The fashion brand commits to funding the fashion education of one LGBTQ student as part of a new scholarship.
In a move to support fashion’s next generation, Dolce & Gabbana has announced the Dolce & Gabbana Point Scholarship in partnership with the Point Foundation. The brand has sponsored a four-year scholarship at an accredited U.S. college or university in fashion or a related field. The recipient, who will be selected in June 2023, must be a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. Announced on National Coming Out Day 2022 (11th October), the initiative highlights the brand’s commitment to queer youth, without whom fashion would not be what it is today.
Point Foundation has long provided financial aid for LGBTQ college students, helping them achieve their full academic potential regardless of economic circumstances. It is the largest organization of its kind in the U.S. For the 2022-2023 academic year, Point hopes to break its record by awarding more than 552 scholarships and grants.
The foundation aims to tackle a lack of LGBTQ representation on a leadership level, resulting from LGBTQ youth not receiving the same educational opportunities as their peers. Many queer young people face the reality of being disowned by their families, who may refuse to pay for college. This, coupled with institutional discrimination, means many LGBTQ youths are financially unable to attend college. According to Point, when seeking financial help for higher education, 32% of LGBTQ respondents say their gender or sexuality was a factor in being denied services. Furthermore, out of the more than 2,000 annual applicants, 41% claimed to have delayed their educational pursuits due to the cost of education and lack of familial help.
Dolce & Gabbana has previously supported educational initiatives in collaboration with Humanitas University in Milan, Italy, providing financial help for selected MedTech students (a type of innovative Medicine degree.) In 2020, amid the pandemic, the brand helped fund a research project by the same university to better understand the immune system’s reaction to coronavirus.
The Dolce & Gabbana Point Scholarship isn’t the first time the brand has supported emerging fashion talent. For 2021’s Met Gala, the brand collaborated with Central Saint Martins graduate Harris Reed. They lent Reed use of their ateliers and, together, outfitted supermodel Iman in a larger-than-life ensemble, including a golden headdress. Then, at the beginning of this year, they supported CSM graduate Miss Sohee with the creation and staging of her new collection. This included providing materials from the brand’s archive and hosting the showcase at one of their venues as part of Milan Fashion Week in February.
Over the past few years, there has been an increase in scholarships and funds to diversify fashion, a traditionally white and upper-class field. Social media provided a channel for longstanding discourse addressing the industry’s classism, inaccessibility, and Eurocentricity, which came to a head in 2020 alongside a new wave of the Black Lives Matter movement. Since then, there has been an intensified drive to promote previously sidelined perspectives.
Images courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana
