Update (August 4, 2020):
A little over a month after the initiative was first unveiled on June 24, Lindsay Peoples Wagner and Sandrine Charles’s Black in Fashion Council (BIFC) has announced the first 38 companies that have pledged to join the initiative.
As reported by Vogue on August 3, companies joining BIFC’s mission range from model agencies like DNA and Heroes Model Management to retail giants such as Farfetch and Moda Operandi and publishing entities like Condé Nast, Fashionista and Man Repeller. Major corporations like L’Oréal and PVH Corp. have also committed to BIFC’s cause, as have a multitude of fashion and beauty brands that include Brandon Maxwell, Glossier, and Universal Standard.
“Brands have pledged a commitment to work with the Black in Fashion Council for the next three years and work with the Human Rights Campaign to put policies into practice further to demonstrate their commitment to Black employees at all levels,” the BIFC wrote in a statement. “Executive board members will be having conversations with industry stakeholders starting in August 2020 to allow brands to fully understand the complex ways in which we all need to commit to making inclusivity the lens in which we see everything, and have the opportunity to rise to the occasion of making changes over the next three years as we know this is a process that takes time. The BIFC will release generalized cumulative results in the fall of 2021, giving insight into the progress that the industry has seen.”
Per Vogue, the BIFC has also announced it is accepting membership applications at assistant and senior levels, priced at $50 and $100 respectively. Members will have access to the council’s full programming and subcommittees.
Check out the full list of companies (in alphabetical order) below:
Athleta
Banana Republic
BFA
Birchbox
Brandon Maxwell
Browns
CAA
Calvin Klein
Cartier North America
Condé Nast
Depop
DNA Model Management
Everlane
Fashionista
Farfetch
Fred Segal
GAP
Glossier
Heroes Model Management
Hill City
Hunt & Gather
Intermix
Janie and Jack
Jeffries Group
L’Oréal
Man Repeller
Moda Operandi
Myra Swim
Old Navy
Prabal Gurung
PVH Corp.
Stadium Goods
Tamara Mellon brand
Tiffany & Co.
The Knot Worldwide
The RealReal
Tommy Hilfiger
Universal Standard
Previously (June 25, 2020):
Following the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others, the fashion industry is taking strides to address racism in its community. On June 24, Lindsay Peoples Wagner, editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, and Sandrine Charles launched the Black in Fashion Council as one of the main initiatives that aim to bring diversity, inclusion, and accountability to the industry.
“The Black in Fashion Council was founded to represent and secure the advancement of black individuals in the fashion and beauty industry," the Black in Fashion Council's homepage reads. "As a collective, we envision a world in which black people in fashion and beauty spaces can be open and honest, guaranteed equal rights, and be celebrated for our voices.”
As part of the project, the duo partnered with the Human Rights Campaign to create an equality index score that will measure corporate policies and practices "pertinent to the inclusivity of Black employees." The Black in Fashion Council will release a yearly public report that documents the work of brands who have pledged a three-year commitment to anti-racism across their company.
“Lindsay and I honestly just wanted to set up time to align with our peers — senior people in fashion and beauty — to see where they were at," Sandrine told Vogue. Collectively, we wanted to have this kind of opportunity or hub for everyone to express themselves, to create guidelines of how we all want to work.”
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“We’d like everybody to participate; we don’t want to segment based on larger brands or smaller brands," she added. "We really want this to be a collective of everyone, so we built out an industry standard of what we want diversity and inclusion to look like moving forward.”
“What sets us apart is we want to show that we’re in solidarity with you, we want to not only support your group but empower you with resources that you may or may not have. That’s really important: to have a network of people that are working for the same good with egos aside,” said Sandrine.
Notably, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), currently helmed by Tom Ford, is in support of this program. The initiative comes at a pivotal time when America is discovering how to sustainably promote anti-racism on a corporate level, including fashion.
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