“Equity for Black Professionals in the fashion industry does not have any tangible meaning for me because I don’t believe it exists consistently or in any kind of effective basis. Instead of acceptance and inclusion in fashion luxury there is only response to outrage and management of perception. It’s clear by decisions made with advertising and sometimes even product choices that if there were some kind of person of ethnicity with some level of influence included in the conversation, many of the tone-deaf errors put in front of us would never have come to the surface or seen the light of day. We have slowly evolved into a space where we are having the conversation of inclusion and now we need to move into the space of actually being inclusive. As we maneuver into this change, luxury companies are going to have to rethink their choices in order to meet the growing need for the minority voice to be heard. The only way they are going to hear that voice is if they start investing in those people. The only time we are going to see growth in equity for black professionals is if those brands start to affect those changes in that investment. A dismantling of systemic racism can only occur with a garnering of knowledge and education within the structure that is currently in place. It can only affect change with the acknowledgement of wrongdoing and rebuilt in a fashion more reflective of that very inclusion that has been disregarded for so long.”

– Sean Frazer, CEO, SMF Global Consultants