputation for being unfertile fashion ground, what prompted you to found the San Francisco Fashion and Merchants Alliance?

Owen Geronimo: San Francisco might not be known as a fashion destination, but "style" is definitely something we have down. Plus, fashion and style are not synonymous, even though it’s marketed that way. I see style as more of an internal instinct about how you express yourself no matter what you wear. Style is an expression; fashion is the process of wearing what is supposedly fashionable. In the past year or two, there has been a resurgence of independent fashion in San Francisco fueled by the abundance of local fashion bloggers. These bloggers exude great personal style that defines the indie scene in San Francisco. Local Bay Area startups such as Kaboodle, Moxsie and Polyvore have also helped make the San Francisco fashion climate more visible.

I was prompted to found the San Francisco Fashion and Merchants Alliance because I saw the need for knowledge about the business of fashion and technology. The local fashion industry is not infertile, it’s inexperienced. There is really room to grow and change. The inspiration to launch SFFAMA is to bring change and to also negate the "starving artist" mentality and have the local fashion scene distance itself from the club scene with the exception of Fashion Feud. Every SFFAMA fashion event is very fashion-focused with specific purposes.

TBC: You come from a pretty unique background that includes both business and art. What prompted you to get involved in local fashion?

OG: In the early '90s I worked as a designer and did a few fashion show stints in the local circuit and The Orbit Shows. At that time, I was also showing work in art shows, but I found that I preferred curating, and so I ended up working as a curator in my free time, but I worked full-time in the banking industry as a loan broker. If I had continued to pursue fashion design, the next step would have been to build my brand and try to mass-produce my design, but at the time, I was more interested in financial stability, so I stayed with finance. Of course, then the market crashed. I didn’t work for about two years after the meltdown — I had gotten caught up with the life I’d created in real estate finance and I really thought that was going to be my career. Eventually, I wanted to reinvent myself — I wanted to shed everything that I deemed materialistic. I didn’t want the life I’d built in finance to define me, and so I decided to return to my roots in art and fashion, which has been really therapeutic because that’s what I’m truly passionate about.

TBC: Does your interest in particular artistic mediums influence what you're drawn to in a designer? Do you have a personal fashion philosophy?

OG: Fashion is an art form, so yes. Artistic greats such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring are influences, but I think pop-art fashion did very well in the '80s with Wham!, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Malcolm McLaren. Although I’m very drawn to the modernism designs by the Japanese greats like [Issey] Miyake, [Rei] Kawakubo, [Yohji] Yamamoto, Kenzo [Takada] or [Yukiko] Hanai… locally, it doesn’t translate. Ultimately, when I book designers, I look for quality works that are sellable.

There is too much emphasis on the word "fashion" that makes it generic and overused. Many people are stuck with the idea that fashion is solely about external aspects. It incites superficiality. I do have general philosophies. One, be unique or original, which encompasses thought, innovation and craftsmanship. Two, love and be passionate about what you do: everything else will tend to fall into place. To quote Yves Saint Laurent, “Fashion fades, style is eternal,” so indeed, true.

TBC: San Francisco is replete with brilliant local designers, and yet, we always seem to lose them to other cities when they reach a certain level of success. How do you think that we, as a city, could build a stronger and more vibrant fashion economy that could retain the talent that flourishes here?

OG: It’s due to economics. It is quicker to turn over your product line. The exposure to buyers, retailers and the entertainment industry are definitely draws because it can easily translate to bigger sales. Relocating to other cities like New York can also be strategic because all the fashion resources are a lot more accessible there. We could build a more vibrant fashion economy first with education. That is why I founded the San Francisco Fashion and Merchants Alliance. Providing educational resources that are innovative and relevant to the current economic climate is very essential. Localization is another way to support local talents. It is now currently occurring with a handful of indie shopping events around town all season long. A garment industry would also benefit the local fashion community, but utilization of the local merchant associations as resources is sometimes overlooked.

Although this could be a perception by many, I know many designers that are staying put that operate locally, like Joseph Domingo, Bacca Da Silva and Colleen Quen to name a few. Losing a designer to another city is not necessarily a bad thing because they become more brand ambassadors for San Francisco fashion like Alexander Wang. Having Jay Nicolas Sario and Christopher Collins on "Project Runway" is awesome. It’s proof that we do have talents originating locally!

TBC: What was it like to produce San Francisco Fashion Week last year?

OG: It was refreshing! It really validated the need to produce these sorts of events locally. The theme was “The ReInvention.” The purpose was to present a San Francisco Fashion Week in a manner that has never been done before. Fortunately, the venue brought that vision into reality. I wanted to emphasize that it was a different production, unrelated to the defunct SF Fashion Week. The title was fitting because I wanted to convey the message that we are evolving as a fashion community. Without change, fashion won’t be fashion at all.

TBC: Much of the work you do in the arts — from founding the San Francisco Art Forum to producing the monthly art party Werkstatte — and in fashion with the monthly Fashion Mash-Up seems to be about community-building. Do you have a particular business or personal philosophy around this?

OG: Of course! It’s all about human relations. I believe that a strong community is the foundation of any successful company. Google and Facebook wouldn’t be these behemoths without a strong community. I always considered myself an outsider in many circles, so I can relate to an artist’s or designer’s mindset, but it doesn’t change my approach with people. Humans yearn to belong, that is why belonging to a community is important. But, without good leadership and a revolutionary vision, a community usually fails. Mostly, I do what I do because I enjoy doing it and that is what matters.

TBC: What do you think is unique about San Francisco style compared to, say, NYC or LA?

OG: The freedom of self-expression. There’s no other place that is more liberal than the San Francisco Bay Area. We still embody the ideas of the past — flower power and the love revolution of the '70s. Self-expression is obvious with the abundance of local fashion bloggers and independent designers. Realistically, self-expression matters a lot because that is where the art of fashion is cultivated from. How locals are applying fashion has more practical uses and individualism.

TBC: I noticed that you're an editor for the blog Fashion & Tech. I, being not at all tech-savvy, just imagine Tina Turner in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome." Can you tell us a little bit about how you got interested in the confluence of those two disciplines and how you see fashion evolving with new technologies?

OG: [Laughs] The idea behind the blog is more about the application of technology into fashion. Not in the literal sense of designing a dress with computer parts, although I’ve recently featured articles about it. The blog features social media resources and examines how they are applied as a business tool. I’m not the best writer, so I feature a lot of computer graphic images that relate to fashion. To survive the future of fashion, you have to be tech-savvy. I’m really inspired by the work of Scott Schumann. He embodies street fashion by blogging about it as The Sartorialist. I’m definitely inspired by the collaborative projects of Gareth Pugh with Ruth Hogben and Nick Knight of SHOWStudio. I’m also excited to see Sarah Burton’s work as she continues Alexander McQueen’s legacy.

TBC: How would you like to see the local fashion scene evolve here?

OG: I see mostly the business side of fashion. I’m far more interested in how a fashion house operates — from the transformation of a designer’s sketches to the production line and how the product makes it to the retail stores. Having knowledge of this business process is essential. Education becomes a powerful tool. In five years, I want our organization to offer scholarships to aspiring fashion designers and expand on our mentorship programs, and to serve as a guide for university curriculums. [I want to see] a solidly established “San Francisco Fashion Week,” for which SFFAMA owns the trademark. It’s a huge undertaking. We’ll have a committee moving forward.

I also want to see more people in the local fashion world to look more at the international fashion scene to see what’s out there and then apply the knowledge locally. We don’t have to necessarily compete with other fashion cities, but knowing what happens in fashion outside San Francisco is really important as a learning tool.