Prada, artist Theaster Gates, Dorchester Industries and Rebuild Foundation recently announced the first cohort to take part in their “The Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab” initiative, a program that highlights Black creators across clothing, dance, footwear, architecture and more.
The 14 awardees include fashion designer Tolu Coker, dancer Kyle Abraham, architect Mariam Issoufou Kamara, architect Germane Barnes, footwear designer Kendall Reynolds and product designer Norman Teague. Agriculturalist Yemi Amu, visual artist Kenturah Davis, artist Salome Asgega, graphic designer Summer Coleman, jewelry designer Catherine Sarr, artist Brandon Breaux, architect Maya Bird-Murphy and culinary artist Damarr Brown will also take part.
“I’m so proud of this cohort, and it is a tremendous honor to be able to celebrate, support, and amplify the work of these designers working to enrich our collective understanding of and interactions with design,” said Gates in a statement on the Prada website.
Throughout the course of three years, the 14 awardees will be given the opportunity to connect with each other on retreats and in the Design Lab in Chicago’s South Side. Through the program, the creatives can work on collaborations and inspire each other’s projects. They’ll also be given the opportunity to work on networking with help from Prada, Rebuild Foundation, Dorchester Industries as well as Theaster Gates Studio. To help their creations come together, the awardees will receive financial support from the program and mentors such as Gates.
The participants of the program were chosen out of hundreds of applicants by a special committee. The committee consisted of Gates, Prada co-creative director Miuccia Prada, writer and director Ava DuVernay, late designer Virgil Abloh and architect Sir David Adjaye among others.
Announced in 2021, the program is one of multiple steps that were taken by the fashion world following the 2020 Black Lives Matter Movement to help Black creatives. Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America created “A Common Thread,” a program that donated $1 million to Harlem’s Fashion Row Icon 360 to help Black fashion designers during the pandemic. Meanwhile, companies like Kith and Ralph Lauren took the 15% Pledge, filling up 15% of their shelves with designs by Black creatives.
Still, equality for Black designers and employees has yet to become a reality in the fashion world. According to a 2021 report by the CFDA, in a survey of 1,000 people, 68% of Black employees in the fashion industry reported that they had less accessibility to the fashion world, making it harder for them to get jobs. Only 37% of white employees reported the same thing.
The report also found that 37% of Black fashion employees had to find a way to make money outside of their regular income to afford to pay their bills. Meanwhile, only 23% of white fashion employees had to find supplemental income.
“For too long, there has been an evident pipeline and visibility barrier for designers of color working across the creative industries,” said Gates in a statement on the Prada website. “The Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab not only challenges the notion that Black talent is hard to identify, but also serves as an inescapable answer to it.”
