Fashion and Race Scholar to Speak at Buffalo State on April 13

Kimberly Jenkins, founder, director, and principal researcher of the Fashion and Race Database, will share her expertise on inclusion and social justice concerns in the fashion industry on Thursday, April 13, at 6:00 p.m. in Buffalo State University’s LoRusso Alumni and Visitor Center.

A question-and-answer session will follow. Her talk is free and open to the public.

“Kimberly Jenkins is a highly sought-after individual in the realm of fashion activism—with a focus on the important issues of fashion decolonization and decentralization,” said Keunyoung Oh, Buffalo State chair and professor of fashion and textile technology (FTT), who arranged Jenkins’s visit to campus. “As a cultural historian and professor of fashion studies, she has produced a substantial body of work that delves deeply into the topics of race, identity, and fashion.”

Along with overseeing the Fashion and Race Database, a comprehensive online resource that documents the intersection of fashion and race throughout various cultures and historical periods, Jenkins has taught at the Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute in New York, and Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in Canada and presented as a guest lecturer at several institutions, including Harvard University.

She has worked as an education consultant for Gucci in Milan and Hong Kong to support the upscale designer’s cultural awareness efforts. Her work has been profiled by publications and outlets such as Vogue, the Guardian, the Washington Post, Nylon, the Saturday Paper, Refinery29, Fashionista, and the Root, and she has offered her expertise to several other publications, including the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and W magazine.

“In my search for scholarly works on fashion racism, I came across Kimberly Jenkins’s name in several notable publications, which serves as a testament to her outstanding work in the field,” Oh said. “We expect Ms. Jenkins’s talk will allow both students and adults to learn more about the racist origins of the systems within the fashion world. They’ll also gain a better understanding of how fashion hierarchies have been further entrenched through the globalization and capitalism of the fashion industry.”

Erin Habes, ’03, lecturer of FTT and director of Buffalo State’s annual Runway fashion show, noted that the FTT Department is continually using the fashion platform to amplify ideas of inclusion and racial equality. The Runway show in 2021 adopted the theme “History Retailored,” which highlighted the accomplishments of past and present Black fashion designers. Habes and her students collaborated with the university’s Africana studies program to develop the focus, and the department introduced a new Black Fashion Scholarship.

The 2022 Runway show continued with a similar theme, “Pushing for Progress.” And the 2023 show, “Provoking Protopias,” which will be held April 22 in the Sports Arena, focuses on a better, realistic future, Habes said.

“Provoking Protopias is a collaboration that disrupts societal norms,” she said. “It strives for a more sustainable industry that emphasizes diversity, inclusion, and equity.”

Habes noted that Jenkins’s conversation is important and timely.

“As educators, we want to talk not just about fashion but also about how fashion intersects with race,” Habes said. “We want to explore how you dismantle inequities of the past and move forward.”