In the wake of more instances of police brutality and Black Lives Matters protests, the country is tasked with confronting systemic racism. Consumers and companies are demanding real action – and two fashion executives leading the way are Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief and fashion publicist Sandrine Charles. They co-founded the Black in Fashion Council “to represent and secure the advancement of black individuals in the fashion and beauty industry,” the duo stated. “As a collective, we envision a world in which Black people in fashion and beauty spaces can be open and honest, guaranteed equal rights, and be celebrated for our voices.”
With help from the Human Rights Campaign, the Council will establish an equality index score that will provide benchmarking around corporate policies and practices pertinent to the inclusivity of Black employees. This will include a yearly public report to track the work that companies who’ve signed a three-year commitment pledge to foster representation of Black employees at all levels.
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“The Human Rights Campaign already has a Corporate Equality Index for people with disabilities and the LGBTQ community that companies like Kering are already a part of,” Peoples Wagner said, in an interview with Vogue.com. “This would be a way to continue to give companies a report card of accountability without them feeling like they’re being shamed into it, and giving them the actual resources of what people are saying they want to see changed.”
“We’d like everybody to participate; we don’t want to segment based on larger brands or smaller brands. We really want this to be a collective of everyone, so we built out an industry standard of what we want diversity and inclusion to look like moving forward,” she continued.
The organization will officially launch next month. The CFDA is proud to partner with the Black in Fashion Council on its mission for equality in the industry.
