Sherri McMullen Launches Designer Incubator Program
After 16 years of mentoring designers including Christopher John Rogers, Diotima’s Rachel Scott, Jameel Mohammed from Khiry and others, Oakland retailer Sherri McMullen is making it official with the launch of the Beyond M Incubator Program.
Calling for applicants now, the 12-month program aims to help transform fashion start-up businesses into future industry leaders through access to business mentoring and systems.
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“It’s called Beyond M because it’s about things beyond McMullen,” the retailer said over breakfast during Paris Fashion Week. “It’s about empowering the next generation of young designers and making sure they are going to be around. Many times, young brands get a little funding from other programs, and they are trying to figure out how to use the funds, or they’ve already used the funds, and they are trying to figure out production and distributing their goods. So it’s a program to meet them wherever they are in their career and teach them beyond designing how to be sustainable business leaders.”
McMullen has made it part of her ethos to support designers of color at her inclusive luxury specialty store. She celebrated her 15th anniversary last year, hosting a runway show in San Francisco, launching pop-ups in Los Angeles and Detroit, and opening a 10,000 square-foot distribution center in Oakland to support her growing boutique and e-commerce business, which sells The Row, Dries Van Noten, Stella McCartney, Carolina Herrera, Peter Do, Sergio Hudson, Khiry jewelry, glassware by Estelle, Ankara pillows by Lagos-based Lisa Folawiyo and more.
McMullen said she’s often asked by young designers if their margins are high enough; how their look book and line sheets come across; how to get into certain retailers, find fabric resources, legal advice and production assistance; and how to manage inventory and marketing.
“I’ve heard of designers going into big-box retailers and they get a very large order, and get really excited about it, then they produce a lot of goods, and at the end of the season if for whatever reason it doesn’t work, they have to take it all back,” she said. “You have to protect your business and ask for what you need. Don’t let someone else dictate what the relationship will be. It should be a partnership. If you can’t fund production, you have to ask for deposits from the retailer, you have to make sure you are not fully responsible for it if it doesn’t work.”
She is setting up a team of advisers for the program who will do weekly check-ins, including herself and McMullen chief operating officer Lisa Zhao, designers Jonathan Simkhai, Amy Smilovic (Tibi), Christopher John Rogers, and Jonathan and Sara Leff of Jonathan Cohen, as well as representatives from JP Morgan Chase.
“We want to make sure we’re taking care of this next generation so they can get to the next level, whatever that means to them,” she said.
The application process for the inaugural class will be open through Oct. 30. Three to five designers will be chosen and announced on Nov. 16 alongside the final panel of advisers and 2023-2024 programming.
If designers are local to the Bay Area, they will have a place in McMullen’s warehouse space and use of the facility for distribution.
Applicants need to have an established business, she said. “Ideally, we want people to be ready to launch or distribute their goods within 12 to 18 months, whether that’s [direct to consumer] or through a wholesale model.”
Beyond M designers will be showcased on her website and in store, she said.
As for her own business, McMullen is growing, and she’s considering opening a second store, perhaps in Los Angeles. “It’s one of our biggest markets,” she said. “Overall, we are up over last year. We are finding people are buying specialty pieces, and that’s helped us. People are also really excited about younger designers.”
Hence the incubator program. “It’s the work I have been doing for years, but now we’re putting structure around it,” she said.
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