When we heard the founders of the online fashion community UsTrendy had relocated the company to the Bay Area this year, we immediately wanted to learn more about the social networking-driven site’s offerings for emerging and independent designers and their fans.

The site allows allows users to review, rate and purchase art, apparel and accessories by artists, independent clothing and accessories designers and rate models who create profiles on the site. Each season, UsTrendy produces select items of clothing and accessories that have received top rankings from site users. Top-rated designs such as the look shown here by annyshka can also win their creators cash prizes ($100 is awarded to a winning design each week) and other perks like spots in UsTrendy fashion shows.

We caught up with UsTrendy founder Sam Sisakhti recently to ask some questions about the site and how it works. He and his team were kind enough to answer. Read on…

Can any designer sell work on UsTrendy?

Yes, anyone can sell and post on UsTrendy. We do not want to restrict or put any restrictions on who can post or sell on our site. The whole point of UsTrendy was to create an open system where the people are the judge rather than a select few. We also want to allow any designer to pursue their dreams and gain exposure to further them in their craft.

Say we want to buy an item, but have a question or special request for the designer. Can we interact with designers directly?

Yes, you can interact directly with the designers. Part of the purpose for the website is to allow consumers to directly interact with designers. We want to bring the two together. It will be beneficial to designers to hear direct, firsthand feedback from consumers, and it will be a neat treat for consumers to be able to talk directly to a designer whose clothing they wear.

How does UsTrendy use social networking to its advantage? Why, for example, would we want to follow UsTrendy on Twitter? What’s in it for us?

We want to use social networking as a way to keep in touch with our user base and update them on the exciting developments going on with UsTrendy. We also poll users and give away cash prizes to users with the best suggestions on topics that are only seen on Twitter.

But even more importantly, we use the social networking such as Twitter to connect one on one with our users and find out their likes and dislikes. For our users to connect with us on a personal level and for us to hear exactly what they are thinking. The social networking is a way for us to connect in a more peer to peer way because at end of day we are a lot like our users: people who are passionate about fashion and dedicated to helping indie designers gain exposure.

We hear UsTrendy is showcasing some of its most popular designers in a Las Vegas fashion show early next year. What’s the event all about?

At UsTrendy we are trying to create as many opportunities for designers as possible whether it be production, cash funding, education, etc. So knowing first hand that many designers dream of one day having their own runway show in a major fashion week, we have partnered with Vegas Fashion week and will giving the winning UsTrendy designer their own runway show in one of the biggest fashion weeks in the country. Through the show they can gain exposure to major retailers and buyers and make a big step forward in their career. We have been blown away with the excitement among the designers on our site regarding this competition.

How many designers are currently selling their work on UsTrendy?

We have over 7,000 designers on the site (this number is growing rapidly) and about a third of them are selling their work on the site. The remaining two thirds  are using the site to gain exposure, enter into contests, gain customer feedback, gain funding and gain production.

The company recently relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. Will we find UsTrendy at any upcoming local events?

Yes, we recently moved to Bay Area and we are looking not only to attend local events, but we want to help and support designers locally through some specific Bay Area competitions and contests geared towards the Bay Area Design community.

And one more question after the jump….

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