Continuing our spotlight on Black Female Creatives as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, we are focusing our attention on London born, New York Entrepreneur Carly Cushnie and her luxury fashion label CUSHNIE.

Originally from London, Carly Cushnie attended Parsons School of Design in both Paris and New York, where she received her BA in Fashion Design. After graduating she interned at Donna Karan, Proenza Schouler, and Oscar de la Renta before co founding luxury design house Cushnie et Ochs with her friend Michelle Ochs in 2008. The label was rooted in the desire to serve the modern woman. Artfully crafted with clean, sculptural lines, precisely tailored to achieve the perfect fit for the female form. After a decade of success in 2018 Carly parted ways with Ochs to become the major shareholder and CEO of the company and set about rebranding the label…CUSHNIE.

Defined by the balance of proportion, structure and fluidity, the new CUSHNIE aesthetic embodies a refined sense of cosmopolitan minimalism and femininity and is adored by celebrities and consumers alike.

“As a woman, I understand what my customer wants from her clothes. I’ve grown and evolved alongside her over the past 10 years, and I strive to present her with timeless silhouettes that make her feel sexy, sophisticated and powerful — all at once.”

Aiming to present her coveted aesthetic to a wider audience, in 2020 Cushnie collaborated with US retailer Target and created a diffusion line for the brand CUSHNIE X TARGET. The collaboration has been widely received with great praise marking Cushnie’s step up into the mainstream. This is a huge success not just for the brand but for Carly too as she is still one of very few black female fashion designers currently producing collections across the fashion landscape.

Speaking to Essence.com of her experience as a black woman in fashion she says

Although there are many women working in the field, it’s still very much a boys’ club at the executive level of top design houses. Women designers are often labeled as being “practical” in their aesthetic compared with their male counterparts, who offer the “fantasy.” As a woman in fashion, you have to have a strong point of view that stands out and doesn’t waver under critique. And as a Black designer, it’s very easy to be pigeonholed based on what the industry assumes you will do. It took a lot of work for me to break those preconceptions, especially when there are very few examples to aspire to.

In a recent instagram post she credits 1950’s black fashion designer Zelda Barbour Wynn Valdes as an inspirational figure for the brand.

Known for her signature low-cut, body-hugging gowns, which unapologetically extenuated a woman’s curves,  Zelda Barbour Wynn Valdes was one of the leading inspirations when we think of the CUSHNIE aesthetic. ⁠⠀⁠⠀
Zelda Valdes was one of the first well-known black fashion designers and the first black designer to open her own shop, which was the first black-owned business on Broadway in New York City.⁠⠀
She took immense pride in making women of all shapes and sizes look and feel like goddesses and she was credited for creating the iconic Playboy costume.⁠⠀

Continuing in Zeldas footsteps Cushnie has gained a reputation for using her skill and design prowess to create pieces that enable all of her wearers to feel enraptured in and can count Michelle Obama, Gwyneth Paltrow Lupita Nyong’o and Gal Dadot as loyal fans. The CUSHNIE brand continues to go from strength to strength and is available at over 125 points of sale around the world, including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Harvey Nichols, and Net-A-Porter. It was a winner of the Ecco Domani Award (2009), a finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund (2011) and a nominee for the CFDA Swarovski Award (2013). (Source CDFA)

To view the full Cushnie collection please visit www.cushnie.com and to shop CUSHNIE X TARGET please click here