>> CFDA, New York City Join to Subsidize Fashion Incubator for Emerging Designers —On Monday, New York City's Bloomberg administration announced that it will be subsidizing rent for a 10,000 square foot fashion incubator space; emerging designers will compete for twelve spaces in a showroom building in the garment district, with rent coming in at only $1,500 instead of the current $2,900 market price for a comparable space.  The new tenants will be selected through a competition; winners will be announced in December and move-in — with a lease lasting two years — is expected in February. The applicants must be "working designers," according to CFDA executive director Steven Kolb, who have been in the business for a year and a half, employ a staff, and have both media attention and orders from top retailers. The CFDA also plans on giving the selected designers educational and industry support. [NYTimes City Room]

>> INSIDER WIRE —Late last month, a group of designers, including Narciso Rodriguez, Maria Cornejo, Jason Wu, and Thakoon Panichgul, took a trip to Washington, DC accompanied by CFDA executive director Steven Kolb to lobby for an anti-piracy bill to stop mass retailers from knocking off their ideas.  But when Rick Owens was recently asked if he cares that his look is being rampantly copied, his reply? "No-oo. I guess it's a compliment." [Guardian]

>> The CFDA wouldn't support the British Fashion Council requiring models to obtain a health certificate, but they will be putting up a booth in the lobby and backstage of the Bryant Park tents during New York Fashion Week. 

In partnership with the Renfrew Center, a residential treatment facility for eating disorders, the booth will offer a clinician on site to answer any questions and provide referrals, information on the CFDA's current health guidelines, and an informational brochure on the signs and symptoms of eating disorders. 

Visitors will also be able to sign a proclamation of support for the health guidelines — the list of over 300 signatures already includes Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, Derek Lam, Carolina Herrera, several editors, agents and models.

But health isn't the only issue on the CFDA's mind. Just last week, president Diane von Furstenberg and executive director Steven Kolb sent out a letter to the members, encouraging diversity on the runways:

We remain in full support of bringing more diversity to the runway and urge you to create shows that are truly multicultural. The fashion industry has great power. Together we can influence the vision of beauty so women can be celebrated no matter their size or skin color.

Only one short week and we'll see if either of these methods have any effects — somehow, I don't see the booth having any serious influence.
*image: source

>> A lot of attention has been placed lately on increasing model diversity, but what about that other troubled topic — model weight? 

Today, the British Fashion Council announced that their initiative to ban "size zero" models from the London catwalks next month has been abandoned after the other three major fashion capitals refused to follow suit. 

The plan was to require models to obtain a doctor's certificate proving they were in good health, but the Chambre Syndicale in Paris thought imposing model health certificates lay outside their realm, the Camera Nazionale della Moda in Milan preferred self-regulation, and according to Steven Kolb, executive director of New York's CFDA:

We looked at things like doctor’s certification and body mass index and decided that, for us, it wasn’t the appropriate recommendation. We felt it was wrong to force a girl to have a physical examination, especially because the signs of a problem aren’t always obvious.

After the negative reaction of its peers, London deferred — with fashion week coming up next month, if the city had imposed such strict standards alone, models would likely have skipped the city altogether.
*image: source