Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Swinney.
Hi Matt, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
After launching Austin Fashion Week in 2009 with a ton of success, Fashion X Dallas first hit the runway in 2013 in partnership with the Fashion Industry Gallery (fig). Almost overnight, it became one of the largest fashion events in the city.
Fashion X Dallas featured over 200 designer runway shows between 2013 and 2019 before we were shut down by COVID.
After a long hiatus, Fashion X Dallas relaunched Fall 2023 in partnership with The Village. The first season featured 2 days of runway shows giving platform to around 35 designers.
We’re so excited to be back in the market and can’t wait to continue incredible growth with The Village — it’s such a gorgeous space and perfect for featuring these incredible fashion professionals.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh have there been struggles. Most entrepreneurs really focus on the good things — and I do too — but the reality is that every event is a grind. Add in a global pandemic where we weren’t allowed to gather in groups and then having to relaunch and basically start over again — and, well, there are challenges.
That said, all you can do is put on your big boy and big girl britches and focus on the mission. I have zero doubt that Dallas will come back in droves to support what we do. It’s just going to take some time to build it back to its prior levels. But we’ve got an incredible group of people that want us to succeed, and they’ll make sure that happens.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Fashion X Texas?
Fashion X Texas has taken a pretty winding road to get to where we are. In 2009, I started this business with Austin Fashion Week. We really focused on retailers coming out of a terrible recession — we were just trying to help them keep their lights on.
But within a couple of years, I realized the vast canyon for emerging fashion designers. I started to understand how hard the path was for them to reach retailers (at that time) or really build an online audience (as we moved into the mid-2010s. I understood we had the ability to provide a really significant platform for them to do with what they could.
As Austin expanded, opportunities arose in 2013 to launch in Dallas. With immense help from our dear friend Ken Weber, Fashion X Dallas was born, and we had proven we could scale into multiple markets. We did it again in 2016 in Houston with much success.
It’s taken several years to recover from Covid. Austin has run successfully since late 2021 post-Covid, but I was hesitant to relaunch the other markets. Finally, I was convinced this past season to come back to Dallas and I couldn’t be more proud of my team for doing so. The Village has been a perfect partner and we’re just over the moon excited about where 2024 and beyond will lead.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
All I did as a kid was play baseball. Literally every day. This was at a time when there were no cell phones and no internet, so I’d meet a friend or 2 at the park in the summer with 4 or 5 baseballs, a glove, and a bat and we’d just run all over the place chasing balls down that we’d hit. Oh, to have that kind of energy again.
I was 14 and finally coming into my own as a player — I wasn’t touched by the hand of God — I had to work hard to be a good athlete. But it was that year that I finally hit my first out-of-the-park homer. I remember being on a dead sprint going into 2nd base because it never dawned on me that it had gone out. The umpire yelled at me to slow down. I guess I did. The rest was a blur.
Contact Info:
- Website: fashionbyevents.com
- Instagram: @fashionbyevents
Image Credits
Danny Campbell
Jamie House
Jay Bratcher
Kate Trotter
