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On September 10, designer Angelo Baque, founder of Awake, presented a collaboration at the fashion brand’s NYFW show. But the four-piece collection wasn’t done with another brand or designer; instead, Baque partnered with the mail carrier UPS.
It is now common to see non-fashion brands at fashion shows and events, usually in a sponsorship capacity. From mail carriers to financial services companies to hotels, these companies aim to capitalize on NYFW’s affluent audience. But for brands, beyond the money received, association with the right company can be a way I emphasize the message they want their show to send.
This was Baque’s idea when collaborating with UPS. Born to Ecuadorian parents and raised in Queens, Baque decided to partner with UPS because of its small business development tools and the fact that it has awarded $1 million in grants to businesses of diverse ownership. UPS funded the creation of the clothing and the event for Awake.
“I wanted to [highlight] our mutual commitment to empowering and uniting Latino communities,” Baque said. “The [show’s theme]’Unidos Para Siempre’ is inspired by the acronym UPS and specifically illustrates solidarity within what can be a very fragmented cultural identification.”
“We couldn’t think of a better way to support small businesses than on the global stage at New York Fashion Week,” Betsy Wilson, UPS’s head of digital marketing and brand activation, said in an email to Glossy. .
TIAA, a financial services company that offers retirement savings, worked with designer Fe Noel on a dress covered in fake bills totaling $1.6 million, the average amount of money women lose in retirement savings due to inequality.
Noel said she wanted her NYFW show to double as an act of protest and “highlight glaring inequalities” and the ways women are financially disempowered. Working with a financial company trying to solve this problem made that message stronger, Noel said.
With women making up the vast majority of fashion school graduates, NYFW was a perfect way for TIAA to get its message to more women, said Micky Onvural, TIAA’s CMO and former CEO of the menswear brand Bonobos. TIAA paid for both the creation of the dress and the performance.
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