This Wednesday will see the first-ever Project Cobalt collection be released in New York, constructed by a bunch of new generation, local designers handpicked for their artisan leather and garment skills for women’s or contemporary men’s wear. Project Cobalt is the latest fashion accelerator program to sweep New York, and is a dual investment between beverage maker, Pepsi and All Beuys Club, a consultancy and collaborative studio, affiliated with mentoring fashion upstarts. Six months ago, five young designers – dubbed the Craft Class – were selected by All Beuys Club to work together under three power-mentors who taught the group using a six month curriculum. All the while, working to create a seasonal collection for spring. Forming the first Craft Class are Olu Alege and Edgar Garrido from Street Level Culture; Alexandra Kennedy from Alex; Samantha Giordano from Dolores Haze, and Drew Villani from Dreu New York. The mentors are Jeff Staple, owner of Reed Space; Liza Deyrmenjian, founder of Fashion Business Accelerator 360, and swimwear label, Parke & Ronen. From the very first day in the Design Lab, the Craft Class followed a four-stage design process: concept, which saw the development of a creative brief/theme for the collection; inspiration, which saw designers hunt and gather fabric and materials to envision the physicality of the collection; sketch, which illustrated the collection specifics in fabrication, silhouette and color; and product development, where complete sizing specs and construction details lists were finalized to bring the samples to life. Samantha Giordano, one of the Class member, admits that her contemporary women’s wear label, Dolores Haze, relies heavily on drawing and playing with visuals. “This is my sketchbook,” says Giordano, from her Brooklyn-based studio. “It basically embodies all of my design inspiration.” Meanwhile, the boys - Olu Alege and Edgar Garrido - said their women’s wear label Street Level Culture, is inspired by looking at vintage clothing and regular visits to fabric markets - feeding their obsession for finding new satins and nylon. “We are reimagining and recreating classic pieces,” explains Garrido. “But are putting them into a contemporary context.” Accessories designer Alexandra Kennedy finds herself tied to the versatility and flexibility of natural skins. Working from the “leather corner” in her atelier, the designer prefers to produce most of her pieces by hand for her label, Alex.“Leather is my medium of choice,” says Kennedy. “My collection is mostly accessories and small leather goods.” Project Cobalt and its curriculum was set up as a means of formally disciplining select designers and brands - an ethos to adopt into daily and seasonal collection planning. The mentors wanted to work with some of best emerging talent in New York, those who already were masters in their craft, but needed the right industry support to move forward. Anthony Flores, project manager at Project Cobalt said the initiative is very focused on making industry connections and helping designers succeed. “One of the key goals was to really identity emerging talent who we felt really had an original voice, but were just lacking the network or community support to really take their brands to the next level”, said Flores. In New York, commerciality is key. The latest Project Cobalt collection features topcoats, bomber jackets, unisex casual bottoms, knits, dress shorts, jackets, V-neck football tees, soccer shorts, T-shirts with zippers, polos, graphic tess and embroidered hats – all very wearable and athleisure for the most part – hitting the nail on the head, trend wise. And the price point is on par with mid-luxe street wear, retailing from $40 to $150. There is a ‘Made In America’ attraction too, with apparel being made locally in New York as well as offshore, in Nepal. The latest Project Cobalt items will be sold at a pop-up in Reed Space on New York’s Lower East Side, opening Wednesday – for one week only. The line will also be available on Project Cobalt’s online store, as well as the Spring mobile app.