The fashion and culture platform Black Fashion Fair is gearing up for its first symposium, which is titled “Black Fashion Forward.”
The May 10 event will be held at The Times Center in New York City and is designed to amplify and celebrate Black creatives in the fashion industry. Attendees will hear from designers, executives, editors, and influencers including Kai Collective’s founder Fisayo Longe, and AB + DM’s cofounders Ahmad Barber and Donté Maurice. There will be a bevy of discussions including “Designing Women: Redefining Power in Fashion,” “Building the Bag With Brandon Blackwood,” “The Evolution of Black Hair & Beauty,” “Influencing Fashion: The Power of Storytelling,” and “Fashion as a Cultural Force,” among other topics.
Joe Robinson, the creative director and founder of JoeFreshgoods, will take part in a Q&A on how he turned a hyperlocal vision into a globally resonant brand, during “From Chicago to the World: the Cultural Currency of JoeFreshgoods.”
Anima Iris’ Wilglory Tanjong and creative strategist Skylar Marshai will also be part of the one-day lineup. The event will explore the integral role that Black creatives and professionals have in fashion, as well as the challenges they encounter and the contributions that they make. The event is the latest effort by Black Fashion Fair’s founder Antoine Gregory designed to create a supportive community that will secure a more inclusive fashion industry going forward.
As of 2021, Black creatives only accounted for 4.9 percent of the people working in fashion design, versus 12.6 percent of the industry’s labor work force, according to AIGI’s 2021 Design POV Research. AIGI is the New York-based professional association for design.
Established in 2020, Black Fashion Fair is committed to championing the discovery and furtherance of Black designers of the past, present and future. In 2022, the Fair Fashion Foundation launched the Jean-Michel Basquiat Emerging Designer Grant in partnership with the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
