Since starting her brand Brother Vellies in 2013, Aurora James has always sought to help right the industry’s wrongs—from utilizing recycled materials to ensuring fair wages. This spring, James started a bona fide movement when she created the 15 Percent Pledge, which asks retailers to devote 15 percent of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.…
After a breakneck couple of years, Brandon Maxwell has learned the value of slowing down. The 2019 CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year award winner and Project Runway judge spent the height of the pandemic at his Brooklyn home and studio, where he rediscovered his love of the design process. As part of ELLE’s look…
When Jeremy Scott began showing in Paris with, as he puts it, “two cents, a shoestring, and a prayer,” he immediately caught the eye of some of the city’s biggest fashion movers and shakers. Twenty-three years later, the designer still clings to that DIY spirit while juggling roles at Moschino, where he has been creative…
Indya Moore has been getting creative. The model and Pose star has been turning laundry bins, chairs, and pieces of Styrofoam into makeshift camera stands to shoot socially distanced campaigns. Moore is just one of many models who’ve become their own photographer, stylist, and/or glam team during the lockdown. Moore has enjoyed the creative freedom,…
“I learned pretty early on that press doesn’t pay the bills,” says Harlem’s Fashion Row founder and CEO Brandice Daniel. “I knew I needed to do something that would actually give financial opportunities to designers of color.” Daniel founded the initiative in 2007 to create an equal playing field for Black and Latinx designers, staging…
This summer, when I spoke with Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, who are co-creative directors of both Oscar de la Renta and Monse, they said the pace of running two brands meant that working remotely had already become a way of life for them. As Garcia put it, the two “are on our phones no…
The fashion industry has changed significantly since model-turned-advocate Bethann Hardison got her start in a Garment District button factory. As part of ELLE’s look at the future of fashion, she shares her views on the industry’s current struggles and how she personally has effected change over the decades. When did you decide to leave modeling…
Giorgio Armani has always had a singular vision. Back in late February when cases of COVID-19 were beginning to rise in Italy, the designer made a snap decision to stage a virtual presentation. Here, as part of ELLE’s look at the future of fashion, he reflects on that decisiveness and lessons learned from 2020 so…
Victor VIRGILEGetty Images “When it comes to energy, we need to look to the future, and when it comes to garments, into the past,” Gabriela Hearst said at a preview of her fall 2020 collection in February, a month before the world, and the industry, got turned upside down. Eco-pioneers like Hearst and Stella McCartney…
Here’s what you need to know: ImageSchool districts in New York and Massachusetts have postponed the start of in-person instruction after high school students attended large parties.Credit…Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock High school parties force some Northeast schools in the U.S. to delay the return to classes. Several K-12 school districts in the U.S. Northeast have…