Fashion Leadership Requires Vision and Skills

In today’s world, leading a fashion company is a complex undertaking, involving a vast global supply chain, a highly competitive landscape and an ever evolving consumer with access to more options than ever. And the skills needed to operate such a company must also be balanced with vision, creativity, transparency and authenticity.

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It’s a tall order, agrees Renee Cooper, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who focuses on management and leadership development. “These days, I think the qualities that set a fashion leader apart from execs in other industries is a bit unique.” When asked if there are any particular fashion leaders that she believes set the right example, she quips, “I suppose I should mention John Donahue or Mark Parker of Nike, but I have to go with a leader who has built a fashion brand that is becoming more and more formidable every day. And that brand is Harlem’s Fashion Row, built by owner and founder, Brandice Henderson.”

Harlem’s Fashion Row is a social company that provides a voice for multicultural designers through a creative platform that enables these designers to sell and present their collections to key leaders within the fashion industry. Renee explains, “HFR is a celebration of the fashion community that reflects the culture and the personal experience of these multicultural designers.” Their focus, in particular, is in supporting up-and-coming female designers of color. She shares a recent collaboration that was inspired by LeBron James and his belief that women of color are the strongest people on earth. “Nike called upon HFR to envision a signature sneaker that would embody a representation of strength, specifically for women. The New York-based collective reimagined the LeBron 16 ‘from the soul up.’” And Renee stresses that Branice Henderson isn’t a newcomer to fashion. In fact, she has played a long and active role in the Black Retail Action Group, BRAG. Her success was formed through community building.

When it comes to a more traditional perspective, Renee highlights the work of Macy’s former president and CEO, Terry Lundgren, who was at the epicenter of the mergers and acquisitions activity in the mid-2000s, turning Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s into retail powerhouses. Mr Lundgren had the foresight to create the Center for Retailing at the University of Arizona, his way of giving back to the fashion community and developing future retail leaders. Renee also recommends that fashion leaders look beyond their own industry, referencing Indra Nooyi, former CEO at Pepsi and Urusla Burns, former CEO at Xerox, both trailblazers in consumer products and technology respectively. “These strong women leaders set a guiding light, best practices and sheer professional examples that can and should apply to upcoming fashion industry leaders.”