Queens and Kings in the fashion-conscious monarchy currently ruling the people are given an important message to convey that the days of non-inclusive rule are gone.
These were the cries heard around the world last week during Fairchild Media Group’s Diversity Forum, in a presentation that paid tribute to tragic Virgil Abloh and his contribution to increasing the visibility of Black designers and creatives in luxury fashion industry. The goal was to ensure that his contribution — as well as the work of other designers who bring new ideas and enthusiasm into the fashion industry doesn’t become the victim of the same kind of erasure that’s caused the majority of Black designer’s names out of the history books of fashion.
Regarding fashion, the panelists from the session entitled “Abloh and Beyond: What Black Leadership and Legacy Means for Fashion” agreed that it’s the fear hindering the industry from fully accepting the diversity it’s promised for the past two years.
“I think what fashion is afraid of, it’s losing control and power,” Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing told. “Sometimes fashion could be described as the monarchy. You have the queen and king, and then, the crowd. However, the reality is that the fashion industry has opened the way to what we refer to as inclusivity and, at this point, it begins to become an entire shift in the way we think about the authority of individuals, and what is the reason why they have these powers, and what does that power will be in the near future.”
Although Rousteing was in the directorship of Balmain before Abloh’s Louis Vuitton days, the former is still credited for being the champion of the Black contribution to fashion.
“Virgil clearly opened the mentality of fashion in many ways, not only with the idea of color, obviously, but the idea as well of bringing art to fashion and say[ing] that the art world, the art world is not a white world,” the artist declared. “And this, for me, was really important because I think sometimes, decades ago and still today, this world is so associated with one color and I think Virgil made it clear that the art world has no colors.”
While he’s worked at Balmain for the past ten years, Rousteing’s shade was not a topic of discussion at the fashion house, making the fight for inclusion and diversity even more difficult.
“People [only] started to realize that I’m Black since maybe three or four years,” the now prominent on social media pages to the public with his “Wonder Boy” Netflix documentary creative director of the show said. “It’s been 10 years since I’ve been appointed at Balmain, and every time that I was trying to bring the topic of a diversity of my skin color, I didn’t have the chance to.”
Rousteing, the designer for one of the top brands in France, said he was fighting for the right to display a more varied vision, with a diverse cast for campaigns and shows.
“When I was doing my campaigns, some stylists or let’s say some photographers, they refused some of my propositions because it was not respecting what they call a French luxury house ….It’s really hard in France to say there is racism because the French people will say there is no racism in the country,” said he stated. “I had to fight to explain my background, what I was pushing for.”
Victor Glemaud, chief executive officer and creative director of his namesake brand, is very familiar with the battle. The fight isn’t just for Black artists; the creator says that there is often a battle to establish their work as their name “so we can sell to these department stores, so we can dress these celebrities, so we can be a part of the system.”
“And fashion is very much a system and it is about network, it is about access,” Glemaud declared. “And as an individual who has been in fashion for many years, My brand is very brand new. The public isn’t sure of what I’m talking about and whether they recognize me or don’t know me, they are waiting to see what happens.'”
The world could have witnessed Glemaud’s fashion show for fall 2024 was a show of purely Black models, a concept that he described as an inspiration from the Senegalese movie “Black Girl.”
“Having the opportunity to show this — and I am not the first designer to show an all-Black cast of models — but it was personal,” Glemaud stated.
The world has changed, and we now live in an environment where Glemaud can be part of an all-black fashion show whereas, just a decade ago, Rousteing claimed agencies did not even have models to recommend when they sought the models. There’s a reason why the pace of progress has been slow, and the credit goes to Black creatives’ contribution is small: erasure played its role play.
This is one of the main reasons Jay Jaxon, once the chief designer of the French clothing house Jean-Louis Scherrer isn’t listed in the chronology of the house’s past within the biographical work “Jean-Louis Scherrer” by Jerome Savignon. It could also be responsible for the lack of acknowledgment of Hylan Booker’s name as one of the first Black fashion designers in Europe who was the designer in the House of Charles Frederick Worth in the late 1960s.
According to Brandice Daniel, the founder and the CEO of Harlem’s Fashion Row, the erasure of fashion is why Ann Lowe’s name will not be remembered by many who remember designers from the past. Lowe is the first African American to become a famous fashion designer, dressing the high-society ladies from the 1920s until the mid-century.
Mainly the fact that, as Daniel noted, “She did Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress. And when reporters asked her, “Who designed the dress? She responded with a color dressmaker ‘].”
“She was unable to benefit from that moment because the Kennedys didn’t grant her the opportunity to use that moment. In America is that they’ve called Black designers dressmakers for a long time to reduce their contribution,” Daniel said. “For so long, the word we use for Black designers has been dressmaker, so many incredible Black designers have been left out of American fashion history.”
And that’s because she spoke” of “who’s telling our stories.”
“The stories are written by white men and as long as our stories are written by the oppressor, you won’t hear from the people who were oppressed,” Daniel stated.
The reality and the aging-yet-heavily-relied-upon storyline of there not being enough Black designers to hire/work with/highlight/buy from is a narrative Daniel and Harlem’s Fashion Row are actively working against.
“There’s plenty of designers. We have databases of more than 2,000 designers who are color-blind,” the actress said. “So there’s nothing to be worried about in talent. I’d like to reiterate that over and. They are there. They exist. Virgil proved it. He was a talent that was not traditional. I would say that in this field will truly open doors you must consider the talent that isn’t traditional.”
This means looking at portfolios, ideas, and work as evidence of credibility instead of relying solely on which prestigious (read expensive) fashion school brought the talent. In this unsustainable pipeline, there’s still a lack of equality in economics afoot across the globe.
“I believe that it’s about the way we’re going do to the future Black creatives because we need to change the history of this country, and we need to make sure that we do this correctly. One way to accomplish this is to commit at minimum a 10-year commitment to this endeavor,” Daniel said. “We did not get to this point in two years. Brands have committed to various things that they’ve kept only to 2024. Some programs will run until 2025. I’m strongly encouraging brands to renew their commitments.
“Four years of doing the work and focusing on Black creatives and designers is not enough when we’ve had decades of this group being totally left out,” she added. “One of the things that Virgil did has he opened the door, so one of the things that I’m asking the fashion community to do is open the door.”
However, if you inquire about Rousteing, the door is already open, regardless of whether gatekeepers are ready to acknowledge and accept the fact or not.
The fact that fashion can’t be sustained with a coveted Eurocentric emphasis — aided mainly by the public display of social media, Rousteing stated, “happened three or four years ago” when people realized that fashion isn’t only dictated through magazines. People who buy these magazines are young, represent a new age, and look to break the rules. This isn’t just a matter of living in the last decade.
“When you start to listen to those people, you realize that the world is much bigger than the few kings and queens from fashion that have been there for decades,” said the man. “Fashion is, to put it simply, one thing, but it’s never very avant-garde. It’s always based on the old fashions.”
Where will the industry take us from now? It’s about focusing on the following opportunities so that the mistakes made in the past aren’t repeated. The accomplishments that are being lauded and celebrated by those who ignored them before do not fade to the side when the excitement of the post-George Floyd era fades.
This means developing the pipeline from starting point and giving youngsters fashion information and opportunities to get access to it, which is something Rousteing is currently implementing at Balmain.
“If you ask me, we should start from scratch and from fashion houses, press, starting to help, not only fashion schools because…those schools are really expensive, which starts to create another kind of topic, which is more politic[al] and trying to understand the condition of Black people in your own country,” he stated. “So it’s time to start the conversation with my president and my government however, this is only the first step in a genuine discussion, in which your race does not determine your pay. If your color doesn’t determine the kind of studies you will be able to do in the future. This is the start of a real discussion.”
Honest conversations will require honesty about what is happening and what they ought to be, a denial of inhomogeneous power, and an openness to recognize the potential wherever it shows.
“There are many, across the globe Black creatives who have the potential, and are able to work with agencies to develop and develop brands that last for a long time, and to work in-house to revive existing brands. This takes patience, commitment, and true collaboration. This isn’t something that can be accomplished in an era or calendar year.” Glemaud said. “It’s about the future, it’s about the new generation and it’s truly about the powers that be, the king and queens, the C-suite, people who control the money, understanding and investing the time and energy.”
As Rousteing put it, “Sometimes fashion, they like repetition and love to feel secure with what they’ve learned. When you begin to break it this is when fashion becomes fascinating.”
