News: Find Your Next Job at Prada Group, Fred Perry or Staud

Monday, May 27, 2024

Find Your Next Job at Prada Group, Fred Perry or Staud

In this week's Careers Newsletter, read BoF senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young's latest: Why Fashion Needs to Step Up Support for Black Students.

Five years ago, Imani was a junior at Kent State University, and her future looked bright: She was a fashion student, and had made it to the second round of the CFDA's Design Scholar Competition.

Her collection was inspired by African prints, featuring vibrant fabrics and elaborate headwraps. It was a way to pay homage to home.

But when Imani, who spoke to BoF under the condition of being identified with a pseudonym, sat down with her professor to receive constructive feedback, she was devastated to hear that her collection wasn't commercial enough; that if she wanted to win the competition, she'd have to make sure her offering was acceptable "for the American market."

The incident almost drove her to quit school and abandon her dreams of working in the fashion industry altogether. Her story, unfortunately, isn't uncommon. When students like Imani are alienated from pursuing fashion on a systemic level, the industry will miss out on diversified forms of innovation and crucial new perspectives. But Black representation continues to be lacking in the industry at large, even as the biggest companies have recruited chief diversity officers and invested in mentorship programmes designated to boost the professional pipeline. The problem, Black professionals say, doesn't begin at hiring — it starts with cultivating talent in the education stage.

"I don't see a lot of Black or brown students," said Dawnn Karen, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. "I know all the Black … students by name, and they're just sprinkled in for sure."

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