California Fashion Association History
Earlier company descriptions, brand line-ups, store counts and photographs from the history of California Fashion Association, kept for historical reference.
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The Company Description of Its Time
The California Fashion Association (CFA) was organised in 1995, as a non-profit public benefit 501(c)(6) corporation, and its historical profile is unusual in this directory because it records the difficult circumstance that called the association into being. The CFA was the outcome of a Fashion Industry Round Table hosted by then Mayor Richard Riordan. The meeting was in response to circumstances surrounding an act of subverted labour law, commonly called the 'El Monte Sweatshop' incident. At that meeting, participants agreed that an industry organisation was necessary - to answer the questions of the media and other groups, to gather significant statistics and on-going data, and to instigate cooperative efforts with city, state and federal officials investigating the incident, on behalf of the apparel and textile industry at large.
The Foundation and California Fashion Manufacturing
In 1999, the California Fashion Foundation was created 'from the heart of the CFA' as the fundraising arm of the CFA. It is a non-profit (C-3) public benefit program that creates yearly events and fundraising opportunities for scholarships and other defined charities allied to the fashion industry. The distinction is worth keeping straight: the Association (a 501(c)(6)) serves the industry's business information needs; the Foundation (the C-3 program) raises money for scholarships and allied charities. Two arms, two legal shapes, one community.
The third element is a working program. The California Fashion Manufacturing (CFM) program gathers information about the varied opportunities in the region for manufacturing, designing and creative services, and promotes the availability of these services and products to retailers, media and all participants in the global industry. The program has been developed and managed by the California Fashion Association. Both the Association's site and the Manufacturing program's site are in the References below.
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References & Further Reading
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