2021 Honorees

Company of the Year

HanesBrands, Inc.
Mike Faircloth, Group President, Global Operations, accepting

Hanesbrands, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., is a socially responsible leading marketer of everyday apparel in the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia-Pacific. The company sells its products under some of the world’s strongest apparel brands, including Hanes, Champion, Bonds, Maidenform, DIM, Bali, and Playtex.

Mike Faircloth has served as Hanesbrands, Group President of global operations since February 2017. He is responsible for all aspects of the Hanesbrands global supply chain and the company’s sustainability efforts. His responsibility spans over in 40 countries with more than 60,000 employees. Faircloth has led the company’s extensive worldwide energy management program that has garnered Hanes 11 back-to-back U.S. EPA Energy Star Partner of the Year Awards 2010 through 2020. Prior to his appointment as Group president of Global Operations, Faircloth held various senior leadership over more than 20 years at Hanesbrands. He holds a BA in Economics from Elon University and is an alumnus of the Wharton School of business, University of Pennsylvania.

Read on with our conversation with Mike

Retail Innovator of the Year

Walmart
Denise Incandela, Executive Vice President, Apparel and Private Brands, accepting

Denise Incandela is a visionary retail executive, and an experienced public company board director, who has delivered growth and transformation for brands and luxury and mass retailers for over 20 years. Denise is an expert in P&L leadership, retail and digital, merchandising, marketing and brand building, and has a proven track record of exceeding revenue and profit targets, positioning businesses as market-leading performers, building high performance teams, and achieving award-winning results. Currently, Denise is EVP of Apparel and Private Brands for Walmart US. In this role, she is responsible for leading Apparel for Walmart, both stores and online, and all general merchandise private brands. She also runs Walmart’s apparel etailers/DTCs, including Moosejaw, Bonobos, and Eloquii. Previously, Denise was SVP and Group General Manager of Walmart’s Fashion Group and was responsible for transforming fashion on Walmart.com, developing and building Walmart’s elevated brands- EV1 by Ellen DeGeneres, Sofia Jeans by Sofia Vergara, and Scoop- and leading Wamart’s etailers and DTCs. Before joining Walmart, Denise was CEO of Aerosoles, a global footwear company; was President of Global Digital for the Ralph Lauren Corporation; was EVP and Chief Marketing Officer of Saks Fifth Avenue; and worked at McKinsey & Company, where she was a leader of their Retail practice. Denise is on the Board of Directors of the NYC Animal Care Centers and the Industry Advisory Board for The Wharton School’s Baker Retailing Center. She was on the Board of Directors of CST Brands, Inc.- a $12B public retailer of motor fuel and convenience merchandise services in North America- from 2013-2017 prior to selling the company in 2017. Honors include Glossy “50 List”, Glamour “Women of the Year”, Brand Innovator’s “Top 50 Women in Brand Marketing”, Direct Marketing News’ “Marketing Hall of Femme”, Luxury Daily’s “Luxury Women to Watch”, and Retail Online Integration’s “Top Women in Cross-Channel Retail”. Featured in a number of leadership books including "How Remarkable Women Lead" and "The Next Generation of Women Leaders”. Denise received an M.B.A. from the Wharton Business School and a B.S. from Boston College.

Fashion Maverick

Black in Fashion Council
Sandrine Charles and Lindsay Peoples Wagner, Co-Founders, accepting

Sandrine Charles is the Founder and Owner of Sandrine Charles Consulting, a boutique Public Relations + Consulting Agency with Sandrine spearheading efforts with 12+ years of experience. In 2016, Sandrine Charles opened the doors of Sandrine Charles Consulting specializing in fashion and lifestyle communications, strategy, events, celebrity and influencer engagement.

In addition to running a communications business, Sandrine is the Co-Founder of the Black in Fashion Council. The organization was founded to represent and secure the advancement of Black individuals in the fashion and beauty industry. Asa collective, we envision a world in which black people in fashion and beauty spaces can be open and honest, guaranteed equal rights, and be celebrated for our voices.

Read on with our conversation with Sandrine Charles and Lindsay Peoples Wagner

Fashion Maverick

Black in Fashion Council
Sandrine Charles and Lindsay Peoples Wagner, Co-Founders, accepting

Lindsay Peoples Wagner is the editor in chief of Teen Vogue, a role she has held since October 2018, and Co-Founder of the Black in Fashion Council. Peoples Wagner previously spent 5 years as an editor at The Cut and New York Magazine, a role she took following her time as the fashion market reporter at Style.com.

While at The Cut, she won the ASME Next award in 2017, honoring outstanding achievement by magazine journalists under the age of 30, and wrote the critically-acclaimed “Everywhere and Nowhere: What it’s really like to be black and work in fashion,” that featured more than 100 people of color’s insights and perspectives on diversity in fashion (The Cut, Sept. 2018). More recently, Wagner was celebrated among Business of Fashion's 2019 BoF 500 and named to the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Earlier in her career, Peoples Wagner spent two years as a fashion market assistant at Teen Vogue, where she returned after a stint at O, The Oprah Magazine. It was at Teen Vogue, where she began her career as an assistant working in the fashion closet under the founding editor-in-chief, Amy Astley. Peoples Wagner, who hails from Wisconsin, graduated from Buena Vista University with a bachelor's degree in art and journalism and currently resides in Brooklyn.

Read on with our conversation with Sandrine Charles and Lindsay Peoples Wagner

Eco-Steward of the Year

Sustainable Apparel Coalition
Amina Razvi, Executive Director, accepting

As SAC Executive Director, Amina is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the organization. She leads the executive team and works with the board of directors to develop and implement the organization’s strategic plan.

Previously, Amina was the Vice President of Membership at the SAC, a leadership role in which she focused on providing exceptional customer service, account management, member value and business development for the organization. Amina worked with global members to increase adoption of the Higg Index and improvement of Higg scores through impact solutions.

Prior to joining the SAC, Amina was a senior manager on the Global Sustainability team at Gap Inc. where she led environmental initiatives across owned and operated facilities as well as in their supply chain. She led the development of Gap’s environmental sustainability strategy and the creation, execution and achievement of ambitious enterprise goals on energy and waste at owned and operated facilities. Amina also led the first large scale deployment of the Higg Index across Gap’s supply chain, and has been involved in the creation, development, piloting and rollout of the Higg since its inception.

Trained as an architect, Amina has designed and managed construction of retail stores, skyscrapers, houses, hotels, and museums. She has a B.S. in Architectural Studies from the University of Illinois and a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Read on with our conversation with Amina

Designer of the Year

Gabriela Hearst

Gabriela honored her family’s heritage through the launch of her eponymous label in Fall 2015 after taking over the operations of her father’s ranch in Uruguay. She wanted to create a brand that reflects a slower pace and process: where things are made with care and detail, where tradition is more important than trend, where there is a purpose to every piece. Gabriela’s commitment is to make a strong and modern collection without compromising her ethics and key values, taking into consideration where materials come from and who is making them: luxury with a conscience, or in other words, “honest luxury”. In 2018, Gabriela was appointed to the board of trustees of Save the Children. The Gabriela Hearst Flagship store on Madison Avenue in New York opened in November 2018, the London store on Brook street opened August 2019. For the Spring Summer 2020 collection, shown in New York in September 2019, Gabriela Hearst produced the first ever carbon neutral runway show. She is the winner of the 2016/17 International Woolmark Prize for Womenswear, 2018 recipient of the Pratt Institute Fashion Visionary Award, and 2020 recipient of the Frank Alvah Parsons Award. In 2020, she won the American Womenswear Designer of the Year Award at the CFDA Fashion Awards. The British Fashion Council awarded Gabriela as an Environment Honoree for her contribution in creating positive change within the industry at the 2020 Fashion Awards. In December 2020 Hearst was appointed the new Creative Director for Chloé.

Read on with our conversation with Gabriela

Digital Entrepreneur of the Year

ShopShops
Liyia Wu, Founder and CEO, accepting

Liyia Wu is Founder & CEO of ShopShops, the leading global livestream marketplace for fashion, beauty and lifestyle products. ShopShops streams with over a thousand partners, across the U.S., Middle East, Europe and Asia, including brands like Marni, Jimmy Choo, Rebecca Minkoff, Zac Posen, and rag & bone. Liyia graduated with a double major in finance and accounting from Sauder's Business School of the University of British Columbia, which she put to use towards a media and advertising job in Beijing. In 2005, she moved to New York City and switched gears to study fashion merchandising at Parsons, and after working for a fashion brand as a merchandiser for three years, Wu founded a boutique in Beijing that carried U.S. designer brands, including Tory Burch, Loeffler Randall and Helmut Lang, among others. In 2009, she started her own contemporary fashion label, which was sold out of its own boutiques in Beijing, as well as retailers across China. By 2015, she combined her business and fashion knowledge from both the U.S. and Beijing to launch ShopShops, which, originally, served as an online directory of U.S. retailers for Chinese travelers whose plans involved a lot of shopping.

Read on with our conversation with Liyia

Emcee

Segun Oduolowu, TV Personality and Host of The List

Segun Oduolowu is a first generation Nigerian American. Proud son of immigrant parents. He’s a Television Host, Entertainment Journalist and Media Personality. Prior to hosting the nationally syndicated Emmy Award winning news magazine tv show The List, he appeared regularly on CNN, NBC’s Access Live and the Today Show. He’s also appeared on FOX’s The Wendy Williams Show, as well as internationally for the BBC, and Deutsch Welle. He was also the co-host of See It/Skip It, the first ever entertainment review show for Rotten Tomatoes and Facebook Watch.  

When the bright lights turn off, Segun is a family man. Spending time changing the diapers of his daughter Ava, and being told “You’re doing it wrong” by his amazing wife Aja. With any remaining free time, he works with young athletes and students. As a former collegiate basketball player at the University of Houston, he adheres to the principle of “Working Smarter Not Harder.”