E D G E Founder, Rhonda P. Hill

We need to shift our consumption values so that the entire fashion system can shift along with it.  – Rhonda P. Hill

Rhonda P. Hill is the founder of E D G E.  E D G E, the acronym for Emerging Designers Get Exposed, is an international platform advancing the field of fashion in artistic values, cultural significance, and sustainability through the exposure of emerging designers.  It takes a step forward to look at fashion from an intelligent, artistic, and practical perspective.  The website, EDGExpo.com, is a magazine-style look at the paradigm shift from irresponsible, excessive production and consumption to one of environmental and ethical consciousness, cultural sensitivity, and purpose.   

Hill is an accomplished business leader in the Fashion and Entertainment industries and currently contributes to the fashion industry as fashion curator, adviser, sustainable fashion advocate, editor, and e-magazine publisher.  Starting as a contemporary fashion buyer at Macy’s, Hill built a reputation for understanding a sophisticated and fashion savvy consumer. She has been recognized and awarded for her leadership in fashion merchandising, holding executive positions at Warner Bros. Studio Stores, adidas, Levi Strauss & Co. and as Vice President for Disney Direct Marketing, Disney Consumer Products division of The Walt Disney Company.

As Editor-in-Chief of EDGExpo.com, Hill publishes a collection of interviews, narratives, and cultural perspectives on the transformation in the fashion industry, with the “E D G E Talks” as the centerpiece.  She is quite vocal on the environmental damage caused by the fashion industry and very much an advocate for slow fashion.  PAPER Magazine [Lady Gaga Transformation 2020 Issue] article, “The End of Fast Fashion Is Closer Than You Think”, highlights Hill’s first-hand knowledge.

Hill was the cover story of Ventana’s style issue, which exposed her work on E D G E.  “EDGExpo.com is a valuable — and visually appealing — resource for education and news, and serves as a spotlight for exciting new designers from around the world,” observes the writer, Emily Dodi.

Hill’s recent curatorial project, titled Blurred Boundaries: Fashion as an Art, was exhibited at GraySpace Gallery, Santa Barbara, California.  This museum quality exhibit showcased fashion as an art, on par with any other visual art.

Hill contributed her global perspective on fashion shows in the book “The Fashion Show: History, theory and practice” by Gill Stark, Assistant Dean, Head of School of Creative and Liberal Arts, Regent’s University London.  Stark also acknowledges Hill’s editorial series on African designers and the continent as a developing fashion industry.  An interview with Hill was featured in LES ASSORTIES’, Athens Greece-based fashion news/media magazine, and she talks about her vision for EDGE and the industry in society805.com “Putting Fashion in its Place”.

Hill was guest speaker at the Art Institute of California [AI] Fashion NOW Symposium and industry participant to the AI graduates Portfolio Review. Hill is a fashion show adviser, judge, and VIP industry guest of numerous Fashion Week events across the globe.

Hill currently lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, visual artist, Erik ReeL.

Early Life

Hill was born in 1956 at Craig Air Force Base in Selma, Alabama to a Lt. Colonel of the USAF and school teacher.  Her father, with a Bachelor of Science from Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama; Master of Science in Science Education from Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee; Master of Science in Business Management at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, and mother, graduate from Alabama State University, Montgomery, Alabama, were the first college educated generation in their family.  They chose education and a military life to upwardly move away from the oppressed South, making a better life for themselves and their three children.  Due to her father’s periodic military transfers, Hill lived in various U.S. cities during her childhood and, at a very young age, lived abroad in Tokyo, Japan.  The family retired in Glendale, Arizona.  In 1974, Hill graduated from the all-female private high school, Xavier College Preparatory, in Phoenix, Arizona and in 1978 earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

In the late 1970’s, she pursued a fashion career in an industry that was underrepresented by African Americans.  In 1998, Hill became the first African-American Vice President of Disney Consumer Products, of which Disney celebrated her achievement in the July 1999 Black Enterprise magazine.

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The power of fashion lies in its ability to transform identity and culture.

– Rhonda P. Hill