North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s (NC A&T) Fashion Merchandising and Design program is partnering with fashion agency Harlem Fashion Row (HFR) and luxury goods corporation Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) to prepare the school’s fourth-year students for careers. Luxury fashion industry.
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
During the 10-week lecture series “Tenacity Talks”, industry experts from HFR and jewelery Tiffany & Co. – part of LVMH – will collaborate with Professor Dr. Devona Dixon’s fashion department to share practical knowledge, advice and experiences.
NC A&T’s fashion program was one of only three historically black college and university (HBCU) programs nationally selected for the series, Harlem Fashion Row CEO Brandis Daniels said in the first speech.
“The goal of this program is to prepare you all to enter this industry when you graduate from college, because you’ll get the connections and knowledge you need, you’ll hear what it needs. You’ll understand,” Daniels said.
This fall, 16 students and three faculty members of Tiffany & Co
In the Aug. 24 episode, Daniels talked about the changes in the industry since she founded HFR in 2007.
“Race was one of the hardest conversations to have at the time,” Daniels said. “Brands didn’t want to talk about it, the industry didn’t want to talk about it … Then around 2018, things started to change a little bit. There were a lot of articles coming out, there were a lot of conversations about race.
That, combined with the 2020 killing of George Floyd, was the start of a shift by brands to increase inclusivity and train underrepresented fashion students for the industry, Daniels said.
“This is where you all come in,” she said. “This is an industry ripe for change. And it needs to change.”
