In the News, Issue 13, October 29, 2021
Twice a month, we bring you a curated news report that addresses some of the most critical and timely headlines as it relates to fashion and race.
NOTE: This is an abridged version of our full “In the News” issue. To read the full stories and view all of the images, continue on at our website.
In Issue 13 of In the News, we discuss the future of collaboration between fashion and academia, and explore the issue of wage theft faced by immigrant workers in the US. FRD News Writer Anu Lingala also looks at the recent “We are Made in Italy” showcase and the growth of Black beauty and wellness brands.
– Anu Lingala, Contributor, “In the News”
Dress Politics
A new collection launched at Bergdorf Goodman this month, Mosaic: Gee’s Bend & Greg Lauren, spotlights 96 upcycled textile pieces created in collaboration with quilters from “the rural Alabama community of Black artists who trace their history — and craft — back to the enslaved people of Pettway Plantation.”
Greg Lauren – designer and nephew of fashion titan Ralph Lauren – explains to WWD that, through conversations over the past year, he recognized an opportunity to use his own privilege and platform “to change what has often been the exploitative nature of fashion.” Lauren recounts his own missteps, noting that his initial interactions with Gee’s Bend Quilts were essentially superficial and appropriative: “I Googled quilts, saw geometric red and white images, screen-shot them and up they went on the mood board.” After a deeper exploration over the past year, Lauren decided to donate a portion of proceeds from his collection to the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, which aims to preserve and promote Black artwork in the South. He then decided to take this a step further…
Further Reading:
Explore the possibilities of equitable collaborations in this panel by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
The difference between appropriation and collaboration are discussed by Dapper Dan, Leila Fataar and Tim Blanks.
Read the full story and find the other headlines within “Dress Politics” that are on our radar.
Labor Issues
A recent report by The Center for Public Integrity investigates issues related to wage theft faced by immigrant workers, often in low-paying jobs such as clothing production. One case detailed in the report is that of Audelia Molina, a Mexican immigrant and 30-year resident of California who was cheated out of almost $23,000 of wages during her time working at a garment factory in Los Angeles.
Reporters Susan Ferriss and Joe Yerardi explain that Molina’s case is far from unusual – unfortunately it’s closer to the norm, and representative of “a toxic cycle centuries old: Immigrants perform some of America’s lowest-paying, arduous jobs, and are among those most victimized by employers failing to pay them fairly.” Legally, anyone – even non-citizens – whose job is covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act is entitled to the minimum hourly wage and additional overtime pay after 40 hours a week, but it is common for immigrant workers to face employer intimidation when they attempt to assert their rights.
Analysis by The Center of Public Integrity confirmed…
Further Reading:
Learn more about garment makers in the United States by watching Remake’s Made in America.
Take a deep dive into the discourse around the history of labor in the U.S. in Clothed in Meaning: Literature, Labor, and Cotton in Nineteenth-Century America.
Read the full story and find the other headlines within “Sustainability & Labor Issues” that are on our radar.
Do you appreciate this content? Consider becoming a subscriber (by selecting a recurring contribution) to help us compensate our contributors and keep our operation at The Fashion and Race Database going.
Design & Imagemaking
A recent showcase as part of Milan Fashion Week – ‘We are Made in Italy’ – gave five emerging BIPOC designers the opportunity to take center stage: Sheetal Shah, Nyny Ryke, Romy Calzado, Zineb Hazim, Judith Saint Jermain. The showcase was part of an initiative spearheaded by Italy’s Afro Fashion Association, founded by Michelle Francine Ngonmo, and in collaboration with fashion designers Stella Jean and Edward Buchanan.
Stella Jean explained to Forbes that she dedicated herself to the initiative for the last year after recognizing that, “The racial issues in Italy were no longer acceptable. I could not remain silent and hold a fashion show if nothing serious was happening.” Indeed, there is no shortage of examples of racism and cultural appropriation on the part of Italian designers, and these issues have proven to be endemic in the Italian fashion system: from the endless controversies of Dolce & Gabbana, to repeated usage of blackface and slavery imagery by designers like Gucci, Prada, and Marni.
Ngonmo contends that…
Further Reading:
Watch Michelle Ngonmo, Stella Jean, and Edward Buchanan discuss issues related to racism in the Italian fashion industry via this roundtable talk.
Gain more insight into Italy’s past representations of racial issues in Brandi Thompson Summers’s article.
Read the full story and find the other headlines within “Design & Imagemaking” that are on our radar.
Business & Retail
A new initiative developed by Kendra Bracken-Ferguson aims to help facilitate access to essential business resources for Black founders of beauty and wellness brands.
Founders Studio has consolidated an array of corporate partnerships, including Shopify, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Salesforce, and Afterpay, to provide free services, valued at $100 million, to participating founders like Lauren Napier of Lauren Napier Beauty and Lucien Aymerick Eloundou of Charbon Plus. But Bracken-Ferguson expresses to Beauty Independent that her aim goes beyond offering financial resources, but to create an entire ecosystem dedicated to supporting Black founders: “a platform that combines community, education, mentorship and capital for Black beauty and wellness founders at all stages of their journey.”
While many Black-owned brands have seen…
Further Reading:
Roxanne Fequiere discusses unearthing the stories of Black innovators in her article.
Attain deeper knowledge on Black fashion leaders dismantling oppression within the industry in this panel by the Business of Fashion.
Read the full story and find the other headlines within “Business & Retail” that are on our radar.
In the News is researched and written by Anu Lingala and edited by Anthony Palliparambil, Jr. and Kimberly Jenkins. This newsletter is published by Daniela Hernandez.
Anu Lingala is a trend forecaster, brand strategist, and founder of Revisionary: a space dedicated to reframing our aesthetic vision and decolonizing our aspirations by centering BIPOC-owned brands. She also helped launch Public Service: a platform and creative studio working to advance equity in imagemaking. Anu has always been passionate about applying sociocultural and historical analysis to contemporary industry contexts. She holds a BS in Apparel Design from Cornell University and an MA in History of Design from the Royal College of Art, where her dissertation examined cultural appropriation in fashion.