Dior Brings High Fashion to Higher Education With Music Artist IDK
A handful of students are set to be outfitted in the chicest uniforms yet.
Thanks to rapper Jason “IDK” Mills and nonprofit No Label, 25 students from diverse backgrounds who’ve earned a spot in an innovative educational course under No Label Academy are going to be dressed in Dior.
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It’s a new kind of linkup for the fashion house and new kind of class for the Ivy League campus: With No Label Academy, IDK has created a new definition of higher education, one that’s focused more on a higher purpose and less on the traditional tenets of classroom teaching.
“Basically, I saw what I thought was a hole in the education system that didn’t really serve people who come from a different background,” IDK told WWD. After his own stint in prison, he said he learned what he needed to know to be successful in the music business and felt it was something he could teach others.
The website for No Label Academy, which apart from Dior counts Nike among its sponsors, reads: “Partnering with brands and a unique set of speakers, No Label and IDK are constructing a comprehensive 10-day music business course. This free course focuses on building a pipeline for BIPOC talent to kick-start their music careers, democratizing and reframing what is attainably in the industry.”
The course is open to all students to apply, not just those at Harvard.
Selected students for this year’s course will learn from IDK as well as other special guest speakers in a “conference” style setting, where experience will be the marker of success in favor of tests and quizzes. There will be opportunities for students to network and make connections, as well as a culminating Donavan’s Yard (known for hosting some of the best parties in Los Angeles) party in Boston for “graduation.”
“We are trying to figure out how to make the class and education, for lack of a better word, fly,” IDK said.
Now in its second iteration, set to begin on Aug. 19, the mini-course is picking up where its first round in 2021 left off and expanding the lessons to bring fashion into the mix.
“This year I want to tackle the correlation between fashion and music,” IDK said. “Taking the concept of an artistic director and adding it to the concept of creating an album will create something that I believe is really important in the communication between album and fan, because these days the music is cool but how do you communicate that?” While TikTok dances and social media posts are one way, he said, fashion is really what tells the story.
So where do Dior uniforms come in?
IDK wants to bring the hype of an exclusive drop to something that means more than just a brand making a buck.
“I think about it like this: I didn’t like school growing up at all. Ivy League education was impossible — I didn’t even think I would graduate high school and I technically didn’t really graduate. I mean I did, but not the traditional way. So I said, what would make someone like me care about education? Because I was smart, I just didn’t know that I was smart because I didn’t pay attention. I had problems doing things I wasn’t interested in.”
Calling on his 15-year-old self, IDK said he realized “the reason why I went to school for the most part was to dress nice. I loved the feeling of people liking what I was wearing.” As a kid, he recalled wanting a pair of Air Jordan 4 Retro Doernbecher sneakers with the Superman logo on the tongue, and discovering they were designed by a Doernbecher Hospital cancer patient. And when the Dior x Air Jordan 1 came out more recently, surrounded by a host of hype, he wanted those, too.
“I said, ‘Imagine if that sneaker and that hype was tied to something that really was important for the youth, younger students, younger kids, especially kids who are from the areas that I’m from where education isn’t number one in their minds?’” IDK said. “So, how do you take a product that everyone wants and then tie it to something that everyone needs?”
With a friendship that began over the Maybachs he and Dior men’s artistic director Kim Jones have in common and evolved over time, the two decided to collaborate on a capsule to outfit the No Label Academy students and create some hype around a plan for education that could put more people of color in the pipeline for opportunities.
“I’m very happy to create those uniforms for the No Label Academy students and proud to work with IDK on this project,” Jones said.
The exclusive uniforms will include a sweatshirt, T-shirt made from Sea Island cotton and chino pants, all adorned with a Dior patch specific to the collaboration and in Harvard’s colors — burgundy, navy blue and cream. Dior Explorer moccasins with the CD diamond or Dior oblique graphics serve as the finishing touch.
“There’s 25 students that it impacts directly but there’s millions of people who will see this, who have heard about this, who care about this because it’s tied to things that they genuinely like,” IDK said.
While the emphasis will remain on music for the Harvard-stationed course with an infusion of fashion this time around, the aim is to broaden No Label Academy’s scope to other creative arts and its location to other educational institutions.
“I want this to be about the arts in general. I don’t want it to be just about the music industry, I don’t want it to be about anything specific to that. I want it to be about education in the arts because it feels like there isn’t enough of an emphasis or even respect for education in the arts,” IDK said. “In a world where computers are going to do everything — there’s Uber robots now taking people’s food to their house — I think the arts are going to be some of the careers that will be the most sought after when people understand that robots don’t create art. These are things that come from people’s hearts and real feelings.”
Look for the program to expand and for more brand sponsors to tie their names and, perhaps, product to something with a bigger meaning.
“I would love to do this more than just 10 days and more than just even a semester and more than just at Harvard. My goal for this in 10 years is to be in all 50 states, at Ivy League schools, HBCUs and D1 colleges and not just have me as the professor. I would be able to create a program that others could teach,” he said. “Harvard is just the home, the hub, the place that is the prestigious place that’s impossible to get into, the place that opens up your mind. But the teachings, the learnings, what we’re actually trying to do, the connections, that’s the real impact.”
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