Adam Naylor may be the first North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University student to intern at Tiffany & Co.’s landmark store, but he hopes he won’t be the last.
“That is my goal,” said Naylor, who graduated this month with a bachelor’s in fashion merchandising and design from the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences. “I really want to be able to help the next gen of fashion students here to be able to have the resource. I don’t want to open up the door and then it falls shut again.”
The 24-year-old became interested in the fashion industry after his grandmother, who quilted, began teaching him how to sew as a little boy.
“The wisdom and knowledge and skills that she instilled in me at such a young age — and that my parents and peers were able to nurture and develop — has gotten me here. I don’t think she would have ever imagined that,” the Winston-Salem native said of his grandmother.
“She knows the shy little boy I used to be, that was scared to even interact with family at family reunions,” said Naylor, who signed with a modeling agency two years ago and was recently profiled in THEME. The fashion magazine described him as “more than just a model — he is a presence” who carries an “energy that feels both timeless and distinctly modern.”
Naylor started out at Western Carolina University but didn’t feel like he fit in — and the COVID pandemic made him feel even more isolated. So he transferred to A&T in the fall of 2021.
Becoming an Aggie transformed him into someone who is outgoing and loves being around people, he said.
“The right nurturing, the right guidance from my professors and my advisors and other peers — it’s really just showed me what I can be and what I can do,” Naylor said.
Naylor’s mentor, Elizabeth Newcomb Hopfer, Ph.D., associate professor in the Fashion Merchandising and Design program, said he initially struggled when he came into the program.
“And then, I think he just decided, ‘I can do better than this,’” she said. “He's very talented, but he has that drive and determination, and just resiliency.”
After interviewing Naylor, Newcomb Hopfer said Tiffany & Co. managers were so impressed they created a position specifically for him on the creative visual merchandising team at Tiffany’s Midtown Manhattan store.
“I was in charge of all nine floors, doing all the jewelry case lines and all the window displays and setting up for high-value clients,” Naylor said. "At any given moment, I would be moving stuff around — it would be like $12 million worth of just diamonds.”
Bachelor’s degree in hand, Naylor looks forward to using his creativity in whatever he does.
“I’m really aiming for roles where I can use my eye for design and storytelling — whether that’s creative visual merchandising at Tiffany & Co., runway and modeling opportunities, content creation or other creative direction and branding,” he said.
