Fashion...

“Fashion is the mirror of the times; you can define an era by the clothes”. - Anna Sui, 

Fashion, although a large part of my life, has always been a tough pill to swallow. Learning and writing about the art of fashion is a passion of mine but the more I research, the more disappointed I get. In the words of Anna Sui, [fashion is the mirror of the times] and in light of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain and countless others at the hands of police brutality and systematic racism as well as the Black Lives Matter movement, I believe that right now these social issues need to be discussed.

You’re probably expecting me to tell you about the time that I was racially profiled in a Louis Vuitton store but I’m just a name on an extremely long list of names that have been racially profiled in high fashion stores, this discussion shouldn’t be about the measures that brands should be taking because it’s unfortunate that in 2020, we have to educate people on how treat black people and people of colour and how not to assume that we are going to steal their merchandise.

In the peak of Black Lives Matter movement this year, people’s eyes have been on businesses. The whole world closely watched to see if they had followed through with their responses to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain and the ongoing discrimination that walks hand in hand with the fashion industry. As expected, fashion brands were chomping at the bit to say that they stand with black communities and support the Black Lives Matter movement. It was hysterical seeing companies post statements all over their social media platforms on how they support black lives, that are also infamous offenders of racism and discrimination in clothing designs and ad campaigns as well as day-to-day racial profiling in their stores. Do they actually support the black community, or did they realize that silence is bad for business? If you’re known for producing your clothes in sweatshops in third world countries that may consist of slave and child labourers, I don’t think you have any place to say that you stand for any human rights issue, but we appreciate the social responsibility for once.

Anthropologie posted a Maya Angelou quote which is believed to have had a very “All lives matter” tone, especially as it did not accompany a black lives matter hashtag. Whether or not they were for the movement, they’re previous accounts of racism didn’t help their case. Soon after posting it, they were called out for their hypocrisy as former employees nationwide revealed that they were required to use the secret discriminatory, code name, “Nick” as black customers entered the store. All locations across North America were required to watch black customers as well as use this code name.

They aren’t the only brand that was called out for having codes for black customers, repeat racist offender Zara used code “special order”, then of course there’s Versace’s “D410” which also happens to be the colour code for their black. Extra points of creativity. 

George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s brutal murders was the final straw that broke the camel's back, the world has been in reformation since. It’s about time that the fashion industry does better, and not just for publicity's sake.