Blue Jacket Fashion to Debut at LA Fashion Week to Drive National Conversation About Racial Disparities and Equity in Men's Health and Prostate Cancer

Inaugural LA Runway Event to Feature Appearances by Rodney Peete & Holly Robinson Peete, Omar Sharif Jr., Carl Clemons, Eric West, Harold Perrineau, Michael Richards, John Hill, Joey Zauzig, Eric Stanton Betts, Young Paris, Paul Telfer, Robert Scott Wilson, Marshall Glaze, Marc Malkin, Kinyumbia Mutakibbir and Fashion designer & Founder Frederick Anderson, and many more.

Dressed by top designers, including, NN07, Arjano Collection, Bonnie Young, Bugatchi, Elle Balleh, Epperson, Magpies & Peacocks, Paisley & Gray, Perry Ellis, Ruben & Chapelle, The Salting, Stephen-F, Terry Singh and Urban Zen.

Wednesday, November 13th, 2024, 6:00 PM PST 

Los Angeles, California  – October 24, 2024 – The renowned Blue Jacket Fashion Show will continue to elevate prostate cancer awareness by hosting its first-ever Los Angeles (LA) Fashion Week event. Founded by fashion designer Frederick Anderson, the Blue Jacket Fashion Show has hosted eight annual fashion shows in New York City. This year will mark the first West Coast show, kicking off LA Fashion Week at 6 pm, Wednesday, November 13, 2024, at W Hollywood. 

Sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, The Blue Jacket Fashion Show brings top celebrities and media together to engage in a national conversation about men’s health and prostate cancer awareness among communities of color. The event benefits the nation’s leading nonprofit dedicated to prostate cancer advocacy, awareness, and patient support, ZERO Prostate Cancer and supports Johnson & Johnson’s efforts to elevate awareness and raise funding to support the prostate cancer community to help improve early detection and accelerate earlier treatment to reduce deaths. 

Embracing the local LA community, the Blue Jacket Fashion Show provides a platform to highlight the impact of prostate cancer on Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander men, for whom it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the fifth-leading cause of death,^1,2 while continuing to spread awareness among Black and Latino men. Black men are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed and die from prostate cancer than White men.

Designers, such as NN07, Arjano Collection, Bonnie Young, Bugatchi, Elle Balleh, Epperson, Magpies & Peacocks, Paisley & Gray, Perry Ellis, Ruben & Chapelle, The Salting,  Stephen-F, Terry Singh, and Urban Zen will reimagine the traditional “blue jacket” that the models will wear down the runway.  Fashion Group International, worldwide membership organization of industry leaders in the fashion, beauty, lifestyle and retail sectors, assisted in curating the brands, including Singh, recipient of the FGI President’s 2024, The Salting and Epperson, Rising Star award recipients in 2024 and 2021.

“It’s time for men – especially men of color – to drop the taboo and have conversations about their health and prostate. These conversations with our friends, family and doctors can help us all live healthier and longer lives,” said fashion designer and Founder of Blue Jacket Fashion Show, Frederick Anderson. “I’m proud to say that The Blue Jacket Fashion Show, since its inception eight years ago, has sparked these conversations and provided free prostate cancer screening opportunities, with the ultimate goal of saving lives.”

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among American men and is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in men.³ In 2024, almost 300,000 men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis, and more than 35,000 men will die from the disease.³ Men of color are at a higher risk when it comes to prostate cancer:

• The incidence of prostate cancer is about 70% higher in Black men than in white men.⁴
• It is the most common cancer diagnosis among Latino men, with more than 22,900 diagnosed cases per year in the US.⁴ 
• Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) men are more likely to present with higher-grade and later-stage disease than White Americans due to fewer screenings and diagnostic opportunities.⁵ 

For all men, having a father, brother or family history increases the risk of prostate cancer.³

Conversations about screening and past cancer diagnoses among at-risk communities can translate to more Black, Latino and AANHPI men getting screened, diagnosed and treated. The priority is to encourage men to stay on track with regular prostate cancer screenings as part of their healthcare routine to help them be the best version of themselves they can be – for themselves, their families, and their communities.

“Prostate cancer is too often diagnosed at later and more aggressive stages and continues to disproportionately impact men of color.^4,5,6 At J&J, we seek to challenge the status quo to reach more people with needed information about this disease, and the Blue Jacket Fashion Show continues to be an innovative and unique platform to help us deliver on this commitment,” said Biljana Naumovic, President, US Oncology, Solid Tumor, Johnson & Johnson. “We are thrilled to continue our exclusive support of this now bicoastal program, and to partner with ZERO Prostate Cancer, a powerful ally with a shared mission of igniting action and improving outcomes.”

“ZERO Prostate Cancer is proud to be the charity partner of The Blue Jacket Fashion Show, which has enabled us to amplify prostate cancer awareness and disease education so that all men, regardless of race, can benefit from earlier detection and treatment of prostate cancer,” said Sherí Barros, ZERO Prostate Cancer’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. “High-profile events like this play a critical role in encouraging men to speak with their doctors about their health and can bring us closer to eliminating racial disparities and barriers to healthcare in the larger community.”

“We’re excited to partner with the iconic Blue Jacket Fashion Show as they make their debut at LA Fashion Week. By merging fashion and talent, we proudly back their ongoing mission to raise awareness about prostate cancer.” —Ciarra Pardo, Co-Founder N4XT Experiences, President LAFW

ZERO Prostate Cancer is committed to ending racial and health disparities in prostate cancer and plays a crucial role in focusing on education and early detection, clinical trial advocacy, and financial assistance and patient support. For donations made November 1 – December 1, 2024, Johnson & Johnson will match those donations up to $10,000. Visit ZERO Prostate Cancer to learn more about and donate to our mission to eliminate prostate cancer.

About The Blue Jacket Initiative
Frederick Anderson founded the Blue Jacket Fashion Show in 2016 to create a platform to openly discuss men’s health issues with an emphasis on cancer education, early detection, prevention, and treatment options.

About Johnson & Johnson
At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/ or at www.janssen.com/johnson-johnson-innovative-medicine. Follow us at @JanssenUS and @JNJInnovMed. 

About ZERO Prostate Cancer

ZERO Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer and help all who are impacted. ZERO advances research, provides support, and creates solutions to achieve health equity to meet the most critical needs of our community. From early detection to survivorship, ZERO is the premier resource for prostate cancer patients and their families to access comprehensive support, make meaningful connections, and take action to save lives. Our dedicated national and chapter staff is joined with a growing team of passionate volunteer champions to increase advocacy, awareness, and community engagement to ZERO out prostate cancer. ZERO is recognized with four out of four stars by Charity Navigator and accredited by the Better Business Bureau. ZERO spends more on programs than any other prostate cancer charity, dedicating 85 cents of every dollar to support, education, and research. For more information, visit zerocancer.org.

About N4XT Experiences:

N4XT Experiences is a live-event company and the owner of LA Fashion Week, Los Angeles' signature fashion event. N4XT Experiences has transformed LA Fashion Week into a platform for distinctive physical and digital immersive experiences under the reimagined LAFW brand and, in addition, will shortly be launching BEAUTYDAYS, a globally-touring festival celebrating beauty, health and wellness.  N4XT Experiences is dedicated to championing innovation, technology, sustainability, and inclusion within the fashion and beauty industries.

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MEDIA CONTACTS:

Shawn Purdy | Ida Bo Frazier  – SLATE PR
shawn@slate-pr.com | ida@slate-pr.com 

Isadora Forman – Inizio Evoke Comms
isadora.forman@evokegroup.com

References:

1. ZERO Prostate Cancer Facts and Statistics. Available from: https://zerocancer.org/about-prostate-cancer/facts-statistics

2. Torre, LA et al. “Cancer statistics for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, 2016: Converging incidence in males and females.” CA: a cancer journal for clinicians vol. 66,3 (2016): 182-202. doi:10.3322/caac.21335. Accessed August 2024.

3. ZERO Prostate Cancer Facts and Statistics. Available from: https://zerocancer.org/about-prostate-cancer/facts-statistics

4. ZERO Prostate Cancer Facts and Statistics. Available from: https://zerocancer.org/about-prostate-cancer/facts-statistics

5. Deuker, M., Stolzenbach, L.F., Pecoraro, A. et al. PSA, stage, grade and prostate cancer specific mortality in Asian American patients relative to Caucasians according to the United States Census Bureau race definitions. World J Urol 39, 787–796 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-020-03242-8. Accessed August 2024.

6. Lowder D, et al. Racial disparities in prostate cancer: A complex interplay between socioeconomic inequities and genomics. Cancer Lett. 2022 Apr 10;531:71-82. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2022.01.028. Epub 2022 Feb 3. PMID: 35122875; PMCID: PMC9701576. Accessed August 2024.