Event Details
Curator’s Spotlight: Celebrating BIPOC Creatives
A panel discussion with April Walker, Adrienne Jones with introductions by Tanya Meléndez-Escalante
Adrienne Jones is a tenured Pratt Institute fashion professor and co-curator of The Black Dress Exhibit, which celebrates Black designers and advocates for diversity in fashion. The landmark exhibition showcased a rich array of contemporary designs, educating the New York fashion community and broader audiences on the vital contributions of Black creatives.
April Walker is a pioneer, innovator, and founder of Walker Wear. Walker is the first woman to launch an urban fashion brand, effectively jumpstarting the multi-billion dollar streetwear industry. Referred to by Fab 5 Freddy as the "Coco Chanel of hip-hop urban fashion," Walker has collaborated with icons from Run-DMC and Queen Latifah to Shaquille O'Neal. Her contributions to global fashion trends were recently featured in FIT’s Fresh, Fly, Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop Style exhibition.
Tanya Meléndez- Escalante is a SoHarlem Board Member, Senior Curator of Education and Public Programs at Fashion Institute of Technology and Winner of the 2026 Vilcek Prize honoring immigrant leaders in Fashion and Culture. She is a contributing author to the books La comedia y el melodrama en el audiovisual iberoamericano contemporáneo (2015), Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color (2018), and the editor of the anthology, Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today - ¡Moda Hoy! She curated the exhibitions Eterno Femenino (2017) in León, Mexico; Julia y Renata: Moda y Transformación (2020) at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan in Jalisco, Mexico; and the 2023 exhibition ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today at The Museum at FIT.
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