The Fashion Connector

By the time Mint to Be: The Feminine Body as Costume Art closed at Mint Museum Uptown in early June, it had already become one of Charlotte’s most talked-about style events of the year. The month-long exhibition, runway competition and fashion experience transformed the museum’s MINT5pace into an exploration of femininity, identity and self-expression. Inspired by the Met Gala’s 2026 “Costume Art” exhibit, the show paired curated works across mediums with mannequins that brought each interpretation to life.

That event cemented Perrine DeShield-Jenkins—better known in certain circles as “Professor P”—as one of the city’s most compelling fashion voices.

At 37, DeShield-Jenkins balances life as a professor of luxury and fashion management at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with work as an event curator, stylist and owner of Eclecs Creative Agency in Charlotte. Somehow she makes it all look effortless.

“My husband and I are still based in Charlotte,” she explains. “With Mint to Be, I came back and forth between Charlotte and Savannah.”

Professor P spends the fall quarter teaching at SCAD’s Lacoste campus in France, winters teaching virtually from Charlotte and spring at the flagship campus in Savannah.

“(Last fall), I got my students backstage to the Thom Browne fashion show, and I think that made me the coolest professor of all time,” she says with a grin. “I just have to figure out how to up that this year.”

The world of academia was a natural fit for DeShield-Jenkins, who grew up in Greensboro, the youngest of six children born to Liberian parents. Her mother was an elementary school teacher, and her father, who previously served as a dean in Liberia, later taught agriculture and agronomy at North Carolina A&T State University.

“I grew up on a college campus,” she says. “My love for school really started when I was 4.”

She studied journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then headed to Atlanta for an internship with CNN. After the late 2000s recession hit, she stepped away from the newsroom and moved home to reset.

“I always loved fashion,” she says. “That’s been my constant. If I could fuse the business side with the fashion industry, that’s what I wanted to do.”

Back in Greensboro, she worked in retail, launched a community fashion organization and produced runway shows. The portfolio she built helped her earn a spot in SCAD’s Master of Fine Arts program in luxury and fashion management. She chose SCAD’s Atlanta campus for its internship opportunities, landing roles at both Neiman Marcus and Atlanta magazine.

After an internship with fashion brand BCBGMAXAZRIA in New York, she took a job at Belk and moved to Charlotte, where she spent eight years working in nearly every corner of the company. She launched Culture Shop, a boutique highlighting underrepresented communities, rolled out Black History Month programming, and helped pioneer influencer marketing, experiential events and livestream shopping.

Then, in 2022, SCAD called. They wanted DeShield-Jenkins to come back as a professor.

“I would have never guessed I’d be a professor at that point in my career,” she says. “I kept thinking, ‘Am I qualified? Do I have enough lived experience to offer these students?’”

Turns out she did.

“I don’t like to say I’m the ‘cool professor’ like ‘I’m the cool mom,’” she says, laughing, “but I’m able to level with my students. We talk about trending topics and news before every class. I ask them, ‘What stopped your scroll today?’ I incorporate TikToks, and I remind them to touch grass. I meet them where they are.”

After being both a student and now a professor at the art school, she’s learned to spot a SCAD-trained creative almost instantly.

“Even at Belk, when I would get interns, I could look at their work and say, ‘They’re from SCAD, aren’t they?’” she says. “It’s just a different level of work, production and detail.”

It’s the same dedication she brings to projects like Mint to Be.

“I truly hope the events that I touch allow people to appreciate fashion at the high art level that it is,” she says. “I’m excited to see how Mint to Be can evolve and grow, and I want to partner with as many artists and designers as I can. I want to give creatives a platform, compensation and visibility. That’s a big part of the legacy I want to leave behind.”