In Conversation with Jonathan Joseph
Emily Swift Studios
Tell us about your background:
Before creating Little Red Fashion I was a strategic consultant across a number of industries including (obviously) fashion where I focused on wearing a variety of hats ranging from fundraising management to biz dev, co-design, and textile sourcing as well as philanthropy & DEI. It was during that time that I wrote what would become The Little Red Dress: A Kids Book About Fashion, LRF's first title. I founded LRF just before the pandemic began, to create a new mechanism for shifting the values of the industry to be more inclusive and representational through empowering kids to see the many ways they can be a part of fashion and giving them access to the resources they need to dive into their passions sooner and more in depth.
My journey to today is also rooted in my lifelong work as an advocate for social justice for historically marginalized groups. As a member of the queer, disabled, and Latinx community, I have worked as a workshop facilitator, speaker, and fundraiser since the age of 14 when I delivered my first keynote on addressing homophobia in the classroom. This led to work in both the community-based health and social services arena as well as the private sector relative to CSR following my graduate studies in fundraising management at Columbia.
During my career I have advised boards, start-ups, firms, and individuals across industries ranging from entertainment & legal cannabis to fashion, commodities, and wellness. At the core of my ethos throughout my professional life has been a commitment to helping organizations, individuals, and communities solve problems and build bridges of understanding through the power of storytelling. My mission with Little Red Fashion is to empower the next generation of our industry leaders & creatives (and the grown-ups in their life) like never before.
After all, you don't see many kids at Juilliard who pick an instrument up in high school...why should fashion be any different? Beyond that, fashion as a lens for understanding the world and as a bridge for diverse storytelling has tremendous power to drive change in a million subtle ways. From acting as a broker for explorations & celebrations of diverse cultures, unique perspectives and families at home and in the classroom, Little Red Fashion and I are driven to create unique resources, programs, and offerings that span books, tech, the metaverse and more all while achieving dynamic social impact and making sure we leave a better fashion industry behind than the one we met when we fell in love with it.
What do you wish you’d known when you started out?
2 things: I wish I’d known the power of my voice, which is ironic given that I’d spent so long advocating and doing the activist/community organizer thing, right? But what I mean by that as applies to the fashion industry is that I wish I didn’t let my love of fashion and desire to be “in the industry” blind me to certain boundary transgressions by others or that rendered me uncharacteristically silent in the face of toxic people or environments. Once I re-connected with it in the context of the work I was doing and energies around me, the Little Red Fashion mission crystallized and I got to work.
2nd, I wish I had known the sheer number of people I’d encounter who weaponize the allure of this field (and oft those adjacent) to take advantage, to manipulate, and to gate keep to their own ends. Fashion truly is for Everyone, but a lot of folks really refuse that truth at every turn and it’s unfortunate. It’s also changing, one look at our amazing co-lab community is a testament to that.
Best career advice you've ever received?
One of my side businesses is a fine art studio. I’ve had it since 2014 and a dear friend of mine Glenn Gissler came to visit and see some things I was working on for a series about HIV & chronic illness and advised me (given my obsession with the work of Cy Twombly) to focus on “an economy of form.”
The phrase never left me and Ive found it applies to everything since, so allow me to explain:
I’m a talker, a chatty Cathy gift of gab kinda guy. Unsurprising for a fellow obsessed with words. But just like my sometimes overwhelming paintings, I am prone to throw too much detail into writing and talking also.
Glenn’s words became a healing mantra when I’d find myself going too deep down a rabbit hole of jargon or acronyms losing my audience; they helped me focus and learn to distill ideas and concepts better. They are what eventually allowed me to self-curate, and write quality kids books.
What leadership qualities are important to you?
Empathy first & foremost! Then compassion followed by decisiveness and healthy sense of intuition. Leaders have to balance culture and practicality;
we have to be tuned into the micro and macro to effectively meet all team members, customers, or the public where they are though the lens of brand and mission.
The best leaders I’ve known (and try to emulate) underscore being mission-driven, people-focused, and vision-led with empathy & a co-creative spirit.
What has been the biggest challenge in your career so far?
Learning to ask for help, generally speaking, has always been my biggest challenge as an adult.
Working through shadow and my own traumas as someone living an intersectional reality has been both essential to my growth and a mental uphill battle I’m thrilled to have succeeded with.
As for a more discrete; direct challenge: navigating COVID as I began LRF just prior to the start of everything as a bootstrapped, self-funding triple minority founder on a unique mission.
And for fun, what is your favorite wardrobe staple?
This might be the painter in me, but definitely an oversized silk white or off white billowy button down. I always have one around and love the simplicity & versatility.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanjosephsavageventure
Website: www.LittleRedFashion.com
Instagram: @LittleRedFashionCo
