GREENSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina A&T University student is making a name for herself in the fashion industry, all while promoting historically black colleges and universities, also known as HBCU's.
U'lia Hargrove is a junior fashion and supply chain management major from Henderson.
Over the summer she had the opportunity to do an internship in Philadelphia with Urban Outfitters. It's a very popular, trendy clothing company for teens and young adults.
Over 10 weeks, she along with students from other HBCU's including Howard University and Clark Atlanta University, designed apparel to represent their schools.
Hargrove designed sweatpants, a sweatshirt, a varsity jacket, tote bag and playing cards.
All of the items are being sold online on Urban Outfitter's website. The interns even got to model their work!
"At 7:00 a.m. in the morning I was already ready, had all my items in my shopping cart," Hargrove said, "So it was pretty amazing seeing myself and all the other interns I worked with. Seeing us on the website, it's very surreal, it's pretty amazing."
This was a dream come true for Hargrove. She said she first started to get interested in fashion in middle school.
"I started making my own clothes because growing up we really couldn't afford the newer styles," Hargrove said.
She also said this experience was more about fulfilling her own goals, but promoting HBCU's.
"It was pretty amazing to bring light to HBCU's, and even for them to bring African Americans in the space at Urban Outfitters to work for them. That was pretty amazing because you don't really see a lot of representation within the fashion industry. I really appreciate that as well having to experience that," Hargrove said.
This was the first summer class of HBCU students at Urban Outfitters. Hargrove said it was all started thanks to the company's newly created inclusiveness and diversity committee.