I had a meeting with a high street brand but the minute I walked in the room the energy changed...
In the fifth part of our compelling new series on black lives in Britain today, we hear how
American designer Telfar Clemens and recently shared a list of 100 black designers on social media, adds: “I put a call out on Insta and got flooded with all different kinds of brands. I even found a black-led gothic brand.”
On the fashion industry having a problem with racism, he says: “Tokenism is highly active. I feel like there is a glass ceiling to how far we can go, I know many black people who are super talented but they just haven’t been given the time of day.” Activewear designer
Bruce Oldfield and his No1 fan Princess Diana many feel underrepresented in fashion, adverts and on the big and small screen.
Dami Howells launched DAMIHOW (damihow.com) two years ago after seeing that there was very little representation of black women in fitness.
She says: “I found if you wanted to buy gym wear that was comfortable, that makes you look nice and motivated to go to the gym to do any type of workout, it wasn’t very stylish.”
While she is getting great feedback from her customers about the quality of her products
and the company’s customer service, getting exposure has been a challenge.
She adds: “When you reach out to non-black influencers to partner with, you don’t get a response.
“We need more support because everyone is used to buying from the brands they already know and they trust.
“But at the same time it’s refreshing for the community to see themselves being represented in a way that hasn’t happened before.”
Fashion lover Emma Mathurine, 39, often feels uninspired by the offerings on the high street, and unrepresented.
Emma, an accountant who also designs carnival costumes for Bel Dyes Mas (beldyesmas.com) says: “A lot of fashion does come from street culture, of varying ethnicities. If you look at London it’s that diversity that gives it colour but that’s not reflected in the mainstream. There’s a massive underrepresentation of people that look like me as a black Caribbean person.
“When you do see black women in advertising they’re usually mixed-race looking with the loose curly hair, and when you do see a darker-skinned woman, she’s always accompanied by a white model. It’s very prevalent in the fashion and beauty industry and it’s like a trend because it’s so widespread.”
It’s easy to hold up models Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn, and Adwoa Aboah as visible signs of progress but Phyllis insists more industry support is crucial to bring through black designers.
She adds: “We as British people don’t necessarily big up our brands.
“I don’t feel like I was held up by the industry, and when I look at other countries and they do that, maybe there’s a system in place that we don’t have.
“There’s a lot of brands that are bubbling – but you can only bubble for so long before you drop off.”