April 12, 2022
Shannon Abloh, Naecia Dixon, and Renée Elise Goldsberry Bennett Raglin/Getty Images
It’s always worth celebrating the new generation of designers, merchandisers, and fashion enthusiasts. That was certainly the case last night at the Fashion Scholarship Fund’s 85th annual gala, which honored 123 FSF scholars, including 23 Black students who were part of the Virgil Abloh™ “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund. Industry titans such as Vogue’s Anna Wintour, Supreme’s Tremaine Emory, and Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson turned out to support the scholars, as well as Neiman Marcus’s CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck, who was also honored at the gala for The Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation’s partnership.
The 123 scholars were dressed to the nines for the party, which made for a colorful crowd. Each of their case studies—in-depth projects that presented a solution to an issue in the fashion industry—was displayed in the event space. “It’s just breaking it all down and making it all feel a little more accessible [for the students] So they can say, “you know what? I can see myself in this industry,” Fashion Scholarship Fund executive director Peter Arnold said post-event.
Broadway star Renée Elise Goldsberry was emcee for the evening’s festivities. The main event was speeches by the four finalists for the FSF’s top prize, the $25,000 Chairman’s Award. Some of the finalists were also members of the “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund, which Abloh launched in partnership with the FSF in 2020 to foster Black talent before his death in November 2021. A High Snobeity and Off-White boutique at the event featured limited-edition merchandise designed by Virgil Abloh and Off-White that guests could bid on, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the fund.
Abloh’s absence was keenly felt at the gala. His wife, Shannon Abloh, announced the winner of the Charmain’s Award and gave a speech. “One of the things I always admired about Virgil was his deep sense of compassion and care for others,” she said. “He believed that being a leader meant serving others in need. And he felt a tremendous sense of purpose in opening doors for others. He would say, ‘The work isn’t simply about opening the doors; it’s about laying the groundwork to ensure these doors remain open permanently for others to walk through.’”
Fittingly, the Chairman’s Award winner was one of the “Post-Modern” scholars as well. Naecia Dixon, from the Savannah College of Art and Design: Atlanta Campus, took home the award for her case-study presentation on the intersection of technology, high fashion, and sustainability. “Like Virgil, I have big dreams… I want my work towards sustainable fashion to lead to oceans that remain forever blue and forests that are evergreen,” Dixon told the crowd. “Where people don’t lose a sense of visual identity while trying to help the earth. I want a little Black Jamaican girl to see how I saw Virgil. That I am not a saint or a superhero or a goddess. That I am just a Black woman who worked her ass off, and if I can do it, she can do it too.”