Clarence Ruth, the designer of Cotte D’Armes, a denim-focused label with navy, streetwear and biker influences, obtained the highest award for Tommy Hilfiger’s New Legacy Problem. Ruth was awarded the grand prize at The Roxy Resort in New York Metropolis Thursday night time, which features a grant for $20,000 and the chance to co-design a capsule assortment alongside the Tommy Hilfiger design crew.
Established final September in partnership with Harlem’s Vogue Row (HFR), a corporation that helps underrepresented Black and Latinx designers, the New Legacy Problem is a part of Tommy Hilfiger’s Individuals’s Place Program, a three-pillar initiative launched in June 2020 that focuses on advancing the illustration of Black, Indigenous and Individuals of Colour (BIPOC) inside the trend and inventive industries.
In response to stylist Randy Cousin, who serves because the senior vp of this system, the objective is to show the problem right into a “precious blueprint” for the trade. “We’re rearticulating the character of product collaborations in trend by way of the Individuals’s Place Program,” he mentioned.
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Final month, the competitors was narrowed down to a few finalists together with Ruth, Megan Smith, the founding father of sustainable ladies’s model Megan Renee and Johnathan Hayden, founding father of the eponymous luxurious ladies’s model. Every designer was shortlisted for his or her interpretations of Tommy Hilfiger’s trademark “up to date prep” aesthetic, which they just about offered to a panel of judges.
From there, finalists have been tasked with reimagining Tommy Hilfiger staples together with a hoodie, a varsity jacket and a polo shirt below the steering of their mentors, Tommy Hilfiger senior design administrators Urs Graber and Masha Gard, and Ben Snowdon, VP of design, males’s put on. A jury consisting of Tommy Hilfiger, Grammy-winning performer Anthony Ramos and Tommy Hilfiger and HFR executives chosen the winner.
“I’m honored to be named the winner of the New Legacy Problem,” Ruth mentioned. “This chance has introduced me such inventive freedom whereas studying and rising from [Graber], my Tommy Hilfiger mentor. I’m excited to maneuver ahead and take all the pieces I’ve skilled and combine it into my design course of, in addition to provide my help to Black designers coming after me.”
The designers’ expertise with the New Legacy Problem was captured in a docu-series that premiered on the closing occasion. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Luchina Fisher, the documentary shall be launched on Tommy Hilfiger channels globally subsequent month.
The competitors follows an industrywide sample of elevating younger designers. Earlier this yr noticed a brand new class of entrepreneurs for the Informa Markets Vogue for Change (IMFC) incubator program, which launched in 2020. The proprietor of Magic, Coterie, Mission and Sourcing at Magic, established this system to foster allyship, inclusion and equality inside the trend group by way of packages that help minority-owned, women-owned, and LGBTQIA+-owned trend manufacturers. This yr’s centered on Black-owned companies.
Los Angeles retail stalwart Fred Segal launched an identical initiative in 2020 known as Season Zero, an annual design competitors for early-stage designers and artisans providing a platform for unestablished members of the style and inventive industries.
By specializing in younger BIPOC designers, corporations may help transfer the needle on range within the trade. “Collaborative packages just like the New Legacy Problem are centered round entry, to make manner for extra sources, mentorship and alternatives that may amplify the voices of BIPOC expertise,” Cousin mentioned.