After a two-year hiatus, we brought back the Moss Adams Fashion Innovator (MAFI) Award during fall Fashion Week in LA last October.
We started MAFI as a way for us to give back and thank an industry that’s been good to us for more than 40 years, and to celebrate and recognize California’s great talents in fashion and design.
We believe some of the best designers in the world, especially in the branded fashion area, are here.
You might remember that we started the MAFI in 2003 as part of the LA Fashion Awards started by Jennifer Uner. We presented the award every year through 2008, and then the recession hit. Organizers had trouble getting sponsors for the event the last two years.
This year, Frances Harder at Fashion Business Inc (FBI) approached me – I’m on the board of FBI – and I said, “We have to do this.’ She showed me the venue, St. Vibiana’s in downtown LA, and it was just spectacular. There’s great synergy between what the FBI does and Moss Adams, and bringing back the MAFI now was the right fit.
So we agreed to sponsor the show, and the MAFI Award. FBI board members and members of the fashion press were able to nominate companies in any category. There were 15-20 companies nominated.
The FBI board and the fashion press voted on the winner. Moss Adams was not involved in the process of nominating companies or selecting a winner.
The winner needed to be an established business that’s done something innovative with respect to design in the past year, and they needed to be a California designer.
They chose contemporary women’s brand Nally and Millie, owned by Nally and James Park. They’re seen as a rising company in the industry, and with respect to fabric and color and patterns, they’re doing something very different and innovative.
And that night in October, Frances put together a great event – the runway show was different, not just the standard models going down the runway, but lots of entertainment.
We were very happy with the event and we look forward to doing it again.
Martin Hughes is a Moss Adams partner since 1998 and is the leader of firm’s Apparel Group. He provides assurance and consulting services to private and public middle-market companies in apparel manufacturing and distribution. The Apparel Group includes offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Irvine, with more than 50 dedicated people who work with more than 150 companies in all categories, ranging in size from start-ups to companies doing in excess of $500 million in annual sales.
