00:00Harlem probably has the most influence on fashion. If you look back to the
00:05Renaissance era, there's so many things globally that it has influenced from the
00:12suit, to the way women wore furs back in the day, to the confidence that you can
00:19see in all those photos from 20s and the 30s in Harlem. You know, I think that
00:27when you look at kind of what you see on the runways right now, you'll see a lot
00:32of Harlem influence there as well. Brandis Daniel is the CEO and founder of
00:39Harlem's Fashion Row. She is a mom, she's a wife, she's a Southern belle from
00:45Memphis, Tennessee, and she's a woman of faith.
00:51So the birth of Harlem's Fashion Row came about, I was actually at a fashion show in
00:57Brooklyn, and I had an idea and it was, you should do a fashion show in Harlem. And at
01:05the time, me and my friends were throwing house parties and brunches. And so we were
01:12already kind of on the scene. And so this fashion show just felt like something that
01:17I had to do. Sometimes you have these ideas and, you know, you have them one day,
01:23you don't have it the next. This was an idea that I literally could not stop
01:27thinking about. So I knew that I had to do it. And as I was planning the very first
01:33event, I started getting basically these downloads in terms of like what this
01:37would become. So a lot of what you see that we do today, 18 years later, actually
01:42got the download for it and wrote it in a journal that I still have back in
01:462007. And so after we did the first show, I started looking for more designers of
01:52color to be a part of our next show. And that's when I realized there were not
01:57enough designers of color that were out there and that were sold in major
02:02department stores. And that, you know, I kind of feel like you have this moment
02:06sometimes where this passion meets a problem. And that's really where purpose
02:12comes in. And that's what happened for me. I had this passion to do this
02:16fashion show. And this problem came in when I couldn't find designers of color.
02:21And that was really the intersection for the purpose that God had for me.
02:25There are so many incredibly talented designers. But we have the privilege of
02:33highlighting some of these designers like we get to we do a fashion show every
02:38September that is like the biggest event that we do all year long. It's our fashion show and style awards where we show the
02:45collections of three designers. And then we honor four to five people in fashion. Like last year, we honored Naomi Campbell and we honor Shioma Nandi, the editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar.
02:58And we honored Shioma Terini. And so we get to show these designers while all of these fashion heavy hitters are right there in the room.
03:07And then we do get to do collaborations. Like we have a collaboration that's out right now at the Gap. I'm actually wearing one of the pieces from that collaboration.
03:15This was designed by Bruce Glenn. And so we get to curate designers who get to partner with retailers like Gap. We have a collaboration in Nordstrom actually right now as well.
03:25We've collaborated with Lebron James and Nike and Joey Chu and Timberlin and Banana Republic. But we get to bring those designers onto those collaborations so that the entire world can really see the incredible work that they do.
03:41And so those are two ways. And then in addition to that, we have events that really offer designers opportunity to connect with each other. It offers them opportunities to meet industry insiders like our designer retreat.
03:50We actually have a sustainability summit that's coming up real soon as well. So we have lots of things throughout the year to really promote, connect, and engage with designers of color.
04:05So as a woman who's, you know, been featured on Project One Way, been a part of Gucci's Changemakers and so many other things, you know, fashion is gate kept. People be gate keeping in fashion is absolutely true.
04:19But I think one of the things that I've done is like really approach fashion one relationship at a time. Like if you can approach it with one relationship at a time and really nurture that one relationship, that one relationship will lead to three. And then you nurture those three relationships, those three relationships will turn to six. And I've really valued relationship over everything else.
04:43And so I believe it really taken a slow road when it comes to breaking into any industry and valuing the relationships that are right in front of you. Oftentimes we like overlook what's in front of us because we're looking for the next thing.
04:56Really value the relationships that are right in front of you. And then those will open more doors.
05:02I'm so excited about where we're going. Where we're going is we're going to provide even more access to designers of color.
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