La La Anthony used this New York Fashion Week to uplift HBCUs
La La Anthony, who briefly attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., said she is passionate about helping up-and-coming alumni designers.
La La Anthony is all for Black excellence and fashion, as evidenced by her efforts to help celebrate Black designers at New York Fashion Week.
People magazine reported the actress and TV personality collaborated with UPS in its third season as sponsors of “NYFW: The Shows” to promote HBCU alumni-owned fashion brands — an effort to highlight diversity in the sector.
“Black communities are definitely underrepresented in fashion, but we’re also the ones that set the trends in fashion,” she said. “So we need to be supported; we need to be uplifted.”
Anthony — who attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., for around two semesters — said she is passionate about helping the alumni designers because she has a sense of “community and camaraderie” when a student and wants the same for others.
HBCUs produce a ton of gifted and entrepreneurial individuals, she noted, adoring UPS’ commitment to diversity “and really putting money and resources behind allowing programs like this to thrive.”
“BIG MOTION: An HBCU Runway” is a fashion show showcasing designs from three fashion labels whose designers attended historically Black colleges and universities. Each label received a stipend totaling $150,000 toward creations for the fashion show.
Undra Duncan, a graduate of Howard, is the founder and creative director of Undra Celeste New York, which specializes in contemporary workwear for multicultural women. Nola McEachin and Shaq Robotham met at Virginia State University and co-founded The BRAND Label, focusing on affordable, unique clothing. North Carolina Central University graduate Chelsea Grays has an eponymous label with gender-fluid garments.
According to Anthony, her desire to be among people who looked like her and understood the cultural issues she dealt with daily drove her to attend an HBCU and pushed her to be active in the UPS x NYFW alliance.
While she also supports higher-end brands, Anthony shared that she prioritizes helping up-and-coming Black fashion designers — and affirmed she “definitely” intends to order items from the designers represented in BIG MOTION.
“It’s rewarding to just help anyone who has a vision, who has a passion, and might not have the resources that they need,” she said, People reported. “To be able to put people in positions to win is such a great feeling.”
“A lot of times,” Anthony added, “all somebody really needs is somebody to believe in them.”
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