TRACEY BENDINGER | Culture | Contact
For the past few weeks plenty of fashion brands all across the world have been making the very public pledge to start and represent more people of colour in all of their communications, both in real life, print and online.
And while this is all well and good on the surface, The Advocate has obtained a recording from one of the town’s top fashion houses where its creative directors can be heard debating how long they have to wait until they can get back to using white-variant models.
[Person 1] “What, like, a month you reckon?”
[Person 2] “Ahh yeah I spose so? What are we supposed to do with the campaign we just shot though?”
[Person 1] “We’re gonna have to reshoot it, it’s going to cost so much money! God, I wish we didn’t have to do it right now”
As disgusting and shameful the recording is, this type of blatant racism is not foreign to the fashion industry.
Over the past week countless stories have surfaced highlighting just how widespread and common it is, even amongst well-known ‘ethical’ brands.
It’s been revealed that a much loved ‘boho’ brand has strict uniform standards that specify employees hair must be ‘soft, textured loose waves, or blow-dried straight’ which poses an issue for some women of colour if they want to wear their hair naturally.
The Advocate has reached out to the town’s fashion house, which we cannot name, for comment but our reporter is yet to hear back.
More to come.
