It was during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement that a group of industry executives joined forces to identify and support young Black students considering a career in fashion.
They created an organization called Creatives Want Change to discover these budding creatives beginning in high school and provide them with scholarships, internships and mentorship to learn the skills necessary to embark on a fashion career.
“We are a creative incubator that provides Black talent with access to education, mentoring and professional development, beginning at the high school level, effectively creating a pipeline for students into the fashion industry,” read its 2023 annual report.
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On Wednesday night, Creatives Want Change, founded by Randy Cousins, global senior vice president of collaborations for Tommy Hilfiger; Matthew Kane, head of men’s merchandising for Club Monaco, and Joe Medved, founder of Joe’s Blackbook, an executive search firm, will celebrate the nonprofit organization’s fourth anniversary with a dinner in New York City.
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“Four years is an incredible milestone,” Cousins said. And while he’s proud of what Creatives Want Change has accomplished, there’s more work to be done.
“This industry still recruits from the top design schools,” he said, “but the representation of young Black creatives there is still low.” The goal of the group is to increase those numbers.
According to the annual report, only 16 percent of C-suite roles in fashion are held by people of color but these individuals represent 32 percent of entry-level jobs.
As Kane writes in the annual report: “The most significant deficit among BIPOC youth is opportunity, the chance to discover what one might love or be good at. So much of that discovery comes only with access.”
Each year, Creatives Want Change selects between 25 and 30 students to attend pre-college summer programs at top design schools around the nation including FIT, Otis College of Art and Design, Rhode Island School of Design, SCAD, Parsons School of Design and others.
Potential scholarship recipients must have completed their freshman year in high school. They are then required to fill out an application, which is designed to find out what interests them about a career in fashion design and asks what their goals are.
Once selected, the students will be matched with the school that best fits their interests. All tuition, travel and housing fees will be paid by the organization.
“As a Black creative,” Cousins said, “It reminds me of my childhood. I had the craving to be creative but I wasn’t sure how to get there.”
He said the group works with high school students because “Once they’re in college, it’s too late.” But after completing this program, they have a “better shot” at getting into the college of their choice and following a path to a fashion career. “We have the ability to increase the representation of Black students in college,” Cousins said.
He said among the industry supporters of the organization are Urban Outfitters, Reformation, J. Crew, VF Foundation, PVH Corp., Skims and Patagonia. One former scholarship recipient is interning for Skims, Cousins said.
In the future, he said the goal is to create a college scholarship program and establish a board of directors from the fashion industry who can help the organization continue to grow.
“We need their creative genius,” Cousins said of the students. And he encouraged others from the fashion community to contribute to the cause, either financially or with their time. Creatives Want Change had revenue last year of $447,621, according to the annual report.
Cousins sums it up this way: “As a Black man, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to drive a program that will truly increase representation and change young lives and the fashion system for the better.”