Category: Fashion Designers

American designer Stephen Burrows was the first Black person to receive the prestigious Coty Award, and was also one of five American designers invited to participate in the so-called “Battle of Versailles” fashion show.

American born designer Willi Smith was an incredible designer but an equally incredible multidisciplinary artist, collaborator, and entrepreneur, whose trailblazing efforts helped permit fashion to be free of conventional forms and allow everyone from the wealthiest to the masses a chance to partake in its future.

American fashion tends to have a short memory for past designers, but Isaia Rankin’s influence is abundantly evident in contemporary fashion, from designer sweatshirts, to layered separates that play with volume, and functional, yet sexy, knit dresses and leggings. Furthermore, his position as a Black designer and businessman is important to emphasize in an industry that too often overlooks designers of colour.