Last week marked the inaugural meet-up for Fashion Meets Tech, a new San Francisco group geared at connecting the area's chic fashion professionals with the innovative tech crowd to give them a chance to share experiences and lessons, foster creativity and build excitement around using technology to make the next big fashion revolution happen.

Walking into the long and narrow bar, a sea of fashion-forward and fashion-interested men and women lined the walls and hovered over the edge of the bar in hopes of getting their free beverages before the drink tickets ran out. Thanks to the viral power of Facebook, the event, sponsored by Like.com, attracted a diverse crowd of those actually in a related industry and those who had heard about it from a friend and came out of curiosity.

"The fashion industry and tech industry are two very different beasts," says Abigail Holtz, one of the group's founders and a product manager at Like.com. "Two beasts that, in my opinion, have feared each other for far too long. By creating a community of people who see tremendous opportunity in this new and thrilling space, I hope to get more people excited and thinking about how we can change fashion — and ultimately bridge the gap between fashion and tech."

Gone are the days of San Francisco's Goldenbleu and eLUXURY.com, but by pairing up the trend-leading fashionistas with tech geeks and businesswomen and men, there's incredible potential for future possibilities in the design studio, online and otherwise in the marketplace that stem from the Golden State's cultural mecca.

Designer Vivenne Tam's collaboration with HP to create a netbook specially designed for the ladies (because, you know, we all love pink and butterflies) is a step in the right fashion-goes-tech direction, but there are so many other creative ways to unite the two than just slapping a cutsy design onto a computer. There are undoubtedly a plethora of new ideas, functionalities and collaborations lingering in the Valley's brainpower, and we ought to find a way to showcase them.

From what I can tell, the Fashion Meets Tech networking group seems like the perfect launchpad. And if the initial turnout indicates more of what's to come, we're in good shape.

From the founder of recently launched CombineCouture.com, a new type of online shopping experience for women, a co-founder of Fabricly.com, a network connecting apparel brands with manufacturers, to people from Kaboodle, Like, Cordarounds and the Bay Area's fashion foundations — Levi Strauss and Gap Inc., the scene easily held its own for several solid mingling hours.

So what's happening next?

While the group — which anyone can join on Facebook — has yet to schedule something specific, Holtz says to keep an eye out for "a speaker series, seminars/workshops, more networking events and maybe a conference."

Here's to hoping the future of fashion and technology goes way beyond the keyboard bra.