Every year, the Savannah College of Art and Design sends off an eager batch of fashion students into the design world, ready to innovate the industry by infusing it with their vibrancy and eclectic palettes. This year in particular, the 2025 graduating senior class saw multiple collections from Black female designers who derived inspiration from their cultural backgrounds, spanning all the way from Barbados to Congo. Three of these designers include Jailynn Tabanico, Savannah Luke, and Gabriella Sumbu.
Gabriella Sumbu’s collection, A Country Boy from Congo, drew inspiration from her father’s immigration from Congo to Texas at age 29. “This collection is a representation of how as an immigrant, you don’t have to assimilate— you can create your own identity in a new place.”
Savannah Luke’s From the Islands, With Love serves as a tribute to her Bajan roots, honoring “the Caribbean culture that raised me and the little girl who dreamed it all into being. The vibrant culture, the breathtaking scenery, the warmth of the people, and the love that flows through it all. This collection is my way of sharing that beauty with the world.”
Jailynn Tabanico’s collection, UTILITARIAN FEMININE, derives from her father’s time serving in the army, dismantling the one-dimensional idea of women’s wear. It’s harsh and feminine, Venusian and masculine, honoring her own inner rebellion.
Bridging Blackness and Fashion
21Ninety spoke with these young designers to explore their perspectives on navigating a white-dominated industry, as well as how it felt to have their designs selected for SCAD’s annual Fashion Show in Atlanta.
21NINETY: First off, what inspired your collections?
GABRIELLA SUMBU: Besides my dad, I was inspired by the movie “The Harder They Fall.” It’s produced by Jay-Z and was loosely based on the Rufus Buck Gang. They were an outlaw black gang back in the Wild West. It’s basically an all black cast and I liked how it shed light on black cowboys as opposed to focusing on white cowboys. The costume design in that movie is amazing. The second one is the LV Fall Winter ’23 or ’24 show. If I’m not mistaken, that was Pharrell’s second show as a creative director with LV. It highlighted black cowboys, had indigenous models on the runway. The crazy chaps, the suede, the leather, the turquoise accents, I loved it. And then the last thing of course is Cowboy Carter. Even after I finished my collection, it’s still such a big inspiration for me. Listening to Beyonce’s experience being a woman in the South and how she grew up listening to blues and country music. Those were my inspirations.
SAVANNAH LUKE: My inspiration came from home, from Barbados. It came from the people and the culture. The people in the fish markets, the fruit vendors, the coconut people. Our Prime Minister, she’s a woman. She’s so inspiring. The people who work on the beach, just everywhere in Barbados and the Caribbean in general.
JAILYNN TABANICO: My inspiration came from my dad. The whole collection is military inspired, and he’s ex-military, army and air force. I knew I wanted it to be streetwear because my style is both feminine and cute, but I also like to dress in baggy clothes. So I wanted to incorporate and mix the two together. I took inspiration from military silhouettes, uniforms, different gear. Also parachutes and stuff like that, I used a lot of military materials like tents and straps. I also used new materials like leather luxury materials to elevate the collection more.
21N: Why was it important for you guys to integrate not only your cultural upbringing, but your own personal stories into what you made?
GS: I feel like for me, especially with everything that’s happening in Congo, I knew I wanted to do something highlighting Congolese culture. I feel like you see East African or West African culture in the media, but people don’t really talk about Central African culture. That was important to me.
SL: I just think it’s important for us to tell our stories and share where we come from. It’s super important for people to know about different cultures and how they can translate into fashion. I feel like the fashion we see is very sleek and minimal, pure European standards. So leaning into color, texture, and my roots was really important to share.
JT: It’s just a part of who I am because he talks about it so much all the time. He refers back to a lot of his early memories. So I definitely felt like I wanted to share that and also represent being feminine but also being very strong and nontraditional. For me, it was important to have models of color who I felt represented me best because you don’t really see that a lot. I wanted it to be about people who look like me, people who have the same hair as me.
SL: I completely agree. Barbados is 90% Black people, so it was really important to me that I had Black people who represented the Barbadian look because it’s all a part of the story and the collection.
21N: Was it difficult for you guys to source Black models?
GS: It wasn’t hard for the photo shoot. But for our school critiques, yes. We all specifically said in our forms that this is a cultural collection, I would love to have all Black models, and that is not what they gave me. For my women models, there were not a lot of Black girls given to me, I don’t know why they did that.
SL: I think that’s something they need to work on. I had all white models. Luckily, my teacher was able to speak up for me because she’s the head of the fashion department and she’s very feisty, so I got two Black models for the critique. But they need to work on that. They literally said, “We didn’t get a big Black turnout.” But when I saw the Instagram page of all the models that tried out, there were so many Black people, and they all looked really good.
21N: I think you guys advocating for your collections is how that change will be enacted. As young designers of color, what do you wish to bring to the industry that you don’t see enough of?
GS: I think just more representation. It’s definitely in the works, especially with this year’s Met Gala theme. There’s a lack of education on Black culture in general, which we already know, but especially Black fashion. Black people are always trying to learn about other cultures. It’s not fair that we are always educated on other things, but people aren’t educated on Black culture or Black fashion. Bringing my story and translating in a way that’s visual can hopefully help people understand better.
SL: I completely agree with Gaby, more representation of Black designers. And not just Black American designers, but Caribbean, African. I feel like there are so many talented designers from Nigeria, Congo, Jamaica, Trinidad. We don’t see much of them. I feel like a spotlight needs to be shone on them. Even in America, they don’t shine a lot of light on Black designers, especially high fashion. There are not a lot of Black designers who are on the runway, which was crazy.
JT: I would definitely agree. There definitely needs to be more representation with Black women designers. Black people are all connected. We share the same lived experiences, we have so much in common. We have a very deep-rooted culture, especially in the South. I feel like a lot of Black designers are very unique at what they put out because usually they have a story to tell, whether it be good or bad. That should be highlighted more. I’ve gotten so much inspiration and fuel just looking at the Met Gala and some of the new designers who are emerging on the fashion scene. I’m super excited to see who else comes up and what they have to offer to Black culture.
SL: So many white designers take so much from Black culture. Streetwear designers especially, that’s all Black culture. There needs to be more light shed on the young emerging Black designers.
GS: I think the reason why light does not shine as much on Black designers is because of the people who are in charge of big brands and houses; they’re literally old white men. I think like 70% or 80% of creative directors now are white males. Not even white women. White males. There are some women of color at Capri Holdings, which is like Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo. But there are so many white old men in power. They’re not going to want to put people they aren’t comfortable with on their brands.
21N: Who are some artists you see yourselves in that are managing to take up space?
GS: I really love Hanifa, she’s a Congolese woman and was actually at the Met for the first time this year, which is so exciting. She dressed Savannah James. When I found out about her, it got me really excited because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Congolese American designer in the media. Another black designer duo is WHO DECIDES WAR. I love them, they’re doing some really cool shit. Fashion is paying attention to them.
JT: Virgil Abloh, as well as Pharrell since he’s taken his place. But I feel like Virgil just set the way for so many up-and-coming Black stylists, Black designers, just Black people in fashion. He paved the way for a lot of people and made a movement amongst Black youth and sneaker culture. Virgil set a wave for a whole new generation. What he did with his own brand Off White, that got so much attention. And what he did with Louis Vuitton for their men’s wear, merging streetwear and Black culture and tailoring it into high fashion, an industry that’s white male-dominated. He turned it all upside down in a good way.
SL: I take a lot of inspiration from designers who use color and pretty prints. I really love Hanifa as well, she’s a great designer. I like Kai Collective.
21N: Between SCAD Atlanta and SCAD Savannah, there are about 142 fashion seniors and only 53 are picked for the annual fashion show. How does it feel to have made it? Are you proud? Relieved? Nervous?
GS: I’m definitely proud of myself. I struggle with impostor syndrome a lot. I’m so proud of myself for overcoming that. When I was making the collection, I don’t think I was considering trying to make it into the show. I was just trying to prove to myself that I could do something. It feels good because it’s something that represents my culture and knowing that it’s going to be on the forefront and people are going to wonder like, “What is that type of fabric?” Hopefully, that’ll lead them to research and education. Finishing this collection, I never thought that I could push my body or myself as far as I did. But seeing my mom, my dad, my brother so proud of me. That’s what made me the happiest. It’s worth it for them for sure.
JT: That was at the back of my mind, the fashion show and everything, but I definitely agree that I was really trying to prove something to myself that I can get here, be a designer, actually make stuff. Before we got to senior year, a lot of us hadn’t really sewn a full garment or a full look. So I think it was definitely a lot of proving to ourselves what we can do, how far we can push ourselves, our work ethic. It showed us how much we wanted it. We all pushed ourselves beyond what we what we thought, and it definitely paid off.
SL: It’s just a full circle moment for all of us. When I first saw the list and I saw all three of our names, us black women on that list. It was like, “Wow. This is amazing.” I feel extremely proud of myself and all of us. We worked really hard. I just feel like we deserve this. I feel very grateful that I got to represent my country on such a big runway that will be on the Internet. It feels good that I can represent Barbados in the fashion industry because not many people back home are allowed an opportunity like this.
This article has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.