Inside Vogue Club's winter installment Meet The Founder Brandice Daniel of Harlem's Fashion Row, at Vogue HQ
Vogue Club recently welcomed members to Vogue’s Manhattan HQ for a Meet The Founder event with the CEO and Founder of Harlem s Fashion Row, Brandice Daniel. While the Vogue Club original series kicked off at the beginning of the year, this occasion marked the fourth and final session of 2023.
"Sometimes you find your purpose, and other times your purpose will find you,” Daniel told the assembled crowd. “I got the idea for Harlem s Fashion Row in May 2007 and did the first show in August 2007. After the first year, I started looking on department stores’ websites for Black and Latinx designers to be a part of our next show," Daniel continued, “and that was when I realized that less than 1% of the designers were designers of color. That was my sign and cue to play a role in being a part of the solution."
This Meet The Founder was held on the 34th floor of the Condé Nast offices, which features sweeping views of downtown Manhattan, with each seat in the space topped with white Vogue shopping bags holding special Vogue Club merchandise and a copy of the magazine s December issue featuring Nikki Minaj on the cover. On prime display—alongside matching florals designed by Raul Avila—was HFR s book Fashion In Color, highlighting the world s most remarkable designers of color by honoring their work.
"I ve wanted to do a book for a very long time,” Daniel told the assembled Vogue Club members. “The straw that broke the camel s back was in a bookstore in Brooklyn: I picked up a book that was supposed to be a comprehensive list of fashion designers—but there was only one black designer listed: Olivier Rousting of Balmain. There hasn t been a book exclusively focusing on black designers since 1982. Fashion In Color needed to be in the market, and I m so proud of it."
Guests applauded as Vogue s own Naomi Elizee took the stage to host the chat with Daniel—also Elizee’s mentor. (The duo s close relationship and conversational chemistry were palpable.) The two talked about Brandice s leap-of-faith move to NYC, starting HFR while taking night classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology, her big break—and how, when Brandice felt like she hit a personal low of exhaustion a decade into HFR, she received a life-changing email from an iconic athletics brand that wanted to collaborate.
"An NDA came through with a swoosh on it,” Daniel said. “and I lost my mind… I signed that thing so fast and sent it right on back. The next day, I spoke with the brand manager for the LeBron business at Nike and sent a full deck with the three designers I thought were right for the collaboration. I shared some of their personal stories and how they connected to LeBron s sentiment about his mom. Nike was supposed to pick one designer—instead, they wanted all three."
Brandice answered live questions from Vogue Club members while reminiscing on her early beginnings in New York. "I didn t know anyone when I moved here from Memphis,” she said. “It took me a while to build a community here, but now I have a great one… When things get hard, I call a designer I work with every time. They don t know why I am calling, or what I m going through—but talking with them reminds me why I have to keep moving forward. When I hear their challenges and their tenacity, it s always the thing that gives me what I need."
After an enlightening and candid conversation, Vogue Club members picked up their copy of Fashion In Color as Brandice hosted an exclusive signing before partygoers eagerly chatted with one another before flooding back out into the streets of downtown Manhattan, feeling inspired.
Brendon Cook/BFA.com1/16Naomi Elizee, Brandice Daniel
Brendon Cook/BFA.com2/16Clarissa Echevarria, Jenn Meertens
