“Equity means not being excluded, discriminated against, limited or snubbed or being mistreated/treated like second class citizens. As Editor-in-Chief of a publication that celebrates cultural diversity, some of the agencies, brands, and independent press and communications companies are not interested in collaborating with us. They’re not interested in inviting us to their runaway shows or press days. Some of them get away with it because they use a few Black models because they don’t want to be accused of being racist; what they actually do is called TOKENISM. Equity means also having a voice in the boardroom. Companies need to hire more Black executives. The irony is they don’t have problems dressing Black celebrities but when it comes to a Black-owned publication, there’s a double standard. There are more Black stylists today, but the ones who get to borrow runway samples are mainly working for celebrities and/or mostly for Caucasian owned publications run by large corporations. Unless you’re working for a corporation like Conde Nast or Hearst, or at established titles like InStyle, Interview, or V magazines, they won’t give you the time of the day. We need transparency and need to find a way to stop nonsense discrimination and double standards. Make the entire industry inclusive, create ethical policies, and create special units to hold discriminatory brands accountable.”

– Gianni Couji, Editor-in-Chief & Creative Director, Ubikwist magazine, Fashion stylist and creative consultant