Fashion Culture | Who Made the Hats for Scarlet O’Hara? Meet Mildred Blount
Mildred Blount became the first African American member of the Motion Pictures Costumers Union. Her hats are in the collections of California African American Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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Fashion Culture | Donyale, Naomi, and Beverly – Fashion’s First Black Supermodels
The Black community did not have model representation in mainstream fashion magazines until the tumultuous time of the 60’s when Donyale Luna, Naomi Ruth Sims, Beverly Johnson were the first Blacks to grace the covers. Black beauty had been denied to enter this space for so long, so finally, there was inclusion, respect, and recognition, […]
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Fashion Culture | The Empowering Effect of Ebony Fashion Fair
From civil rights to the catwalk, Ebony Fashion Fair defied all odds and left an empowering effect on the African American community. The cumulative effect of years of presenting high fashion to African Americans, on African Americans, with African Americans taste-making in mind, enabled Mrs. Johnson to be a change-agent who harnessed the power of […]
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Fashion Culture | Battle of Versailles: ‘This Was the Real America, An America They Haven’t Seen’
A passionate declaration from Bill Cunningham, American fashion photographer of the New York Times, who remembers that the Black fashion models at the Battle of Versailles fashion show brought together a cultural movement that not only marked a new era in fashion, but was a defining moment in racial equality.
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Fashion Culture | Willi Smith: The Creative Intersection of an American Genius
I don’t design clothes for the Queen; but for the people who wave at her as she goes by. – Willi Smith
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Fashion Culture | Fashion’s First Black Photographer
Gordon Parks accomplished many firsts, including the distinction of being the first black photographer at Vogue, Glamour, and Life magazines.
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Fashion Culture | Aryanization and the Destruction of Berlin’s Fashion Industry
By 1930, Berlin emerged as an international fashion capital. It’s success even drew Parisian fashion designers. Most of the fashion businesses were owned and operated by German Jews. In their thrust to decimate the Jewish population, in 1933 the Nazis implemented a campaign to force these firms to sell. Signs in store windows read “Germans […]
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Branding in the Fashion Space – Where Do the Lines Between Leadership and Listening Overlap and Diverge?
After all, most artists don’t go around proclaiming, ‘I want to be a commercial success.’ – Bernard Arnault, LVMH chairman & CEO
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Branding, Marketing & Advertising 101
Branding 101: Branding is the Big Picture. Branding is the sum of all impressions one has of your business. Such as, the quality and detail of your seasonal collections; public relations and news about the organization; social media output; your name, graphic and visual identity; packaging. Deliver a consistent on-target brand experience across all consumer […]
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Fashion Week – digital, in-person, new approach, or not at all?
Against the backdrop of unprecedented store closures, bankruptcy, and excessive inventory throughout the supply chain, is fashion week necessary? Mckinsey & Company suggest the global industry’s economic profit will fall by 93 percent in 2020 after rising 4 percent in 2019. In a worst case scenario, the industry won’t get back to 2019 levels until […]
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Unsettling and Uplifting -10 Uncharted Paths to a New Direction for Fashion
We have to be unburdened by what has been to consider what can be. – Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States
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Time Will Tell. The State of Fashion 2021
Diminished, downsized, and discerning is the current normal of the fashion industry. Fashion companies will post approximately a 90 percent decline in economic profit in 2020, after a 4 percent rise in 2019. – BoF and Mckinsey & Company, The State of Fashion 2021 report
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The Power of Cloth and Why We Should Care | EDGE Talks to Abiola Onabule
In an age of socioeconomic inequalities, climate crisis, and a pandemic, characterized by accelerated technological advances and new working models, design plays a crucial role in supporting the ways we care for ourselves, each other and the planet. Managing resources equitably and sustainably is vital for ecological resilience. The Design Museum, United Kingdom, Designers in […]
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Fashion’s Playbook for Climate Action – A Pathway to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050
Despite the efforts of governments and other actors, anthropogenic GHG emissions continue to increase. Under current trajectories, global mean temperatures are projected to increase by 2.2°C to 4.4°C by the end of this century. – Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action | Climate Action Playbook
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In the COVID era keep creating | 5 survival tips not to ignore
Stay focused, slow it down, present scarcity, and invest in a circular system.
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Buy Less, But Better | Study Shows Notable Shift to Sustainable Consumption
As part of the IFM – Première Vision Chair, Français de la Mode conducted a study that surveyed 5,000 consumers in France, Germany, Italy and the United States about their consumption habits of Eco-friendly fashion.
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Let’s Talk About the Unmentionables: Can Lingerie Be Sustainable?
Without a doubt, the ongoing global health crisis has shaken industries in more ways than one. From record low revenues and great losses to missed partnership opportunities and canceled events, the negative effects of the pandemic on businesses are endless. However, if there is one good thing that has sprung from the decade’s greatest economic […]
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Are You Listening? Consumer Feedback is King | A How-To Guide
Are you giving your consumer a platform to provide you with meaningful feedback? Do you know why their consumption patterns have changed? Don’t assume anything. Have you asked?
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COVID Update: Reset, Recover Responsibly with Radical Change
Is the industry doing that? Lady Gaga has said ‘fashion doesn’t need to go together; it just needs to be upsetting’. She was referencing her dismissal of wearing designer clothing from head to toe. That’s just one aspect of the control culture or out-of-control culture that the fashion industry emits.
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NO EXIT, NO WAY OUT: close the loop on fashion
Textiles [clothing] have no way out of a circular fashion system. In a circular system, they are designed with no exit strategy.
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Circle By Design: EDGE Talks to Ophir El-Boher – a circular Design System and strategies for a sustainable future
What I hope to accomplish is basically a diversion of the practices we use to satisfy our materialistic needs. I personally believe that the urge for something new is something not worth trying to change, what I focus on changing is the reaction to that urge. – Ophir El-Boher
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Down to Earth: EDGE talks circular fashion with Ophir El-Boher
What I find fascinating about the subject of sustainable fashion is that many in the industry don’t truly understand, or let’s say embrace, the benefit of a complete supply system that conserves and values our resources.
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Imagine a Future. . .not too far in the future: you can’t hide from a sustainable world
This is a re-post from October 2014, Sustainable Fashion Never Goes Out of Style. This future scenario was published in February 2010 report, Fashion Futures 2025, by Levi Strauss & Co. We are 10 years into their 15 year forecast. Not too far from a future like this?
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Correction, Contraction, and Cessation. COVID-19 calls to action a sustainable fashion system
The carnage of closures from the impact of COVID-19 throughout the supply chain is forcing the industry to pause and re-set. According to Mckinsey & Co., if stores remain closed for two months, 80 percent of publicly listed fashion companies in Europe and North America will be in financial distress. Revenues for the global fashion industry […]
Read moreWhat will the future look like after COVID-19? It will seismically shift societal behavior – in what we appreciate, what we prioritize as important, and how we consume.
RP Hill
Columbia designer re-fashions futbol jerseys and it’s not what you think | EDGE talks to Juan Pablo Martinez
Did you know that futbol team, aka soccer, t-shirts are considered fast fashion and negatively impact the environment? Sustainable fashion designer Juan Pablo Martinez thinks so. He says, “the top 10 futbol teams alone, sell 17,500,000 100% polyester t-shirts every year”.
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All Power to the Imagination. On|Off presents a Surrealistic cat walk
Art as fashion. Fashion as art. Get on board to a movement that counters the out-of-control ‘cut and sew’ robotic-produced fashion thrown our way with no artistic and sustainable values. London Fashion Week’s On|Off runway show sent a message to shake up the status quo.
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Current state of affairs sparks a creative revelation | EDGE Talks to Yvonne Lin
The global state of affairs is the engine that drives the vision of Yvonne Lin’s body of work. Fashion, like art, is a catalyst for dialogue and exchange of ideas and values. It is fundamentally rooted in our culture in an age of identity politics, multiculturalism, and social transformation. Lin looks deep into the fractures […]
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Ukraine’s BE SUSTAINABLE! – a platform making noise
Fashion is universally cited as being one of the most polluting industries in the world. Thank you to conscious consumers and to environmental activists such as Greta Thunberg for their demands on attacking the environmental crisis. Putting sustainability at the forefront of business models, strategic plans, supply chain infrastructure, etc., is long overdue.
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Fashion for the Soul | EDGE Talks to Maital Levitan
Soul – the Dictionary definition is an emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance. Maital Levitan personifies this artistic practice with a body of work that reveals an emotionally charged narrative. She is a fearless storyteller producing bold designs that are relevant with a […]
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Alena Kalana | Tibetan Transplant
Blurred Boundaries: Fashion as an Art, [far left] Alena Kalana and Hera Zhou, designers
Hera Zhou | The Wave
Tingyue Jiang | Erik ReeL paintings
Tingyue Jiang | Erik ReeL paintings
Tingyue Jiang | painting by Erik ReeL | photo Charlene Broudy | GraySpace Gallery
Alena Kalana | Tibetan Transplant
Alena Kalana, Tibetan Transplant
Alena Kalana
Opening Reception
The Art of Fashion | Blurred Boundaries: Fashion as an Art
Fashion exhibitions at art galleries are the new black – Blurred Boundaries: Fashion as an Art exhibit.
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Fashion as an Art | Central Saint Martins’ Design Students Present Fashion in Motion
Fashion is an art form. Performance art – live mannequin presentation – at it’s best.
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The State of Fashion 2020 | Sustainability First
For the first time sustainability was named the biggest opportunity in this study.
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Portland’s FashioNxt Week – is it truly What’s Next?
FashioNxt Week, Portland, Oregon’s version of Fashion Week with an emphasis on the Pacific Northwest, showcases designers from around the world.
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Launch Pad | a runway event fuses an iconic American brand and an emerging design force
Crystal chandeliers, embroidered tapestries, carved marble fountains and columns, and frescoes and murals were the backdrop to Woodbury University’s popular fashion runway event. The fashion design students shared the runway with famed fashion duo Badgley Mischka at the historic landmark, Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles.
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A Message from the Editor to FIDM graduates and all emerging designers
. . . And to Those Still Trying to Break Through the ‘Noise’. There are no impossibilities. In a world where we are taught to conform, we must be diligent in using our creative power for change.
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What’s In Style? Responsible Fashion and 20 EDGE designers making the case
What is responsible fashion? When you. . .
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Fashion Unknown Fact | 10,000 liters of water. . .grow one kilo of cotton
10,000 liters of water is required to grow one kilo of cotton needed to make just one pair of denim jeans. In comparison, one person would take 10 years to drink 10,000 liters of water. Cumulatively, the fashion industry produces about 20% of global waste water. Source: UN Helps Fashion Industry Shift to Low Carbon […]
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Forest and Fashion | United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal
“Made in Forests” – a short story about sustainable fashion. Malaysian-born film star and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Michelle Yeoh put the spotlight on the role that clothing manufacture and consumer fashion can have for a better planet with a new video, called “Made in Forests.”
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Preserving The Art of Shibori | EDGE Talks to Jun Nakamura
The Japanese shibori industry now has serious issues: aging artisans without next generation to pass this heritage on, and decreasing demand partly caused by globalization. – Jun Nakamura
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The Bold, The Beautiful, The Brilliant: Ikats from Central Asia
Textiles of historic traditional compositions and unparalleled beauty have been a marker of our time, and in some cases are modernized in transforming identity and culture.
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Transparency | 79% of Consumers Want It
Four in five (79%) think clothing brands should provide information on their environmental commitments. Spanish and Italian consumers are more likely than average to think this.
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Frieze Frame: eye catching moments, fashion, and art at Frieze Art Fair Los Angeles
Art fairs are a creative hub, not solely for art but for fashion, too. Both, visually stimulating, heighten the overall cultural experience.
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Beyond the Art | A few fashion moments at Art Los Angeles Contemporary
Art fairs thrive when visitors experience emotional moments of engagement with the art and a sense of camaraderie among other attendees.
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High Fashion in the Alley – a behind-the-scene look
The experience of a fashion showcase doesn’t always come in a neat package of theatrical runway drama, museum exhibitions, or retail display windows. Fashion in the alley has a personality, energy, and engagement all of its own when witnessed in “the alley” as the behind-the-scene back stage to a fashion show.
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Fashion giants sign UN charter to fight climate change. Will it work?
Can the biggest players in the fashion industry unite to stop global warming? The United Nations thinks so.
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Fashion Artifacts: a Sustainable Path to Circular Fashion | EDGE Talks to Karen Glass
I began seeing the clothes I had been accountable for making as post-consumer waste: in thrift stores, jammed into markdown racks, and on the streets as rags. From an organic farm to procurement of fashion artifacts to a zero waste product development operation, Karen Glass, founder of Ø [zerøwaste] GLASS, walks the talk of a circular fashion […]
Read moreWith 25.5 billion pounds of USE-ABLE textiles thrown away each year (70 pounds per American), there is a lot of waste that can be prevented.
You don’t need to be an expert to succeed in fashion
Expertise is no longer a guarantee in this business and bachelors degrees and awards don’t always take you to the top. Sometimes boundless energy, street smarts, a killer idea and an iPhone are what it takes.
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The State of Fashion 2019 | The Courage to “Self-Disrupt”
The fashion industry continues to hover in a state of flux . . . and we predict that 2019 will be a year shaped by consumer shifts linked to technology, social causes and trust issues, alongside the potential disruption from geopolitical and macroeconomic events. Only those brands that accurately reflect the zeitgeist or have the […]
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Fashion for Good, the world’s first museum for sustainable fashion opens in Amsterdam
Join the movement! With the focus on fashion consumerism and the circular economy, Fashion for Good museum is the first interactive museum dedicated for sustainable fashion. Amsterdam — Fashion for Good, the global initiative for sustainable fashion, has opened the doors of its museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, today. The space aims to show visitors […]
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[Fashion United] The End of Plastic: Eco-fashion becomes catwalk reality
It may have been a long time coming, but Eco-fashion is no longer a hippie pipe dream. Biker jackets made from pineapple leaves and leather tanned with olive extract rather than hugely polluting chemicals are now within reach, experts say. Read the article at Fashion United: The End of Plastic: Eco-fashion becomes catwalk reality
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Tour the Gallery | Blurred Boundaries: Fashion as an Art
Blurred Boundaries: Fashion as an Art fashion exhibit, curated by Rhonda P. Hill
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Blurred Boundaries: Fashion as an Art | Exhibiting Culture Through Fashion
The power of fashion lies in its ability to transform identity and culture. GraySpace Gallery presents Blurred Boundaries: Fashion as an Art fashion exhibit. As creator of this exhibition, it uniquely spotlights the process and output of selected work of fashion designers Tingyue Jiang, Alena Kalana, Susan Tancer and Hera Zhou who blur the distinction between […]
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Mass Production: The Imperfection of the Art | EDGE Talks to Tíngyuè Jǐang
There are economic, ethical, cultural, and design issues around mass production, particularly mass produced fashion. Aside from its social issues, fashion that is mass produced can be very expected, uninspiring, conforming, and blasé, you get the picture, and tends to be of lower-quality. Do we ever think of the actual makers of these mass produced […]
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Unconventional Is the Norm | EDGE Talks to Alena Kalana
One thing I want to do is figure out a better way to leave less of a footprint. I am not at all interested in mass production. What I create is art. – Alena Kalana A high school fashion course led Alena Kalana to give fashion design a serious thought. This award winning designer’s passion […]
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Art and Its Magical Therapy | EDGE Talks to Susan Tancer
Brain cancer survivor, Susan Tancer, creates one-of-a-kind functional art. Painting became a therapeutic escape from cancer treatment. After being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2004, this former marketing and public relations professional developed a passion for painting. Suffering from the effects of chemotherapy, painting seemed the one thing to take her mind off of it. This […]
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The Mastering of Fashion Design | EDGE Talks to Hera Zhou
This was an experience that you can’t get in school; it is like a master teaching their apprentice. – Hera Zhou “Being in Paris is a dream city for a fashion designer”, says Hera Zhou, and she seized the opportunity with no hesitation. Imagine working at the Louvre Museum, looking at sketches from famed couture […]
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Creative Power Disrupts the System | EDGE Talks to Peivand Mirzaie
Breaking the rules, disrupting the fashion system is easier than you think. Fashion designer, Peivand Mirzaie has made a mark on breaking the rules, disrupting the system, while embracing the power of fashion. She has gone beyond the ‘system’ in her designs, pushing concept over saleability; in her choice of education, wanting more freedom and […]
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A Collection Fit for a Museum | EDGE Talks to Victoire Laffineur
A water-pollution-inspired collection gets the attention of a museum.
Read moreFashion, like art, embodies the time we live in and society bears witness to the interpretation of its historical and cultural significance.
Rhonda P. Hill
Ten Minute Catwalk – Costly, Waste of Time, Once You See It, Forgotten!
A ten minute catwalk? How about a ten month campaign of exposure! Why not leverage this very short window of exposure to maximize your business long-term. Here are 10 steps of keeping your brand prominent in the eyes and buying power of your audience: Tell your story – document your design and development stages by […]
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Tools to Sew is Not Enough | EDGE Talks to Bishme Cromartie, Bč
Fashion design is my diary. I always can mark a collection around a devastating or exciting time in my life. Designing helps me express my feelings and emotions all while telling a story. – Bishme R. Cromartie
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“2+2=5”- A Denial of What is Evident? Francesco Rasola at Milan Fashion Week
Francesco Rasola is on the EDGE Radar for a very good reason. He thinks, he makes you think, he uses fashion as messaging – as an art of language. Our last connection with Francesco was from his collection, “It’s Just Matter of Time” [please reference our Stop! In Front of Time interview with him]. Here, […]
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