Are We Surprised Fashion Labels Are Being Exposed For Racism?
Photo: via Diet Prada
Written by Cassell Ferere
I Just Find It Funny How...
Many fashion brands have been attuned to the current ethnic issues that have been boiling America's blood causing nationwide and worldwide protests. With that, recently, a lot of fashion brands are also aware of their part in being silent about the inequalities faced by Black people and people of color.
We See You
Brands like Reformation and L'Oreal took to social media and expressed their solidarity with protesters posting empathizing quotes and images. But many of those same companies have had underlying racist issues.
Instagram account Diet Prada has collectively displayed the contradictions behind some of these fashion brand names. Using their social media accounts to share their thoughts and feelings in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, a sense of pander appeared evident.
We may have forgotten that the fashion industry has excluded black people and people of color for decades. Things may be different in facade today and issues may have subsided. But isolated incidents seemingly reveal a history of micro-aggressions and a larger more systemic neglect, ignorant behavior, and rhetoric of the hardships black people and people of color have faced.
Feeling Left Out
Historically black people have been left out of the conversation in partaking in fashion directly or indirectly. And fashion brands have tarnished their reputations from time to time trying to create awe-moments that and up being derogatory.
Black people are already forced to have to look to a lot of these brands to seek or maintain employment, and that we tend to shop at their stores which often lack diversity in staff and the brand image, just to point out. Let's be clear, fashion brands priors to this decade were reluctant to sew streetwear into their fabric, not wanting to be associated with the urban cultural market.
Not surprisingly, these brands want to seem on-trend, showing support to the Black Lives Matter movement with disingenuous attempts on their social media accounts.
Photo: via Diet Prada
Indirectly, protesters turned rioters looted a lot of these luxury brands' flagship stores across the country, resisting the corporate machine.
They Shall Be Heard
Fashion has had a long history of muting the voices and appearance of Black people, as seen in their high gloss advertisements down to their retail store associates.
Several fashion insiders have stepped forward exposing the internal ethnic issues that corrupt the fashion industry unknowingly to the public. They have come forward to call out the contradictions in the work environments and their public image.
In a luxury store in Zurich, Switzerland during her shopping experience, Oprah was told that a handbag "was too expensive" for her. Oprah soon received an apology from the Swiss tourist board office for being denied the attempt to purchasing of a $38,000 Tom Ford handbag.
That same year, a young black man was accused of using a stolen debit card when purchasing a $350 Ferragamo belt at Barney's luxury department store in New York City. Being detained by police in the process, he later returned the belt.
These examples are a reflection of what the fashion market breeds from the top down. And it is a reflection of how America has an embedded top-down racist structure and systemic oppression. Both are serious problems that hold back entire generations of people from prosperity and success.
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