The past months have been challenging for the fashion industry. After a global pandemic that already hit brutally the economy of this industry among the others, the death of George Floyd blew everything up catalyzing a moment of reckoning. Many black people started opening up about their experience in the fashion industry: being paid less than white people, get fewer opportunities, less promotions, micro-aggressions, being the only people of color in the office and much more.
Even though the racial problem of the fashion industry is not new (the fashion industry has been already accused of many racial episodes in the past) it seems that now something is moving within the system and there have been several initiatives launching over the past weeks to support the change. Last week Virgil Abloh announced the latest initiative among all the ones that have been founded over the past weeks. Find them all below:
Virgil Abloh $1 Million Scholarship Fund for Black American Creatives
Virgil Abloh’s Off-White and Louis Vuitton, announced via Instagram and to Vogue a new scholarship fund, worth an initial $1 million but with more to come, that will fund scholarships âfor students of academic promise of Black, African-American, or of African descent.â
Entitled the Virgil Abloh âPost-Modernâ Scholarship Fund, it has been endowed with financial contributions from Abloh himself, and further funding from his partners Louis Vuitton, Evian, and New Guards Group (the conglomerate of which Off-White is a member), as well as Farfetch. The Abloh Fund will be operated in partnership with the Fashion Scholarship Fund which has operated in the U.S. since 1937 to create opportunities for young American fashion creatives of all backgrounds.
Black in Fashion Council
Cofounded by publicist Sandrine Charles and Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner, the Black In Fashion Council is a collective of 400 creatives, editors, executives, models, stakeholders and stylists, and a nearly 40-person executive board that includes GQ deputy fashion editor Nikki Ogunnaike, Shiona Turini, as well as the founder of Harlemâs Fashion Row, Brandice Daniel, with a mission to advance Black talents at all levels in the fashion and beauty industry. âThis is about accountability culture, not a cancel culture,â explains Peoples Wagner to Forbes, referencing the contemporary practice of group shaming a public figure or group on social media after one has done something deemed offensive. The Council will ask industry stakeholders to pledge their commitment to change and then release a yearly public report with their scores; the first report is planned for June 2021.
Black Beauty and Fashion Collective
Law Roach, stylist of Zendaya and Celine Dion, designer Jason Rembert and hair stylist Lacy Redway cofounded the not-for-profit Black Beauty and Fashion Collective: a community of fashion and beauty creatives committed to directly influencing progression within the fashion and beauty industries and the black communityâ.
The group also wants to work with fashion and beauty companies to correct its diversity issues. Black stylists, makeup artists, photographers and other creatives aren’t afforded the same opportunities as their white counterparts, or are often subjected to discriminatory behavior (some stylists are not allowed to borrow all the pieces for their clients as white people) and tokenism behind the scenes.
15% Pledge
Aurora James, founder of the Brooklyn-based label Brother Vellies, founded 15 Percent Pledge, urging small and major retailers alike to dedicate at least 15 percent of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses. Some of the brands who have joined so far the initiative are Sephora, Rent the Runway, west elm…
CFDA initiatives
In June the CFDA announced its initiatives to support black creatives in the fashion industry:
- The CFDA will create an in-house employment program speciïŹcally charged with placing Black talent in all sectors of the fashion business to help achieve a racially balanced industry. This program will be tasked with identifying Black creatives and pairing these individuals with companies looking to hire.
- The CFDA will also create a mentorship program and an internship program focused on placing Black students and recent graduates within established companies in the fashion sector.
- The CFDA will implement and make available to our members a Diversity and Inclusion training program.
- We will make immediate contributions and take up fundraising activities in support of charitable organizations aimed at equalizing the playing ïŹeld for the Black community such as, but not limited to the NAACP and Campaign Zero â amongst others.
Kelly Initiative
For 250 fashion professionals, the CFDA is not doing enough so they have signed a petition, the Kelly Initiative ( named for Patrick Kelly, a Black designer who became the first American member of the Chambre Syndicale du PrĂȘt-Ă -Porter in 1988) put together by editor Jason Campbell, creative director Henrietta Gallina and writer Kibwe Chase-Marshall, urging the CFDA to revise its efforts.
As per Bof The Kelly Initiative group says that fashion has prioritised âoptics over the authentic pursuit of equityâ and says the CFDA has âallowed exploitative cultures of prejudice, tokenism, and employment discrimination to thrive, unbridled by the sort of watchdog intervention expected of an industry umbrella organization.â
The petition urges the CFDA to conduct an industry census to gather data on the racial makeup of employees at all levels of its member organisations, offer manager bias-mitigation training and ask its members to sign a pledge to create hiring opportunities for black professionals. The petition also demands that fashionâs headhunting and recruitment firms sign the same pledge and have their practices audited by a third party. After gathering the industry data, the petition proposes that the CFDA publish it on an annual basis to provide benchmarks and chart progress.
Are there other initiatives for fashion black creatives you know? Comment below
