Addressing an audience of more than 120 students and faculty at UD's Trabant University Center, Gordon talked about her early efforts to grow the social reach of Dress for Success Worldwide and shared how the international nonprofit organization has promoted the economic standing of more than 400,000 disadvantaged women by providing them with professional attire, supportive networks and career development tools.
“I've always believed that I'm not just here for me,” Gordon said. “I'm here to make an impact on other lives, and Dress for Success Worldwide has been my bridge to success.”
Currently overseeing an affiliate network that spans 86 cities in five countries, Gordon shared some history on the organization's origins just a decade ago, as well as some thoughts on leadership and how she became inspired by it. Chronicling Dress for Success Worldwide's beginnings from just $5,000 in seed money to its current ability to serve more than 400,000 women and 1.2 million children, Gordon emphasized how inspiration is contagious.
“I could tell when I was 14 years old that I was going to embark upon change,” Gordon said. “I was being raised by a single mother and was one of five black students in a prep school in Tulsa, Okla., and so I started an organization to bring other black kids to the school. That was my first inspiration for leadership, and I knew even then I was cut out for it.”
Gordon added that her “passion met purpose” again during college when she was promoted from a resident assistant to a liaison for four different departmental units, and then again in law school when she formed a general council for troubled students at the University of Oklahoma. Her first job out of law school, working with female defendants as a district attorney in the Bronx, she said, cemented her decision to improve the lives of disadvantaged women.
“It was during my time as a district attorney that I realized my passion,” Gordon said. “My passion wasn't to try women for crimes they hadn't necessarily committed, but to get them to a better place where they could improve their lives.”
Her experience of having worked for several summers during college in fashion retail and having seen so many disadvantaged women without professional attire gave her an appreciation for the need that Dress for Success Worldwide serves.
“I'm telling you this,” Gordon said, “because I want to impress upon you the importance of finding purpose in your work. There are a lot of wonderful jobs in fashion, and you can love your work in such a lovely industry, but if you can't find purpose, your work isn't worth a lot, and your life will be very empty,” she said. “In fashion, you must figure out how your success can change the lives of others.”
Gordon earned a bachelor's degree in radio broadcasting and a master's degree in law from the University of Oklahoma, both through full scholarships. Besides serving on the board of directors for several fashion imprints, she is a member of the Women's Advisory Council of Home Depot and was recently featured in a cover story in Black Enterprise Magazine.
Her lecture was part of an ongoing annual lecture series that focuses on social responsibility and sustainability as it pertains to labor standards, working conditions, environmentally sustainable design and socially responsible consumer behavior in the fashion industry.
The next lecture in the series is set for 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 19, in Multipurpose Room A of the Trabant Student Center. Lynda Grose, an adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and an independent designer who has worked in the fashion industry for 25 years researching socially and environmentally advanced clothing and textiles, will be the guest speaker. Grose will discuss her personal experiences, from designing Esprit's e-collection to working with large corporations, artisans and California's cotton farmers.
The series, now in its second academic year, is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy, the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies and the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. Past topics have focused on fair trade, labor, and environmental issues in the fashion industry. Gordon's lecture was the first to focus on philanthropy.
Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photos by Duane Perry