The Chic Guide: What is The House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-Working Experience?
Caressa L. Brown, Owner and Director of (DE-FI) Global INC: When the House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-working Experience first launched in March of 2021, we were the home of the world’s first comprehensive interdisciplinary fashion co-working space, a business hub created by and for the fashion community. It was originally located inside of the Dayton Mall, where we found ourselves in a constant three-way tug-of-war between servicing talent who were genuinely seeking a career in the fashion industry, hobbyists, and the curious passers-by. While we happily serviced everyone who walked through our doors, we found ourselves getting further away from the goals of the space, which was to connect the fashion community to one another. At the same time, we also found ourselves struggling to combat mall noise, communicating with the new mall owners who went M.I.A. for 8 months, resulting in our parent company (DE-FI) Global INC demanding to be released from our lease, and in September 2022, the release was granted at no additional cost to us.
Since then, we’ve made a few changes to our operations. Today, we are an innovative and groundbreaking one-stop fab-lab created to help fashion professionals establish, develop, and grow their brand. The House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-Working Experience is a combination of professional and educational opportunities promoting community, competition, collaboration, and connection for both Dayton Fashion Week and The Cincinnati Fashion Incubator.
The Chic Guide: What’s the inspiration behind it?
Brown: I don’t know that there was an inspiration behind it, it was more or less a need and demand for such a space. We went public with our plans to develop and open the House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-Working Experience back in March 2017 during the finale event of (DE-FI) Fashion Week. Essentially, we were having so many success stories coming from our programming, specifically from our designers and models.
Our designers were struggling to keep up with the demands for their work, they didn’t have a team to manage and write for their websites; they hated sewing, it was cluttering their homes, creating conflicts with family; they couldn’t find a reliable sewist; and were getting pulling in so many different directions that many became frustrated or quit designing altogether because it was overwhelming.
With our model, people were stalking our social media pages to get their names, they’d send them friend requests, and try to book them for shoots. I was getting bombarded by models asking me to check out the legitimacy of offers or asking me to review documents, ask me to tell someone to leave them alone, etc. We’ve also had models share how nervous they were to go on shoots in an abandoned building, they’d tell me they felt very uncomfortable during shoots with photographers they’d just met online. Sadly, we’ve also heard horror stories from models not in our incubator who have reached out to us to report unethical practices, assault, and even human trafficking. The number of times I’ve called the police to report what’s been reported to me is heartbreaking. Things were getting so out of control that we actually partnered with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department to host a human trafficking workshop for our models and their parents. I’ve even reached out to our state representatives to try and get legislation passed to protect models. Models need a safe space to meet with clients and the House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-Working Experience provides that.
The Chic Guide: Who’s behind it?
Brown: The House of (DE-FI)ance was founded by the Dayton Emerging Fashion Incubator (DE-FI) LLC, which is owned by myself, a Dayton native, resident, and former model. In 2021, after doing some legal restructuring to align with the updated strategic plan, (DE-FI) Global INC was launched and became the parent company for the House of (DE-FI)ance, the Dayton Emerging Fashion Incubator, and its subsidiaries.
The Chic Guide: Who can utilize The House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-Working Experience?
Brown: The House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-Working Experience works in conjunction with the designers in The Cincinnati Fashion Incubator, Dayton Fashion Week, and the Associate Incubator members. If you are an aspiring or emerging photographer, model, business professional, makeup artist, pattern maker, stylist, illustrator, videographer, fashion show producer, writer, sewist, tailor, bespoke or textile maker, then the House of (DE-FI)ance is for you. Our House is where team- and brand-building take place; both are the keys to success for anyone seeking a career in fashion.
Because we are intentional with our goals and work, the House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-Working experience is a private and invite-only experience, which is modeled after New York Fashion Week. Both applications and invitation requests can be found on our website at defiglobalinc.com.
The Chic Guide: What makes The House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-Working Experience unique?
Brown: What makes our work unique is that we are the first of its kind. Our vision is to create the leading and most effective business networking experience in the country for the fashion community. From concept to retail and everything in between, our House was created to bring the entire fashion industry under one roof, including the often understated role of design outside of worn garments. Our mission is to enrich the Miami Valley and Midwest regions through the business of fashion via economic growth, the strengthening of our garment district, education, community outreach, and fashion retail opportunities.
The Chic Guide: How can readers support your mission?
Brown: The House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-Working Experience is a volunteer-led organization and because our work is rooted in community outreach, we do not turn anyone away due to their inability to pay. However, in saying that, there are a lot of costs associated with our work from the purchasing of materials, tools, subscriptions, workshops, speakers, travel, etc., so the best way to support our mission is to donate to the Art of (DE-FI)ance, the tax-exempt 501(c)3, which was created to help support aspiring and emerging fashion-based talent. We need more people to join the Art of (DE-FI)ance Board of Directors, the Dreamforce to help mentor our talent on the business end of things, and speakers for the Build-A-Brand Experience where we help our talent reverse engineer their brands as they are building their teams via the Brain Dayton Experience. There are so many ways that people can help support our mission, no experience in fashion is needed. Fashion is a $900 billion a year industry, it takes diverse disciplines to make it happen.
The Chic Guide: Is there anything new on the horizon for 2023?
Brown: Yes, the Dayton Fashion Week is preparing to welcome our 2023 Class of Designers in March. Our parent company is expanding to the Cincinnati area, with The Cincinnati Fashion Incubator and Fashion Week of Cincinnati in July 2023. Applications for that are now being accepted to be a part of the Designer Incubator. We’re in Year 2 of being a part of the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s CFDA Connects Program as well, so we’re really excited about everything we have going on.
The Chic Guide: Where can readers go to learn more and follow along?
Brown: We update our website and social media pages weekly. The best way to get in the know to check out our website at www.defiglibalinc.com.
