On Monday evening, the 3.0 cohort of Elaine Gold Launch Pad met at Camp David in Industry City to kick off the 23-week virtual residency program. The orientation allowed the newly-selected emerging designers to meet past fellows of the program, including Ashya, Occhii and Cyril Studio, and to hear from Advisory Board Members Carly-Ann Fergus formerly of XRC Labs and Jake Sargent of Magic Hour. We used the moment as an opportunity to get to know each of the designers better!

SHANEL CAMPBELL; SHANEL

What’s your astrological sign?
Libra. My birthday is in exactly one week and I’m turning 28 years old.

What’s your birthday wish?
My birthday wish is $10,000. I need some coin to do my brand!

What about Elaine Gold Launch Pad are you most looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to getting the mentorship and feedback I need to conceptualize visually and verbally what I’m trying to do. It lives very clearly in my brain, but I need to find a way to communicate it to other people very clearly.

What’s your biggest inspiration?
My biggest inspirations are Solange Knowles, Rihanna, and Beyonce. It’s also progressing Black culture through the arts. The work that I want to do is giving back by helping people progress their work financially through skill trade, or whatever I need to do to help Black people do what they want to do to progress the culture.

What is one thing you want people to know about you?
I’m a great dancer and I’m hilarious! When I’m not working really hard, I’m a good time and very very very goofy. I love cartoons.

RUI ZHOU; RUI ZHOU

What’s your astrological sign?
I’m a Leo. My birthday is August 18. I identify with being a Leo because I’m confident and strong.

What about Elaine Gold Launch Pad are you most looking forward to?
I’m excited because I think in design as an artist. I would love to learn more of the business through Elaine Gold Launch Pad and I’m excited to meet everyone here who will be a resource for my brand.

What’s your biggest inspiration?
It’s always about relationship for me. I’m obsessed with skin and human relationship, the connection between the two bodies. From the first season to now, all my collections are about that relationship. I’m interested in women’s experiences.

What is one thing you want people to know about you?
I hope people can see me as an artist and not a fashion designer. I don’t want to be limited in one space and I want to do more creative things.

If there was a soundtrack to your life, what song would it be?
This is such a hard question! Maybe the song “The Ocean Between You and Me.”

DANA HURWITZ & MARIAH PERSHADSINGH; BOND HARDWARE

What about Elaine Gold Launch Pad are you most looking forward to?
Dana: We’ve grown as much as we can with our own connections and universe, so we’re hoping that we can grow into these big shoes we have to fill. We want to collaborate in every way.
Mariah: So many things. We’re looking to expand in every way — be accessible, visible, sustainable and innovative.

If there was a soundtrack to your life, what song would it be?
Dana: “Be My Lover” by La Bouche.
Mariah: “Here Comes The Rain Again” by Eurythmics, but also “Libertango” by Grace Jones.

What is one thing you want people to know about you?
Dana: Our names, haha. But really, our inspiration because I would love for [the consumer] to see what we see, so every time we put out a new collection, we’re sharing a little more of a piece of the full vision.
Mariah: Seeing BOND for the first time, it was nothing like I had ever come across. It became vital to me to make sure it’s out in the world. To see Dana be able to make things at a more massive scale has been important and I’m really excited to see what’s next.

Gold or Silver?
Dana: Diamonds.
Mariah: Gold.

GRAHAM BALDWIN; GRAHAM TYLER

What about Elaine Gold Launch Pad are you most looking forward to?
I’m looking to it as an exercise with mentors to be more reflexive and less proactive about the brand and trying to give myself time to look more and be more critical about the actions being taken. I want to be able to do this with supervision.

What is one thing you want people to know about you?
We make a good shirt.

What’s your astrological sign?
I’m the first day of Virgo.

If there was a soundtrack to your life, what song would it be?
I don’t know! The first song I think of is “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton.

Who is one person you’d be dying to dress and why?
Diane Keaton. Everyone says I would dress her and she already kind of dresses the same way I do.

CARAGH BENNET & LOREN THOMAS; TRIBE + GLORY

How are you feeling?
Caragh: Super excited to be here in New York. We’re based in Uganda, and spend a lot of time in New York and London, so it’s always a privilege to be back with our New York team.
Loren: Thrilled to soak it all in, meet new friends and mentors!

If there was a soundtrack to your life, what song would it be?
Caragh: Oh my god, am I going to say the same thing you’re going to say?
Loren: I don’t know, what are you going to say?
Caragh: I was going to say “Boss” by Fifth Harmony!
Loren: Yes! This is our hype up song. Every time we’re going into a meeting (or anything really) we blast this song.

What is one thing you want people to know about you?
Caragh: We believe that female entrepreneurs in rural areas have the power to change stories of extreme poverty and gender inequality. It’s our total privilege to work with women who have the innovation and the skills themselves to do it for themselves.
Loren: I completely agree.

What about Elaine Gold Launch Pad are you most looking forward to?
Loren: We’re so excited to have access to the industry and the mentorship that this program can provide. When we’re in Uganda, in this tiny town called Kamuli, we don’t have access to the friends of the industry so we’re excited to soak it in and be a part of the network in a new way.
Caragh: It’s a real privilege to get access to mentors who have extraordinary excellence and expertise. We just want to be a sponge and we’re coming into this so humbly.

What’s your astrological sign?
Caragh: I’m a Leo!