EAST GREENSBORO, NC (August 30, 2022) – Fourth-year students in North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s fashion merchandising and design program will get the professional advice and build the connections they need to succeed into the world of luxury fashion through a historic year-long collaboration between the program, Harlem’s Fashion Row fashion agency and luxury goods conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy.
For 10 weeks, leading industry experts from HFR and luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co, part of the French conglomerate, will augment the fashion class taught by Devona Dixon, Ph.D., to share knowledge and practical experiences on such topics such as jewelry design, branding and innovation in a 10-week lecture series called Tenacity Talks.
The partnership marks a groundbreaking commitment by LVMH to support HFR’s mission to discover, mentor and showcase emerging talent of color through multiplatform, high-visibility events and pipeline-building programs.
The fashion merchandising and design program, in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, was one of only three historically black college and university programs nationwide selected to participate in the series , said Brandice Daniel, CEO of Harlem’s Fashion Row. , in the first lecture of the series.
“The goal of this program is to prepare you all to enter this industry when you graduate from college, which you will be able to do because you will have gotten the connections and knowledge you need, you will have heard what must. and you will understand”, said Daniel.
As part of the program, several students will travel to New York’s fashion district this fall to experience luxury firsthand with a tour of the Tiffany & Co. store and headquarters. The program’s group of 16 students and three faculty members will engage with Tiffany & Co. executives and participate in several workshops hosted by Tiffany’s. The relationship will continue into the spring, Dixon said.
“Many HBCU students have never been to New York or other fashion capitals of the world and don’t have the exposure to luxury brands they need to be successful,” Dixon said. “This is a transformative opportunity for our students.”
The lecture series marks another step in the relationship between NC A&T’s fashion program and Harlem’s Fashion Row. In June 2021, the program received a $100,000 award from clothing retailer The Gap and the agency’s nonprofit arm Icon 360 as part of their “Closing the Gap” initiative, launched in 2020 to support designers of color.
During the Aug. 24 class, moderated by senior Jacole Davis-Evans, Daniel discussed her entry into the fashion industry and what she called “jumping off the cliff,” or taking the risks necessary to achieve success.
“It was a dream of mine to move to New York and work in the fashion industry,” Daniel said. “When I moved to New York from Memphis, Tennessee, it was dangerous. It was a cliff jump. So what did I do to prepare? I started coming to New York every year so I could get comfortable with it. Starting a company from scratch? Another cliff jump. I’m jumping off cliffs every week, to be honest with you.”
Daniel also discussed how the industry has changed since she started Harlem’s Fashion Row in 2007.
“One of the conversations that was really hard to have (back then) was race,” she said. “Brands didn’t want to talk about it, the industry didn’t want to talk about it … then things started to change a little bit around 2018. There were a lot of articles coming out, there were a lot of conversations about race.”
This growing discussion, coupled with the killing of George Floyd in 2020, was the beginning of a major shift by retail, fashion and luxury specialty brands to not only build more inclusive staff, but also train underrepresented fashion students to work in the industry, Daniel said.
“This is where you all come in,” she said. “This is an industry that is ripe for change. And it has to change.”
Junior Mya Harris called the first session “inspiring.”
“I think this class will be very beneficial for us as HBCU students to hear the stories and get advice from very powerful people in the industry,” Harris said. “Brandice left us with great quotes to keep us motivated.”
Dixon offered her gratitude to Daniel, HFR, Tiffany & Co. and arriving guests.
“Thank you so much, Brandis, Harlem’s Fashion Row, and everyone we worked with over the summer,” Dixon said. “We’re definitely going to take advantage of every opportunity to see all of these great faces in New York at some point, at HFR or in some capacity at retailers, agencies, and wherever.”
