Equity Initiative
The Fashion Scholarship Fund is strongly committed to building inclusion in the fashion industry and valuing the talent, contributions, life experiences, and identities of diverse Scholars. In February of 2020, the FSF’s Board of Governors instituted a formal Equity Committee charged with the oversight of the FSF's equity-driven mission and the development of strategies to create a more diverse and inclusive group of applicants and Scholars.
The FSF fosters change in the industry through partnerships, working closely with the industry’s foremost brands, businesses, and visionaries to create initiatives that advance equity and inclusion. FSF serves as a resource to its partners and other businesses, providing advice on the development of strategies such as multi-disciplinary internship and fellowship programs to recruit and develop underrepresented talent.
Building upon the Board's commitment to weave equity into all aspects of its operations, FSF continues to prioritize creating more inclusive pathways for talented Scholars with diverse backgrounds and experiences. FSF’s higher-education network includes eight historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), as well as a Hispanic Serving Institute. FSF is continually building meaningful relationships with education and industry leaders committed to improving the experiences of Scholars and early-career professionals of color.
FSF remains focused on identifying transformative leaders poised to catapult both our organization and the entire fashion community to the next level.
To explore partnering with the FSF to advance D&I or corporate social responsibility goals, contact development@fashionscholarshipfund.org.
Statement on Affirmative Action:
Diversity, creativity and opportunity are essential ingredients to our programmatic efforts at FSF. It is both an honor and a commitment to build upon our solid foundation as one of the fashion industry’s leading pipelines for tomorrow’s creative workforce.
Over the last four years, our competitive scholarship program has seen a steady increase in representation, including a significant rise in Scholars who are first-generation, Black, Indigenous and Hispanic/Latino. We have also invested time and resources strengthening our educator network and building relationships across HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) and community colleges. We respect the challenges professionals within higher education face every day to ensure each student—regardless of how they got there—has the support they need to be successful. We do not take it for granted that of all the options available, some of the best and the brightest have competed in our annual scholarship program.
FSF aligns with what data continues to support: diversity promotes collaboration, team building and innovation. We also know that equally important to data are the voices of our Alumni, including our BIPOC Alumni, who have shared with us the many obstacles and challenges they have endured just to make it to our program. We can’t quantify how much we would have lost as a community had we never met these talented human beings. Their insights have not only helped us shape many of our ongoing strategies, but in their professional roles, they have found creative ways to open other doors for talented people from all walks of life to enter the industry. This is the type of catalytic change we are proud to be connected to.
The Supreme Court decision on affirmative action further exposes the historical realities of discrimination in this country. While there are healthy debates about the efficacy of affirmative action, we would never debate the full histories of our scholars’ identities and journeys, which for far too many means being on the other side of generational harm and trauma. We also do not debate that while much progress across our industry has been made around diversity, the data reveals that often undetectable practices at every stage of decisionmaking disproportionately impacts talent of color, significantly for Black and Hispanic/Latino young people, as well as students with economic barriers. To limit how educational professionals achieve their goals of creating inclusive environments undoubtedly will impact these already challenging data points. And that will mean a real impact on our workforce—and most importantly, on all the young people who had no choice how they came into this world, or what their zip code is.
Many of our partners have reached out asking, “What’s next?” The answer is “We continue.” Our program has already yielded some of the leading changemakers in fashion—and will continue to do so. We are proud of the many strategies we have employed over the years to strengthen our work, including implementing a robust Equity Committee, building out an HBCU Deans’ Network and the ongoing success of our Virgil Abloh™ “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund. FSF will continue our mission to create pathways and opportunities for rising talent seeking to utilize their skills and creativity within the field of fashion. We will continue to support our hardworking educator partners, and share whatever tools and resources are at our disposal to support their continued success. And we will continue to prioritize our most important audience: talented young people. All worthy, all deserving and all welcomed.
Click here for a related article in WWD featuring the FSF and its Executive Director, Peter Arnold.