Harlem’s Fashion Row CEO and Founder Brandice Daniel was faced with a unique challenge in the year of COVID-19: How to successfully pull off HFR’s Annual Fashion Show and Style Awards, the most sought-after Black Fashion Event of the season, V-I-R-T-U-A-L-L-Y!
Now how does one do that? With faith. And Grace. Hand in hand, with a supportive team of world renowned Black Creatives, standing shoulder to shoulder, ready to take the cliff jump to make it all happen in star-studded style! The stars aligned, and in true HFR Fashion, the show parlayed on.
Daniels hosted the virtual “Black Is The New Black” event, as the show was timely and suitably named. Speaking with a right-now conviction “to honor that we haven’t just arrived, we have always been here.”
Gone are the days of the hidden figure appertaining to the Black Designer. Daniels continues with conviction that “this is our moment, to honor our excellence unapologetically.”
HFR’s ground zero at its annual Fashion Show and Style Awards was always a sense of home and attending a show that, as author and TV and radio personality Bevy Smith so profoundly stated, “it is a family reunion of Black excellence the crème de la crème of Black is King explosion!”
Harlem’s Fashion Row is the house that Brandice Daniel built, and this groundbreaking event is as much a moment as it is a movement that firmly stands on the mission to espouse and showcase the brilliant talent of emerging designers of color in the fashion industry.
This year’s honorees were:
- Maverick of the Year Award: Edward Enninful, Editor in Chief of British Vogue
- Editor of the Year: Lindsay Peoples Wagner, Editor in Chief of Teen Vogue and Co-founder of the Black in Fashion Council
- Designer of the Year: Kerby Jean Raymond of Pyer Moss for Designer of the Year Award
- Publicist of the Year Award: Nate Hinton, CEO of The Hinton Group
The event would not be complete without showcasing the bold and daring luxury designs of Kimberly Goldson; the Seventies chic and Nineties flair, desert sunset-inspired line of Kristian Loren, and Richfresh’s “wow factor,” well-tailored, comfortable luxury of made-in-LA clothes.
Each designer was afforded the opportunity to collaborate with sponsor Janie and Jack to actualize dope designer kids wear with swag and the designer’s own personality to match.
Daniels paid homage to the Black Lives Matter movement, offering a moment of silence to all the innocent Black lives lost in the long and oppressive fight against police brutality.
Harlem’s Fashion Row’s 13th Annual Fashion Show and Style Awards was a major success and a big win – for every creative and designer of color that goes unnoticed and unheard. This was undoubtedly a win for the culture!
