IAN JACKSON
New Orleans, LA
2025-2026 Grant Category 5 - Hurricane Katrina Fashion Collection
Scholarship 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024, 2024-2025
Ian Jackson recently earned an AA in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. He plans to use this grant to launch his collection, Category 5, inspired by Hurricane Katrina. He acknowledges the everlasting toll of the trauma that Katrina left on New Orleanians. The Category 5 collection was created as an homage to the resilience of Jackson’s community.
“My collection is only an interpretation of what was once understood to be a small trip and is now the most pivotal moment in my life. My brand, described in one word, is resilient just like my people because at the end of all of the horrible events that occurred, we danced, we smiled, and we dared to love and trust others around us,” he reflects. Jackson has chosen to classify each “category” as a gift: art, dance, film/photography, dance/theatrics, and fashion.
He also strives to bring artists together through collaboration and outreach, stating, “The creative outpour that comes from New Orleans is astonishing and I’ve decided to use my talent to boost and aid other artists in their own self healing journeys.” He hopes to expose artists to greater opportunities like those he has experienced in New York. “The idea that artists have to struggle is false, and through our collaborative works, show cases, seminars, and dinners, I see a way for me to really enrich other creative lives through these intimate but impactful environments,” says Jackson. He hopes to generate capital that he can pour back into the City of New Orleans.
Jackson has worked for Patti Wilson Studios, Parkwood Entertainment, Tommy Hilfiger, New York Fashion Week, and Christian Cowan. He credits his skills to the long line of tailors and seamstresses from whom he descended, stating, “I feel like I carry all of their separate skills in individual fingers on my right hand, and I plan to use them to the best of my ability to carry out the story of not just my family, but the community they cultivated with raw talent, love, and passion.”
Ian Jackson first joined the YAYA Guild in 2012.
All works are copyright of the artist.