LUXURY FASHION CHALLENGED TO CONFRONT RACIST ATTITUDES

When luxury fashion lined up social media posts to show solidarity with Black Lives Matters protests, brands got a whole lot of blowback.

US actor Tommy Dorfman, who appears in a recent campaign for Salvatore Ferragamo, called out the Italian luxury brand for what Dorfman called a "homophobic and racist work environment”. And ordinary Instagram followers piled on, challenging fashion houses to do more than post a black square on their virtual real estate, to instead make runways, magazine covers, boardrooms and creative studios living showcases of diversity.

Global fashion brands have faced racial backlashes in the past, notably in the wake of scandals like the Gucci knitwear recalling blackface, Prada's Little Black Sambo bag charm and Dolce & Gabbana's antiAsian comments.

The US protests against systemic racism, which are spreading around the globe, are also putting the spotlight on the fashion world in its role as a cultural beacon, and emboldening insiders — some with lucrative deals that of ten assume their discretion — to speak up.

''People have the fire under their bottoms,'' said Tamu McPherson, an American content creator based in Milan who collaborates with top luxury brands. McPherson has been working with luxury brands in Milan, Paris and New York since 2013, contributing to digital campaigns, story-telling and in-house diversity training. ''For years, they did not want to listen. Now they are listening because of the pandemic and the shocking murders we could all pay attention to, because there were not any distractions. This is the moment,” she said.

The pushback against the industry has had some early results. Munroe Bergdorf, who was sacked as L'Oreal UK's first openly transgender model in 2017 for decrying ''the racial violence of white people,'' has now accepted a role as consultant on the UK Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board to help ''influence and inform the brand”.' The offer came af ter she highlighted the hypocrisy of the beauty company's June 1 statement that it "stands in solidarity with the Black community, and against injustice of any kind...Speaking out is worth it."

The Fashion Spot, which has been tracking diversity on runways and magazine covers, has reported progress since launching its surveys in 2015. New York and London have led in diversity, while Paris and Milan tend to lag.

This time, the reckoning has gone to the fashion world's highest levels. Anna Wintour has apologised in an internal email for not doing enough to elevate Black voices and publishing images and stories that have been racially and culturally ''hurtful and intolerant'' during her 32year tenure at Vogue. Her comments came as Samira Nasr was named the first editor-in-chief of colour in the 153-year history of US Harper's Bazaar.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell — the first Black woman to appear on the cover of French Vogue — is publicly calling for equal pay for models of colour and more representation generally, while acknowledging that in the past she has chosen to deal privately with such issues.