Actress, Rosario Dawson, wins CFDA and Lexus Initiative Award

Rosario(L) and Abrima(R)

American actress Rosario Dawson and her business partner Abrima Erwiah, won a grant from the CFDA and Lexus Initiative for $80,000 to continue their efforts for their brand, Studio One Eighty Nine.

This comes after an intensive eight-month training course with a group of four other nominated brands, all competing for the grand prize. The nominees received consulting on how to make their brands more sustainable.

Runners-up, Cienne, focused on moving toward responsible fabrics and promoting circularity, using durable reaources over and over again during clothing production to produce less waste.

Rosario likened her company to Jessica Alba's, Honest Company, based on their good values.

Studio 189 currently operates a store in Accra and Ghana. They work with artisanal communities that use traditional craftmanship techniques including natural plant based dye indigo, hand-batik, kente weaving and so on.

This won't be their first award. Studio 189 is the recipient of the Martun Luther King Jr Social Justice Award from Upenn in 2015, Design Miami Visionary Award in 2017, among others.