Saks, a leading digital platform for luxury fashion, recently celebrated the graduation of the third class of its designer accelerator program, The New Wave, presented by Mastercard. This year, the program expanded to include more categories, such as women's and men's ready-to-wear, shoes, kids, and jewelry, with the latter being new additions.
The New Wave program is designed to support independent brands with significant growth potential. These brands are identified by Saks' leadership team and are provided with additional support to help scale their businesses. The program also aims to amplify racially and ethnically diverse voices, aligning with Saks' commitment to increasing representation in its merchandise assortment. Since its inception, at least half of the program participants have been racially and ethnically diverse brands.
Mastercard has consistently sponsored The New Wave at Saks, hosting dedicated roundtable sessions to provide designers with an overview and access to the Mastercard Digital Doors® program. This includes exclusive digital resources, tools to help small businesses grow and enhance their online presence, and one-on-one mentorship.
This year's New Wave program included an onboarding bootcamp at Saks' corporate headquarters in New York City, cross-functional advisory sessions with leaders from key areas across the Saks business, and roundtable sessions with noteworthy industry experts and designers.
The eight participants from this year's program were Armando Cabral, Áwet, Bernard James, Elisamama, Interior, June 79, Renowned, and Sorellina. Each designer was featured in the Saks Fall Fashion Book and in a special window installation at the Saks Fifth Avenue New York flagship. They also shared their brand stories and inspirations, highlighting their latest collections in a dedicated Saks Live event.
The New Wave program is part of Saks' broader efforts to support the next design and retail talent generation. Over the past five years, Saks has partnered with and sponsored the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, Harlem's Fashion Row, the Social Justice Center at FIT, The Folklore Connect, Black Retail Action Group, and the New York Fashion Tech Lab.
