GFF partners with Fashion Minority Alliance to celebrate diversity in new ‘Colouring Fashion’ book for schools

Graduate Fashion Foundation has launched ‘Colouring Fashion’, the first fashion focused colouring book created to encourage a richly diverse future of the fashion industry from grassroots level, produced in collaboration with Fashion Minority Alliance.

Highlighting inspiring and pioneering designers, photographers, models, stylists, makeup artists, hairdressers, art directors and editors, amongst others, the ‘Colouring Fashion’ colouring book contains 22 inspired plates.

From groundbreakers to newcomers the colouring book is a celebration of creative icons of the industry including Edward Enninful, Pat McGrath, Priya Ahulwalia, Ibrahim Kamara, Rei Kawakubo, Grace Wales Bonner, Charles Jeffrey, Aaron Rose Philip, Telfar, Campbell Addy and Stephen Burrows amongst others.

The book also features QR codes taking the reader to the new Graduate Fashion Foundation Fashion Futures website, Career Pathways Hub and downloadable educational resources.

The colouring book will soon be launched through 100 junior and secondary schools across the UK. The launch coincides with the Colouring Fashion Challenge, challenging students to enter their creations on social media under #GFFColouringFashion.

Additionally a series of live school colouring workshops and panels talks will take place this autumn in select schools with special industry guests in attendance.

Each dynamic black and white illustration has been created by designer, illustrator and winner of the Graduate Fashion Week 2021 FACE Black Excellence Prize Joy Julius, and the accompanying text designed to educate on the variety of career pathways within the fashion industry, is written by Graduate Fashion Week 2021 Fashion Publication Award Winner India Gill.

Nicola Hitchens, Graduate Fashion Foundation Director and Head of Special Projects, said: “Graduate Fashion Foundation wanted to create a valuable and educational asset perfect for UK schools to join the vital diversity and inclusion conversation. The GFF Colouring Fashion colouring book celebrates creatives making a difference in the fashion industry and inspires young students from all backgrounds to follow in their footsteps down the multiple career pathways open to them and not just fashion design.

“We aim to help facilitate the opening of new talent pipelines into the industry at grassroots level and inspire studying the arts in higher education. It has been a pleasure to work with fresh talent and GFW Award Winners Joy Juilus and India Gill within this project, to amplify their incredible talents and enthuse a new generation.”

Founder of Fashion Minority Alliance, Barbara Kennedy-Brown, added: “There is an assumption, particularly with younger people, that being in fashion is a singular role and we wanted to create a vehicle that shows some of the ecosystem. Joy Julius’ beautiful illustrations will no doubt inspire future generations of talent and help encourage a richly diverse pipeline”.

The Colouring Fashion initiative falls under the Fashion Futures collaboration created between Graduate Fashion Foundation, the charity behind Graduate Fashion Week, the world’s largest showcase of BA fashion talent, and Fashion Minority Alliance, the Non-Profit organisation that works collaboratively with businesses, brands, organisations, and industry gatekeepers to promote and secure the advancement of BPoC and historically marginalised creatives.

Listen to Daniel Peters, FMA Founding Member, on TheIndustry.fashion's In Detail podcast.