Karri Ann Frerichs elevates San Francisco style

As more and more time passes  between the cancellation and relaunch of San Francisco Fashion Week, the hope of ever getting the Bay Area style scene formed into a successful community that promotes and encourages new designers grows dimmer, and the general sense of apathy expands.   But amidst all of the negativity, a small group of individuals whom  are putting their all into turning the tide for San Francisco Fashion through events and parties have emerged.   One such individual is Entrepreneur, Karri Ann Frerichs, founder of Altitude Promotions, and organizer of Style Elevation, who sat down with Style Wylde to discuss her upcoming shopping event and the  obstacles facing the struggling San Francisco style industry.

SW: You are the founder of your own company, Altitude Promotions, how did you get started in the business?

KF: With my former careers in retail management, corporate event planning, and fashion feature writing, I feel my experiences prepared me for launching Altitude Promotions in 2007.  I always wanted to run my own business and I moved to San Francisco from Omaha in 2005 to give it a go.  Being a creative person myself, I've always wanted to work with creative people so I considered my strengths in writing and management and decided that I would be best suited for promotions and sales management for fashion designers.

SW: Your business focuses primarily on emerging designers, why is that?

KF: This city is filled with so much creativity and incredible entrepreneurial spirit that I immediately identified with the designers and artists working to build their businesses here.  I like the idea of working with a new company to take them through the necessary steps of growth and public awareness to eventually see this once local designer showcasing their latest collection on the stage at New York Fashion Week.  That's my dream and ultimate business goal.  I study the steps that successful design businesses take to get them where they are and learn how to tailor that path to the clients I work with.

SW: This Saturday will launch your first Style Elevation event,  tell us more about it.

KF: Style Elevation is a shopping event series promoting talented designers and artists of the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.  We host our events in high traffic neighborhoods in vacant retail spaces in order to help draw increasing traffic to the great neighborhoods of SF and to showcase these vacant spaces both to the public and prospective tenants in an active weekend shopping event!

SW: Who will be exhibiting?

KF: Our October event includes a dozen participating designers, 3 artists, 3 fashion photographers and 2 cupcake bakers!  We have jewelry, children's wear, and women’s apparel, eco-friendly t-shirts, recycled apparel, gifts and decor for the home and fashion gadgets.  

SW: What makes this event different from trunk shows and sample sales? 

KF: Our event is like a giant multi designer trunk show featuring current collections, not samples or discounted past season merchandise.  There are a lot of sample sales out there and though everyone appreciates a great deal, we are showcasing the latest and greatest from the colorful entrepreneurs who continue to drive our creative industries.  More so than price, shoppers today are driven by value and our designers are innovative, progressive and have great collections available now!

SW: How did you come up with the concept for these events? 

KF: Altitude Promotions works directly with designers and buyers and is very conscious of how difficult it is right now for up and coming designers to sell their collections in stores.  Retailers are closing, sitting on product they just can't move and can't afford to invest in the new products they may otherwise want.  So Altitude developed the shopping concept to provide these design businesses a direct outlet to sell their products and grow their business, while at the same time getting the public excited again about opening new store fronts in thriving neighborhoods!  

SW: How do you see this event impacting the neighborhood? 

KF: We are already incorporating the neighboring businesses.  When a shopper purchases any product from a Style Elevation vendor, they will receive a card good for promotions at the neighboring restaurants and bars!  Plus, we hope that by experiencing the vacant retail space in action, prospective tenants will be able to envision their business thriving at that particular location.  We'll have contact information for the commercial Realtor onsite.  Plus, no business wants a vacant neighbor.  More business means more traffic so my goal is to feed off the other businesses' foot traffic and send our traffic through their doors as well.  

SW: Will there be additional Style Elevation events in the future? 

KF: Absolutely!  I will be securing the next venue and dates this week, but I can tell you that the next event will be near Union Square in December!  Plus we have already secured the non-profit Dress for Success to be involved.  We will also be hosting a Friday pre-shopping fashion show in addition to the weekend shopping event. 

Style Elevation will take place Saturday (10-7) and Sunday(11-6) October 10th and 11th on Grant Avenue in San Francisco's North Beach Neighborhood.  A complete list of the clothing designers , jewelry designers, home goods vendors and mind blowingly delicious cupcake vendors participating in Style Elevation is available at the event's official site.