We are thrilled to announce that Custom Collaborative is a recipient of the 2020 Gucci Changemakers Impact Fund! Gucci selected the first recipients of its five-year Gucci North America Changemakers Impact Fund - an annual $1 million USD grant fund to support community organizations creating social impact across diverse communities in 12 cities in North America focused on arts and culture; social justice and equity; and education.
Read MoreStephen Burrows joins Custom Collaborative as Senior Advisor. The innovative designer and fashion icon shares his reflections on his creative career and why teamwork and community are essential to success.
Read MoreCustom Collaborative will welcome Harlem Needle Arts (HNA) for a residency at our East Harlem location to provide ongoing community classes and workshops including loom weaving, knitting, crochet and resist dyeing. This partnership will allow HNA to continue to provide free and low cost artistic programming that amplifies entrepreneurship and economic development through art, fashion and design.
Read MoreNgozi Okaro, executive director of Custom Collaborative, was born into a family of makers. Her mother and grandmother sewed and her father’s mother dyed and sold fabrics. Okaro has always loved fashion but, it is the socioeconomic side that was meaningful to her.
Read MoreOur lead instructor, Daniel Concepcion, reflects on the paths of growth through failure following the graduation celebration of our sixth Training Institute cohort. In life, we lose, but in the loss is a chance to rise. And these graduates are beaming models of that truth.
Read MoreI first heard of Custom Collaborative when volunteering at an event at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In learning that it was a program for low income and immigrant women to not only learn skills in making clothes but to empower us to become self-sufficient, I was immediately intrigued.
Read More“This is a great place to start getting out of your comfort zone,” says Eileen O’Garro, valedictorian of the September 2018 graduating class at Custom Collaborative’s Training Institute. Eileen’s story exemplifies the commitment, hard work, and creativity the Institute requires of its students. When she first enrolled, she recalls, “I was thinking it was going to be something very cutesy, but you quickly realize that it’s pretty intense.”
Read MoreCustom Collaborative’s new short film, “Fashion Is Love,” explores questions like these as it focuses on sustainability, equity, and inclusivity in the art, craft, and business of fashion. Featuring three graduates from Custom Collaborative’s Training Institute, “Fashion Is Love” helps audiences appreciate fashion design as an art form in the context of a mechanized global industry.
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