A UCLA alumnus is threading his Afro-Latino identity through fashion and law.
Derrick Williams, who graduated from UCLA in 2025 and is now a law student at Texas Southern University, channels his multicultural background into his clothing brand and aspiration to be an attorney. Across both law and fashion, Williams said he hopes to encourage others to embrace all aspects of their identities, rather than feeling confined to one.
“I shouldn’t force myself to be in one category,” Williams said.
Williams said his upbringing in the foster care system largely influenced his relationship with his identity. His biological father is Honduran and Mexican, and his mother is Black. After being adopted into a Black family, Williams added that he had fewer opportunities to connect with his Latino heritage. But after transferring to UCLA, his dream school, he began to reconnect with his Latino identity through organizations like the Afro-Latinx Connection de UCLA, he said.
“UCLA comes with a lot of different walks of life – of different cultures, backgrounds, life stories – and, being someone who wants to practice law to where he can bridge that gap between communities, it just heightened what he already had,” said Edward Twum-Akwaboah III, a former coworker and close friend of Williams.
Today, Williams draws on his multiracial identity through his clothing brand, Prolific Aftermath.
[Related: ‘Every body is a Broadway body’: UCLA alum stitches identity into costume design]
Under the slogan “Changing negativity throughout,” Williams said he initially envisioned Prolific Aftermath as a Los Angeles-based brand but later realized he wanted to reach audiences around the world. Working with Afro-Latinx Connection de UCLA, Williams developed a line titled “Bridging the Diaspora” to highlight the multicultural identity at the heart of the brand.
Born and raised in Crenshaw, Williams said he hopes to counter negative media portrayals of the neighborhood by highlighting its beauty. His LA line, released with the slogan “Good things come out of Crenshaw,” aims to connect wearers with Crenshaw’s community, history and identity. The line includes a varsity jacket with the slogan across its chest and a t-shirt that features the phrase and an image of the neighborhood.
Summer Parr, a UCLA alumnus who met Williams during her second year at UCLA, said Williams’ willingness to help transcends his brand and career path. She described Williams as someone whom loved ones can turn to in any situation to receive advice or comfort. Parr shared a moment when Williams invited her and others to support a toy drive at their local church, where Williams dressed up as Santa to distribute gifts to children.
“He was on the front lines doing the work, and I think that really translates into all the other things he does within his life,” Parr said. “If it extends to law school or extends to his involvement in the church or his clothing brand, he’s on the front lines doing the work that’s important.”
Studying at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Williams said the school reflects many of the values that drew him to the profession in the first place. Williams said he considers Thurgood Marshall his favorite justice and lawyer, citing Marshall’s work advancing civil rights as an inspiration for his own aspirations in the legal field. Williams also said his studies have strengthened his entrepreneurial skills by giving him the legal foundations to run a business properly.
“Everything needs a legal foundation, even if you’re going into business,” Williams said. “So rather than hire somebody else to do it, I’m glad I’m learning the tools, so that in the future, if I do have somebody helping me out, I also know what’s going on.”
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Looking toward life after law school, Williams said he aspires to pursue public office.
“I just want to show the world that, even if you were dealt a bad hand as I was in the foster care system, or even when people try to shut you down … anything is possible,” Williams said. “All that matters is what you do when you get the opportunity.”
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