The CFDA Just Appointed Four New Faces To Their Board, And They Are All People Of Color

Fashion needs to be fluid, diverse, and inclusive.

To reflect the changing times in fashion, the CFDA has recently added four new names to their board: Virgil Abloh, Maria Cornejo, Carly Cushnie, and Kerby Jean-Raymond.

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The Council of Fashion Designers of America was founded in 1962 to support emerging and established designers. If you work in fashion, you KNOW the CFDA.

This year, Tom Ford became the organization's chairman, and almost immediately began shaking things up. One of the first things he decided to tackle was the lack of diversity on the CFDA board.

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“I’m rearranging the board so that it is more diverse in age and more diverse in every way,” Ford told WWD. He called it a necessary move for which he found plenty of support on the board. “Lots of people voiced a concern that the board, and the CFDA, was not diverse enough, and should more accurately reflect the changing industry and greater culture," he said.

He continued, “We talked about how many slots we need to free up to make it more diverse, and what sort of diversity was missing. If we wanted to bring these people in, where is there an overlap of voice, meaning people with the same types of collections or of the same age? So that’s how that was decided.”

Kerby Jean-Raymond is the founder of Pyer Moss, a brand that unapologetically stands in Black identity in fashion.

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Maria Cornejo is a Chilean-born, England-raised designer who is the founder of ZERO + MARIA CORNEJO, a brand that is "designed for women, by women."

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Carly Cushnie was originally part of the iconic duo, Cushnie Et Ochs. Earlier this year, she showed the first collection of her self brand, Cushnie.

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And lastly, Virgil Abloh grew to (mainstream) prominence with his brand Off-White. He also shook up the table when he became creative director for Louis Vuitton.

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One thing you may notice is that all the latest appointees are people of color! The CFDA — and all of fashion, honestly — has been criticized in the past for its lack of diversity, so seeing these new, fresh faces suggests that maybe we'll start seeing this more. Hopefully diversity at the leadership level creates better opportunities for up-and-coming designers and creatives.

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Congratulations to the newest board members! We can't wait to see what you do!

Landon Moss