About
Rick Davy is the Founder and Director of BK Style Foundation (BKSF) and the Creative Director and Producer of Fashion Week Brooklyn (FWBK). Rick is originally from Trinidad and spent years traveling between New York and Montreal while training to be a professional dancer.
Rick eventually became a full-time assistant manager at NYU Tisch School of the Arts film department and subsequently studied photography and film production. This led him to serve as a production manager on music videos, including some by hip hop legends Jay-Z and Big Daddy Kane. From there, Rick became increasing interested in fashion and he started photographing the portfolios of several professional models. During these shoots, Rick often selected the clothes and looks the models wore. He then started to attend classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Rick met Wendy Fitzwilliam, a fellow Trinidadian and Miss Universe, for whom he became a stylist. This led him to serve as a stylist for other Miss Universe—as well as other beauty pageant winners—too. His work in the pageantry industry enabled him to travel to Greece, Paris, London, Barcelona, Switzerland and Germany and several Caribbean Islands. During this time, Rick also served as the Creative Director and Fashion Consultant for numerous clothing brands. Later, he turned his attention to publishing and worked as a director for numerous national and international magazines and curating fashion shows. These experiences give him the opportunity to work with his friends at CBS as a wardrobe stylist for their talk show “Forgive and Forget” starring Mother Love. From there, Rick landed a job as a stylist for the Black Entertainment Television (BET) show “106th and Park” where he was responsible for dressing hosts AJ Calloway and Free for many years.
Rick Davy’s success in both the fashion and entertainment industries gave him the opportunity to launch the BK Style Foundation in May 2006. At that time, the first Fashion Week Brooklyn show took place in DUMBO at the Tobacco Warehouse to astounding revues and a full page spread in the NY Times–which was a first-of-its-kind for a Fashion Week Event in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Magazine even named Rick Davy as one of the top 100 influencers of Brooklyn. Now in its seventeen year, Fashion Week Brooklyn is hail as a top-five show in the fashion world (among shows that are not sponsor by any Major company).
Rick Davy is very partial to the artistry and diversity found in Brooklyn, the borough where he presently resides. He enjoys collaborating with other artists to create opportunities to celebrate fashion and bringing art and design to the public. Free events in spaces such as the Kings Plaza Mall truly help to realize his mission by supporting the careers of countless emerging designers and creative talents by raising awareness about their creations.
The “Design Trail” at Kings Park Plaza is the premiere event in a fledgling initiative that Rick Davy hopes to make citywide; the project is about keeping the arts alive in innovative ways during the pandemic and incorporating the community into the events, which aim to bring joy, brightness, color, and creativity to otherwise empty shop windows. As part of the support for designers and makers, he and his partner at House of BAV BK Style has a sustainable store at Tanger Mall, Atlantic City (first of its kind).
“Designers need to network and they need exposure,” Rick Davy said in a recent interview and noted that sustainability is a big component of his brand. Rick is now a board member of Materials for the Arts (MFTA); he is part of the committee that created the designers in residency program at MTFA providing a space for creatives/makers to design and have access to materials to support their designing.
Rick is very education-focused and believes in creating opportunities for youths–especially low-income youths–to expose to them arts and fashion. He frequently works with middle school, high school, and college students (some of whom reside in homeless shelters) through sustainable workshops offered by BK Style Foundation. During the Covid pandemic, these classes were conduct online–and more is plan for the future. In addition to promoting the awareness of sustainable environmental practices, another long-term goal is to increase the representation of historically underrepresented Black (HBCU), Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) in the fashion industry.
Rick is also excited about the forthcoming “Project Warehouse: Young Designers Competition” a TV show pitch, the pilot was shot with the support of Materials for the Arts. The project feature twenty-five high school and college students (aged 15 to 21) who competed to make the best outfits from the upcycled materials that they found in the warehouse. The competition is film for as a pitch to a major TV networks.
“Brooklyn is such an important area of New York, especially when it comes to the emergence of street style clothing which has really shaped the industry throughout the years,” Rick declared. “Manhattan adopts these styles, but the outer boroughs like Brooklyn start them and those young designers need to be recognized and their creativity encouraged and fostered.”