Luxury fashion challenged to confront racism
MILAN » When luxury fashion lined up social media posts to show solidarity with Black Lives Matters protests, brands got a whole lot of blowback.
Transgender model and actress Munroe Bergdorf jumped on L’Oreal’s #BlackoutTuesday posts to accuse the beauty brand of hypocrisy for having fired her three years ago when she complained about racism in strong language. U.S. 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 U.S 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 often 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. “Their stories are strong and their voices are being heard. If they industry ignores them, they can be kept accountable. Everyone is sharing, and corroborating, their stories.”
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.
“In seven years, I am still one of the only black people invited into those spaces. That is unacceptable,” said McPherson, who urged greater racial inclusion in a letter posted June 6 on her “All the Pretty Birds” website, in which she described the fashion industry as “steeped in racism, anti-Blackness and white privilege.”
“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.
Ferragamo courted criticism when it responded to the protests with a post that said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.”
Dorfman shot back that people at the fashion house “have said heinous, transphobic, body phobic and racist things directly to me. I called them out every time and they promised to change.”
A person close to Ferragamo said that the brand is committed to inclusivity, noting that it features models of all colors in its runway shows. Nearly half of Ferragamo’s Fall 2020 runway models were of diverse races.
The pushback against the industry has had some early results. 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 U.K. Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board to help “influence and inform the brand.” The offer came after 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.”
Financial planners typically recommend deciding how much to give, and then setting clear boundaries about when the financial help will end. That’s tricky now, of course, because no one knows how long the current economic crisis will last.
But parents can still set expectations in other ways, financial planners say. If the child didn’t have an emergency fund, for example, parents can discuss the importance of saving money out of every future paycheck, so the child won’t have to rely on family help again, Braxton says.
“Some parents will just put on a Band-Aid and give them money, but they really haven’t helped in terms of their financial capacity,” Braxton says.
If an adult child is moving back home, Corliss suggests a written contract outlining responsibilities, such as how soon they’ll be expected to move out after finding a job. A similar end date can be set for any cash the parents hand out. Corliss says the message should be clear: “We expect you to get on your feet as soon as you can.”
This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet.