The Fashion Scholarship Fund will host its 88th annual gala honoring four industry leaders for their support of the next generation of talent on April 7 at the Glasshouse in New York.
This year’s honorees are Jerry Lorenzo, founder of Fear of God; Sara and Erin Foster, cofounders of Favorite Daughter, and Tony Spring, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s.
“We are so pleased to celebrate this year’s gala honorees — Tony Spring, Jerry Lorenzo and Sara and Erin Foster — visionary leaders dedicated to empowering the next generation of fashion talent. This year, we also welcome our largest class of FSF Scholars, 160 students, including 60 Virgil Abloh ‘Post-Modern’ Scholars, many of whom are visiting New York City for the first time. The industry’s overwhelming support — which will enable us to award over $1.9 million in scholarships at the gala —reaffirms what we know to be true: our mission to create opportunities and shape the future of fashion is more vital than ever,” said Peter Arnold, FSF’s executive director.
Christian Siriano and model, entrepreneur and advocate Coco Rocha will serve as cohosts of the evening.
Coco Rocha and Christian Siriano
Craig Barritt/Getty Images
Five-time NBA All-Star and the New York Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns will present the Fashion Scholarship Fund’s $25,000 Chairman’s Award to the top-scoring scholar finalist. Towns, a partner to the FSF, established an annual named scholarship program that begins this year that is given to two recipients who have demonstrated an interest in the intersection of fashion and sports. The two scholars will attend the gala that evening.
Karl-Anthony Towns
The gala will celebrate and award the $1.9 million in scholarships to the Class of 2025 FSF Scholars and Virgil Abloh Post-Modern Scholars. The 160 college students have demonstrated their ability to disrupt and transform the fashion industry as creatives or as marketing and business professionals. All 160 scholars, who attend colleges and universities throughout the U.S., will attend and have their work shown at the event.
Tony Spring
Phillip Angert, courtesy shot
Earlier this month, the four highest-scoring scholar finalists competed for the FSF’s $25,000 Chairman’s Award by presenting their case studies centered on the intersection between fashion and technology to a panel of judges representing all sectors of the industry. This year’s judges were Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, fashion editor, stylist and consultant; Fear of God’s Lorenzo; Kristin Maa, chief marketing officer of Saks Global, and Amanda Smith, CEO of Fairchild Media Group, parent of WWD, Footwear News, Sourcing Journal and Beauty Inc, and an FSF board member.
Jerry Lorenzo
Courtesy shot
Applicants selected a brand or company and presented case studies in one of four disciplines: Business Strategy (Finalist: Fatmata Camara/LIM College); Design and Product Development (Finalist: Chloe Allen/Virginia Commonwealth University); Marketing (Finalist: Flora Medina/SCAD, Savannah Campus), and Merchandising (Finalist: Ryan Cheung/University of California, Berkeley). At the gala, each scholar finalist will briefly present a personal statement about their background, inspiration and intention for their future career in the industry.
Colm Dillane, the KidSuper designer, artist and musician, created an exclusive capsule collection of KidSuper x FSF merchandise to raise funds for the FSF. The collection will be sold on-site at the gala and drop online on April 8, with 100 percent of sales benefiting the FSF.
Ghetto Gastro, the Bronx, N.Y.-born culinary collective from Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao and Lester Walker, is FSF’s culinary partner for the gala.
On April 7, the 160 scholars will start the day at Stella 34 Trattoria at Macy’s for breakfast and a panel discussion led by Arnold in conversation with Spring and Nata Dvir, chief merchandising officer of Macy’s and FSF board member.
WWD will host a lunch and a series of conversations featuring a conversation and Q&A between James Fallon, chief content office of Fairchild Media Group, and Deirdre Quinn, cofounder and CEO of Lafayette 148. Next, they will get a “Peek Behind the Curtain: BTS at Fashion Week” with WWD’s style director Alex Badia and a designers panel and Q& A with Jackson Wiederhoeft and Henry Zankoff, moderated by Badia.
