alumni spotlight: Kyle Denman
kyle denman
fashion institute of design & merchandising, 2019 fsf scholar
Kyle Denman is a political scientist with a passion for fashion. Raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kyle always wanted to explore professions in the creative industries but was torn with the possibility of doing so. With a secondary love for law and public policy, Kyle put his main love for the arts on hold and graduated from Miami University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.
Kyle then moved across the country to Los Angeles, California, where he enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM). He was admitted as one of ten students to the Advanced Fashion Design program and was added to the FIDM Hall of Fame. It was while he was studying in this Advanced Fashion Design program that he received the Fashion Scholarship Fund Award, which he credits as being a major component in his success.
Kyle has received many accolades throughout his education and career. While a student at FIDM, Kyle appeared on Project Runway and was named the 2016 Remake It Work Contest Grand Prize Winner. In 2018, Kyle was also invited to compete in an international competition hosted in New York City during which he was named the 2018 International Young Fashion Designer of the Year. He was then invited to be a part of the wardrobe team for Beyonce for the 2018 Coachella Music Festival. In 2021, Kyle showed a collection at New York Fashion Week which earned him the title of 2021 International Fashion Designer of the Year. Since then, Kyle has shown in Vancouver Fashion Week and Los Angeles Fashion Week and is preparing collections for both Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks. In 2023, Kyle was selected as one of fifteen artists of color (and one of nine FSF Scholars) to compete in the Bridge to Basel Competition sponsored by the Fashion for All Foundation, during which he attended Art Basel in Miami, Florida. In that same year, Kyle was named on Forbes 30 Under 30.
Currently, Kyle serves as the Executive Director of and leads Arts Bridging the Gap (ABG), a nonprofit located in Los Angeles County with the mission of uplifting the voices, identities, and self-expression of youth from underserved communities through healing arts programs so they can realize their fullest potentials and be their best selves.
Through his current work, Kyle aims to provide equitable access to the arts for young people and hopes to embody the spirit of the Fashion Scholarship Fund by working towards igniting a culture of change through creativity and curiosity. Kyle is grateful for the connections made and the doors opened by the Fashion Scholarship Fund. “The work I do and have always done is so aligned with the Fashion Scholarship Fund. I’m so thankful for the FSF community that has been built around me and am so grateful to be part of this amazing network of game changers, trailblazers, and culture shifters.” Kyle hopes to continue working with the Fashion Scholarship Fund and find a way to connect the dots and the coasts—from FSF in New York City to ABG in Los Angeles.