15 per cent pledge is long overdue
Canadian retailers have failed to represent the country’s diversity
The 15 Percent Pledge is a simple, direct request: that the racks and shelves of American retailers, including Target and Shopbop, proportionately represent the country’s Black population. It started as a call on Instagram by Aurora James, the Toronto-born, New-York-based designer of hit accessories line Brother Vellies. Within weeks, it has become a movement. And it has arrived in Canada.
“As a business owner, and during this pandemic, I am especially torn up by how much Black businesses are suffering,” says James. “I believe this pledge is one way major retailers can work on beginning to take steps toward financial equality. Black people spend millions of dollars with large retailers every year yet represent an insignificant fraction of how these companies allocate their purchasing power.”
The pledge is about equity, recognition and financial opportunities for BIPOC-helmed brands, but it starts with doing the math — the elemental, unglamorous task of going through retailers’ brand lists and calculating how many (or, more accurately, how few) are owned and operated by persons of colour.
Mosha Lundstrom Halbert is a Canadian editor, journalist and designer of outerwear brand Therma Ko ta and friend and longtime supporter of James. She was keen to help bring the pledge to Canada because “it is the responsibility of white people to do the work here to try and help create space for Black and Indigenous brands.” With the help of a group of journalism students, Lundstrom Halbert spent a week going through more than 3,600 brands carried at Canada’s fashion and beauty retailers to reveal the diversity of their stock. These findings were published in an op-ed in the Star last week.
Numbers don’t lie, and Lundstrom Halbert’s tallies revealed some sad truths. Out of Holt Renfrew’s 282 brands, three were Black-owned and zero Indigenous-run. At Simons, which carries a total of 510 brands, seven designers are Black and three are Indigenous. On the womenswear side of luxury site Ssense, 17 are Black and zero are Indigenous out of a total of 409. And at Hudson’s Bay, nine Black designers are carried along with just one Indigenous label out of a whopping 1,822. Despite operating in a country where diversity and inclusion are frequently favourably compared to that of our neighbours across the border, these figures leave very little for us to hide behind.
James, who admitted to not being surprised at Canada’s numbers, stresses the need for the country’s retail powers to step up. “We need businesses that have a big economic influence, such as Holt Renfrew, Loblaws, Shopper’s Drug Mart, Ssense and Hudson’s Bay to seek out and invest in brands they may have previously turned a blind eye to,” says James.
She notes that this retail support can lead to bigger wins for designers down the line. “The support from these major retailers will help these brands grow when they are seeking outside investment or when they are walking into a bank to apply for a loan.”
The pledge came with a poignant deadline for retailers to reach out: Canada Day. “They need to accept where they are at, own it and figure out how they got there. Then, they need to commit to achieving a minimum of 15 per cent, set a deadline and be held accountable,” says James. “It could take a few years, but we are here to help lay out that plan and strategy.” James shares that a few brands have reached out to work on next steps.
When reached for comment, Holt Renfrew shared the same statement as the one posted on its Instagram account.
The luxury department store has “set up ongoing listening groups so that all our employees can be heard and open opinions shared. Advisory groups focused on Diversity and Inclusion are being set up within the business both internationally and locally.”
Holts plans on sharing a “wellinformed” plan with customers and the community by the end of summer. Hudson’s Bay’s statement shared that the retailer has set up a task force that will “build a road map touching all aspects of our business, from our leadership and recruitment, to the products we sell, the vendors we work with, the charities we support, the content we create and all other facets of our business.”
Simons, the Quebec Citybased department store that recently released a capsule collection with eight Indigenous designers, declined to comment and at the time of writing. Requests to Ssense have gone unanswered.
Still, Lundstrom Halbert is optimistic. “The Canadian conscience is good, and I think that the people, the powers that be, are going to come to the table and do the right thing here. How could they not? We’re really at a pivotal point in this movement.”
Genuine change doesn’t happen overnight, and it takes work. And the pledge is not about putting pressure on any one pillar of a retailer’s corporate structure, but looking at the big picture. Lundstrom Halbert, who worked as an assistant fashion director at Hudson’s Bay, believes in the topdown approach.
“Having learned a little bit about the retail infrastructure, it needs to come from the key company executives, then down to the planners, then the buyers, who, by the way, are paid very well in order to be aware of what’s in the market.”
For James, change requires an active commitment.
“It might be a struggle for a smaller brand to meet the demand of a retailer like Holt
Renfrew, but with time, interest and investment in helping these brands to grow, they can get there.”
And as for all of us — the shoppers and lovers of fashion and beauty — let’s not wait for these retailers and their task forces and listening groups. Sign the pledge’s petition (15percentpledge.ca) and “take the pledge personally and then look at your own spending,” says Lundstrom Halbert.
Canada’s retail power players boast histories that span hundreds of years, they prop up their owners’ dynasties and hold major control over our access to fashion and beauty goods.
They are the gatekeepers, the curators, the arbiters. But their stores’ assortment and internal structures reveal that they are no longer the leaders. And if they ever want to be worthy of that title again, they must put in the work.
It’s not like they haven’t been shown the way.