
Dr. Rajeev Fernando at New York Fashion Week
Season 2025 Episode 12 | 2m 38sVideo has Closed Captions
Rajeev Fernando is a physician who uses his passion for fashion to fuel change.
Dr. Rajeev Fernando is a humanitarian, disaster medicine specialist and a fashion designer. The designer shares insights into his work and the significance of showing pieces at New York Fashion Week.
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ALL ARTS Dispatch is a local public television program presented by WLIW PBS

Dr. Rajeev Fernando at New York Fashion Week
Season 2025 Episode 12 | 2m 38sVideo has Closed Captions
Dr. Rajeev Fernando is a humanitarian, disaster medicine specialist and a fashion designer. The designer shares insights into his work and the significance of showing pieces at New York Fashion Week.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Dr. Rajeev: You know, amongst the shows I've been to around the world, everything is different.
Paris tends to be a little bit more mellow and things like that.
But there is no show like New York City.
I love that.
♪♪ The concept of my designs are quite simply love.
Love makes the world go round.
We know this, and I'm hoping my designs can create that atmosphere.
It's based on my concept of humanizing fashion.
The focus for me is to mitigate child trafficking.
For me, in this next phase of life, I really want to be able to get more aid for people, which is why we're connecting with Hollywood, we're connecting with the music industry.
One of our best victories the United States has done is USAID was just brilliant, what they did.
We had the PEPFAR program.
It was just wonderful.
But now, not only are you just withdrawing these drugs, which are life saving, the other thing which is very important is research.
I mean, we have so many trials going on all over the world, and if this funding is stopped, it's going to be very devastating.
So as a healthcare professional, I'm deeply concerned.
And that's why I think we have to look for alternative ways to come up to make money.
He has his jacket, especially the pink jacket where he helps for human trafficking in Colombia.
And that's something very admirable.
♪♪ Dr. Rajeev: People in America, we tend to ignore foreign crises.
But think about the world.
We are all human beings.
A lot of us are more privileged.
But think about the underprivileged.
We're all the same.
The same heart, the same soul.
But some people have it much more difficult.
I know I'm amongst hundreds of thousands of fashion designers and probably way more talented than me, but what brings you into the focus is what is your X factor?
What makes you stand out from other people?
And that's what I ask all of you young designers out there to look in the mirror and say, where can you, you know, make a difference?
What are you doing for mankind, for humanity?
How do you incorporate these traits with your fashion into that?
It's a wonderful feel.
I'm sure all of us have it within ourselves, and we'll go from there.
♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
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ALL ARTS Dispatch is a local public television program presented by WLIW PBS