Elaine Mensah is a leading advocate for the fashion industry in Washington D.C. Her company, SVELTE, LLC., comes as the culmination of years of industry experience with brands and manufacturing organizations looking to expand into the D.C. market. The width of services she and the SVELTE, LLC. team provide to clients encompasses marketing, branding, manufacturing support, event production, and special project consulting.

Elaine was not someone who always knew she wanted to work in the fashion; she didn’t even have a subscription to Vogue until recently. However, after graduating from Georgetown and pursuing a career in business consulting, she wasn’t fulfilled. Not interested in the glitz and the glam, her interest lied on the business side of the fashion industry, but she felt somewhat displaced being located in D.C. With the support of her fiancé, Elaine gave New York a test drive in 2005. She landed a job as a production assistant for Cynthia Rowley, where she worked closely with the then Director of Public Relations, Michelle Finotchi. With all of her newly gained knowledge Elaine knew two things for sure; first, that New York was not her scene, and second, that the opportunity for the fashion market to grow back in her hometown of Washington D.C. was not to miss. Flash forward to today.

Elaine’s most recent project was producing the upcoming documentary, “The Politics of Fashion: D.C. UNBOXED”. This film sheds light on the perception of D.C. fashion by the outside world, and takes the audience through the city's evolution in retail, style, and business, debating whether or not D.C. fashion is heading toward becoming a true industry, or if it is just a fashionable city. Be prepared to see D.C. through a completely different lens and to find out if the future of fashion in D.C. will make or break the hearts of those who have sacrificed family, lucrative careers, and personal wealth to live their dreams. 

 “I found through the making of the film that residents of D.C. want more fashionable options, they want variety, and if independent retailers would consider Washington D.C. a destination they will find that they would be quite profitable. There is a huge economic opportunity… hopefully the film will enlighten brands to this fact,” says Elaine.

You can contact Elaine at SVELTE, LLC. via their website or follow the company on Twitter and Facebook. Tickets are available, but limited to the film's premier here. Next time we're down in Washington D.C. we'll be hitting them up for the latest updates!