Elaine Mensah founded Brand Meets Creative agency with the idea that innovation succeeds when creativity meets fashion and applying that mantra to far more than just fashionable apparel. Mensah has spent years immersed in the local fashion scene. She wrote and produced a documentary on D.C.'s fashion scene called The Politics of Fashion: DC Unboxed in 2012 and wrote The Fashion Source, collecting 1,150 entries on everything to do with local fashion in 2015.
An adjunct professor at American University, she's been connected to the tech scene for many years as well, including joining a fashion panel at the first Digital Capital Week, a precursor to the current startup event scene created by iStrategyLabs founder Peter Corbett in 2010.
How did you end up creating your agency?
I started as a management consultant, but I wanted to do my own thing. Back then, PR primarily meant publicist, the categories of publicist and marketing were siloed and people didn't want to move them out of the siloes. They treated them like many different things, but to me it's all one thing. I needed a blend for my business, so it came out of necessity. We ignore those categories. It's about what businesses need to go from zero to 100 or 100 to 200.
"No idea is too bad, the problem is execution."
How do you think about that mix of creativity and business?
I've been around the block and back as a creative strategist. Brand Meets Creative combines the key areas I really believe in, like innovation and creativity. I consult with creative entrepreneurs, people like myself who have a great idea or product or solution and take them from concept to actual realized product. I love the process of creative entrepreneurship whether it's film, books apparel or whether that's even strategy of bringing someone else's idea to life. I like to to say I'm not a dream killer. No idea is too bad, the problem is execution. How can we make this work. Even if it already exists, what is unique to my client's idea.
How does teaching about fashion fit into that broader work?
There's an important lesson in the classes I teach [on fashion business] at American [University] about incorporating fashion as a business. There's a perception that fashion is just glitz and glamor, but fashion is a business. There are different components, where fashion with a capital F is what you see on TV like Project: Runway but that's the end of the line. A lot of great students change their perceptions by the end of the class and it's great to see.
How has your use of tech, especially social media, evolved since you started your company?
I'm connected [to tech] everywhere. My husband is a developer and he heard something in early 2007 and tells me, 'listen, there's this new thing called Twitter and you need to get on it.' And I said, 'Why? Nobody cares what anyone has to say like this. This is stupid. I talk to much for 140 characters.' He said to trust him on it so I created mine in late 2007, but I didn't touch it for a year. Then my cousin went to Harvard and Mark Zuckerberg invited him to join Facebook and he invited me early in 2008 but it just sat in my inbox until he bugged me to join. I consider myself frankly late to the party in terms of adaptation though.
I remember when iStrategyLabs started the first fashion panel at the first digital week. It felt like fashion and tech went hand in hand. The boom of the D.C. tech space helped build the community [since then]. I very much believe in contributing to solving issues and not staying in a little corner for fashion.
Where do you see tech fitting in to your work?
Technology is a legitimizer. If people see you have the right technology and social media, then they see you as a legitimate in [the world of tech]. Someone like me who cringes at taking a selfie and is not an extrovert is inherently uncomfortable with social media and waiting for the validation of a like or engagement. But, I adapted in ways that help clients adapt. Each new addition get exasperating, so it's a big stress point.
What stands out about D.C. in terms of being an entrepreneur?
One thing that's great about D.C. is you can go from nothing to something in 0.0 seconds as long as you have the drive. You'd think it's not a city that's open to entrepreneurship, but I actually find it to be incredibly supportive of entrepreneurs. Even if my friends and I are not where we want to be exactly, we've been able to become big fish in a small pond.
How did D.C.'s fashion scene affect your company's development?
Fashion didn't exist here, but I believed it would be. The problem is fashion is perceived as a black hole where you don't know what you're going to get out of it. We have to show fashion is good for economic development. D.C. is uniquely positioned to spend money on fashion because of the sophisticated, educated people. Fashion is a a process and you can apply tech to that process. Once you break down the idea of fashion and see it's not just unattainable glitz and glamor you can see how the process works. Like with Fitbit. I'm a Fitbit wearer but rubber's not very cute, so I have a Tory Burch rose gold Fitbit case.
"What's attractive is when there's a swag about you."
How would you define D.C. fashion? Does it even exist?
Washington residents are way more sophisticated than people give them credit for. I'd say D.C. fashion is refined. People may perceive a boring, corporate look, but the quality stands out when you wear an outfit that costs $3,000. Women and men have great fashion here and you can see based on the pockets of people that you hang out with.
What do you think of the 'startup uniform' of a startup t-shirt with a blazer and jeans?
I have no problem with it at all, I think it's cute. What's important is feeling comfortable. What's attractive is when there's a swag about you and the way you carry yourself. You have to love what you're wearing.
