CFDA and Google Team Up for Fashion Equity Fellowship

The Council of Fashion Designers of America has launched Fashion Equity Fellowship with Google, the official equity partner of CFDA‘s New York Fashion Week initiatives.

The new grant program connects Google‘s resources and knowledge directly to designers and their brands to support their upcoming February 2025 NYFW collection and showcase.

The three participating brands are Area, designed by Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk, Collina Strada, designed by Hillary Taymour, and Diotima, designed by Rachel Scott.

Led by Google’s product inclusion and equity team and with support from the CFDA, the in-person and virtual fellowship is effective immediately and will run through spring 2025. The CFDA member designers will work directly with the Google team to learn best practices for designing inclusive and equitable products, and ways to apply these principles to their own fashion design process. The CFDA hopes to continue this for future seasons.

Each designer receives a $50,000 grant toward their collection and show development, showcasing pieces they created with product inclusion and equity in mind.

Scott, in fact, is nominated for Womenswear Designer of the Year at the upcoming CFDA Fashion Awards.

Program goals will be met through two tracks, including end-to-end practice through ideation, user experience, user testing and marketing, and thought leadership and storytelling by connecting equity leaders directly to participating bands.

“We’re so excited to partner with the Council of Fashion Designers of America on the Fashion Equity Fellowship. We’re committed to supporting the creation of inclusive and equitable products, services and experiences across industries,” said Annie Jean-Baptiste, director of product inclusion and equity at Google. “By working with the CFDA and designers, we hope to find new ways to bring product inclusion and equity frameworks, tools and resources to fashion and make the world a more equitable place.”

Steven Kolb, chief executive officer of the CFDA, said, “The Fashion Equity Fellowship with Google speaks to our mission and is an extension of CFDA’s longstanding work in the social impact space. We are excited to support exceptional American design talent and help them continue innovating in the inclusive design space. Through this important fellowship, they will learn to continue incorporating the lived experiences of an important customer base into their designs and showcases.”

Google also supports emerging designers with the Shop With Google American Emerging Designer of the Year award at the CFDA Fashion Awards. This year’s nominees are Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell for Tanner Fletcher, Jackson Wiederhoeft for Wiederhoeft, Connor McKnight, Presley Oldham and Henry Zankov for Zankov Ankov, as reported. The awards will be held Oct. 28 at the American Museum of Natural History.