Applying energy from current activist efforts to improve the lives and safety of black people, Teen Vogue editor in chief Lindsey People Wagner and publicist Sandrine Charles have announced the formation of Black in Fashion Coalition, an organization that will launch in July 2020.
According to Business of Fashion, the organization has established a membership of 400 Black editors, models, stylists and executives who have joined forces to address systemic racism and discrimination in the fashion and beauty industries.
The organization’s efforts are described by Wagner as changing the dialogue from “cancel culture to accountability culture.”
The Black in Fashion coalition is backed by more than 35 board members from different parts of the industry, including GQ deputy fashion director Nikki Ogunnaike, vice president of brand and culture engagement at Gucci Antoine Phillips, KCD director Tenique Bernard, IMG agent Ethan Miller, Cosmopolitan beauty director Julee Wilson, and Saks Fifth Avenue Vice president Jamillah Davis Hernandez.
For its first endeavor, the organization is asking fashion companies to pledge to work with the group for at least the next three years to help build a Quality Index Score reflecting black employee representation and other factors.
Modeled after the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, the index will be published as a yearly report on the industry with plans for the first edition to release in June 2021.
