November 9, 2021

Congratulations to Sanai Simmons (Fashion Design ’24, Westphal BRIDGE Program) and Mayori Hipps (Fashion Design ’24) for being selected as recipients of this year’s Black Talent in Design & Fashion Fund (BTDF) Scholarships! Sanai is the founder of body-positive fashion brand Infini Apparel. Mayori aims to create streetwear collections infused with femininity. This is the second year in a row that Westphal students have received the BTDF Scholarship, with last year’s scholarship recognizing Jazminè Morrow (Fashion Design ’24).

Black Talent in Design & Fashion Fund is an initiative set to directly fund Black students studying to enter the fashion and/or footwear industry.

Statistics show Black talent represents less than 5% of such a vast industry. BTDF addresses a solution from the root and foundation, undergraduate studies, in the efforts to cultivate and foster students obtaining a degree in which they are technically trained. This fund will support underrepresented communities within fashion and design programs to ensure they are able to complete their degree without roadblocks like not being able to afford materials, supplies, or even the semester’s tuition. BTDF accomplishes this mission by providing scholarships and industry mentorships to students in universities across the United States.

Learn more about BTDF here, and view scholarship student profiles on Instagram.