Fashion associations support the growth of the fashion industry, its key stakeholders and emerging talent. The aim is to further the interests of the region’s fashion industry and support businesses by harnessing and sharing collective knowledge, experience, and resources of the sector. Additionally, these associations also strengthen the region’s Fashion in the global fashion economy by championing diversity and inviting members to participate in a network in order to accelerate a circular fashion economy, among other things. Let’s take a look at the leading fashion associations in America.

Misonni at Miami Fashion Week

Fashion Institute of Technology

The Fashion Institute of Technology is a public college for design, fashion, art, communications, and business and technology connected to the fashion industry. Based in Manhattan, New York City and a part of the State University of New York, the prestigious association was founded in 1944 with many top figures of the fashion industry having enrolled here, including Norma Kamali, Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Scott Salvator and Joel Schumacher. The institute aims to prepare students for professional excellence in design and business through rigorous and adaptable academic programs, experiential learning, and innovative partnerships with two majors: Design and Scientific Management. Today, the campus offers degrees in diverse subjects, such as Menswear, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing, Fashion Business Management, Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design, and Toy Design, the first of their kind in the country.

Council of Fashion Designers of America

The Council of Fashion Designers of America, a not-for-profit trade association founded in 1962, has a membership of four hundred and seventy seven of America’s foremost womenswear, menswear, jewellery and accessory designers. The CFDA Foundation, Inc. a separate not-for-profit organization, was created to raise funds for charity and industry activities. In addition to hosting CFDA Fashion Awards; launching IMPACT which fights racial discrimination and CDFA Fashion Incubator to support new fashion designers in New York, CFDA also owns the Fashion Calendar. Yet another important development by the association is the CFDA Scholarship Fund which is designed to support exemplary fashion talentIn 2022, the CFDA will continue to invest in the fashion ecosystem with the goal to award scholarships worth $500,000 to underrepresented student design talent, therefore building a more inclusive, just and equitable future for people and planet.

United States Fashion Industry Association

The United States Fashion Industry Association represents fashion brands, retailers, importers and wholesalers based in the United States of America and doing business around the world. Founded in 1989, the association primarily works to eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers that impede the fashion industry’s ability to trade freely and is committed to providing members with the latest trade intelligence, resources, and solutions to manage business. It advocates to remove barriers that impede the fashion industry’s ability to trade freely and plays a leading role in trade policy advocacy, in addition to offering insights on customs issues, sustainability, and smart sourcing. This year, it will continue to make the case for the importance of free and fair trade and global supply chains, share industry best practices, and collaborate and learn from each other.