Diversity On Paper: The Double Standard Of Fashion In The USA and Europe
On the responsibility of fashion PRs and brands in the lack of diversity in Europe with Milan-based Jamaican creative director and NSS Magazine editor-at-large Jordan Anderson
This conversation is part of the series The Underrated Fashion Professionals Talks in which I interview fashion professionals from all over the world about different aspects of the industry.
While the discussion of lower and lower budgets allocated to Black and Brown digital talents or even the disappearance of Diversiy&Inclusion departments in fashion brands has been rife in the USA, this is a conversation I haven’t seen happen in Europe - France and Italy specifically - rightly because culturally, both countries don’t perceive themselves to have a problematic history and view of race and racism. In fashion, people in France and Italy are quick to say, “There is only one race: the human race,” all the while being entrenched and participating in perpetuating racism.
I was working at Matchesfashion in London when George Floyd’s assassination happened in the summer of 2020. Even though people were marching in the streets of Milan, Paris, and London, there was a clear difference between how the conversation around race and racism was taken into account inside and outside of the fashion industry in the USA and Europe. At Matchesfashion, we were asked to share how we felt after learning about George Floyd. Higher-ups sent messages of support, and it was promised they’d do more to support Black employees. As a Black woman who grew up in France, the UK always appeared much better in tackling racism, discrimination AND the disparity of classes than France. However, with George Floyd, I felt everybody in Europe was hypocritical and tone-deaf. I found it appalling it took the death of a Black man in the USA to have people post a little black square on Instagram and/or march the streets of European capitals when Black people have been dying in Europe for a long time. “Rightly,” because of the USA’s hegemony, the lives of Black people in Europe often feel less relevant to talk about in international media, whether it is in a positive or negative light. And it is the same in fashion.
That is why I first tackled the lack of representation in Paris, interviewing Khadija, a young French—Guinean fashion professional whose experience spans from working at Chanel to the lingerie brand Etam.
Following my interview with Khadija, I wanted to approach the topic from another angle. At the end of 2023, I talked with Jamaican Milan-based creative director and NSS Magazine editor-at-large Jordan Anderson about the lack of diversity within fashion PR and the industry after he posted a story about a very famous American brand that replicated an event they did in New York in Milan, minus Black and Brown people on their list in the Italian fashion capital.
This Instagram story catalysed a conversation around the discrepancy between how some Italian/European and American brands present themselves in the USA vs. the European market. Italy is not all of Europe, but the issue that Jordan encountered is systemic and endemic in the Old Continent, as many countries consider race and racism an American problem, hence why the title says “Europe” rather than “Italy.”
Below is our conversation, which I hope you will find eye-opening.
I wanted to talk with you because of your Instagram story about a famous American fashion brand event in Milan and the lack of Black and Brown Italian people present there.
There were no Black people. I was the only Black person. But I was annoyed because they did the same event in New York, and there were so many Black people there, and it looked so great and fabulous.
There were a lot of different people and cultures, so it angered me that they came to Milan and decided to do this all-white event.
Do you think this type of issue is because the US has a diverse team, so they're more aware because the culture is different from Italy? I guess the company's culture is not reflected in other offices.
I was talking to a friend about it, and they said, “You actually have to put in an effort”. In New York, it's easy to call Janet Jackson, Teyana Taylor, or anyone interesting to come to your event because those people are already in New York and cities like that.
You can't hold an all-white event in New York because the celebrities, tastemakers, and influencers are all there. But in Europe, it's different. They have to want to include Black and Brown people. They have to put in the work to find the ones with the same aesthetic and then work with them.
A lot of the time, I think what happens is that they don't care enough to do that. We really fight with who are on our list. I was talking to another friend who told me it's not just Milan. It is also the same in Paris.
It’s a big struggle because whenever the brands come over, whether it's a big luxury fashion brand, a smaller internet brand, or an Instagram brand, they don't care enough to search out what would be the equivalent of a big Instagram girl in New York and a Black person in Paris or Milan that would work and make sense for their brand. Nobody cares.
It's pretty interesting because, on one side, we see those brands making a lot of noise about inclusion and diversity, and on the other side, it seems like the offices they have outside of the US are not doing the work. It feels like inclusion and diversity are only applied in the US. And I understand the proximity thing. Calling Teyana Taylor or Janet Jackson to an event costs more money, but does it even make sense to bring them to Europe?
Of course, it wouldn't make sense for them to bring them to another country unless it's a fashion show or something like that. But I think when it's fashion week, it's fine, to a certain extent, because everybody comes to the city for fashion week, and it's a diverse amount of people, so you don't really see the disparity. But you see it when you start talking about the events these brands host in the local cities outside fashion week. And that is a major problem with who the PRs have on their list.
I think Italian PRs are an issue because, from my understanding, these people come from privileged social classes; they went to a particular school and did internships with people with similar backgrounds. So, diversity is not in their vocabulary.
You always see the same Black Italian people. There is no research. Even those nominated at the Black Carpet Awards who should have the spotlight are rarely invited to fashion events.
Since the Black Carpet Awards give visibility to Black and Brown talents, they pick one or two people among the winners and nominees and give them visibility over and over again without doing any work to find new talents.
Exactly. And that's insane because it's their job. It's nobody else's job.
It also happens for Black-owned brands. There was a Fenty event, and they did it in different cities to launch one of their products. But when they came to Milan, there were two Black people there. This is insane because it's the values of Rihanna’s brand; it's built on diversity, but the brand’s PRs don't get it or don't care.
Despite all this, from what I've seen in the last year, people are slowly starting to get it, but not completely.
When The Little Mermaid premiered in Milan, I expected to see a white girl play Ariel during the event. So, I was very shocked when I saw that they got a Black Italian girl to play her. It was not someone I knew but somebody I didn't know about. And she was really talented.
That is a good example of where we need to head, but I don't know if I have much hope for fashion.
Talking about having no hope for fashion. Pierpaolo Piccioli was on that Italian fashion podcast called Sailor. In it, he explained the reason for making his Valentino Spring/Summer 2019 couture show. He cast majorly Black women for it, and though I understand the intent, I don’t understand the explanation of the process.
He explained that he wanted to take a political stance by majorly casting Black models. At the time, there was a big xenophobia wave in Italy—though xenophobia didn’t wait for 2019 to plague Italy—and he cast Black models because in the couture world, when they think about Black people, they only think about streetwear or something inspired by Africa. I am paraphrasing, but that’s what he said roughly. In brief, he was saying that he cast those Black girls to break a stereotype in couture.
I don't know what he was talking about because we've seen Black girls in couture for a while now. I don’t think this show made much difference politically.
I saw more Black girls when I watched that show, but it didn’t change my life. I didn’t feel better because I saw more of them. I didn’t see a narrative behind it, just visuals. So, with no explanation as to why you have such a cast, I'm not going to be surprised by Black girls wearing couture because this has already happened in the ‘70s and the ‘80s. It's not like you're doing something new to me.
Exactly. I was slightly more impressed by his Valentino 2022 Haute Couture show, which included models of different sizes, ethnicities, and ages. I liked that. If he had spoken more about that, that would have made sense.
But for him to speak solely on casting Black girls in a show as if he ended racism is insane to me.
I might have conveyed what I wanted to say the wrong way. I don’t think he thought he ended racism with his show, but I didn’t understand why he waited until 2019 to take a political stance on an issue that is systemic and has been a constant problem in Italy. What happened in 2019 in Italy to the Black communities you and I didn’t know about?
I get the decision, but it also doesn't make sense, especially regarding what happened in 2017 [editor’s note: 2017 was a year during which attacks against Black and Brown people became even more frequent to the point that Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano made wave with an article entitled “Racism: The hot summer of assaults to Black people (Black Italians included)”].
I don't know how he could think casting Black girls in his show would help the world when people were being killed in 2019.
There obviously needs to be a deeper conversation about the power designers think they have or might not have regarding social change because sometimes when they do have it, they don't use it.
They don't use it; if they do, it is superficial. I'm sorry to say that, but I really feel that some fashion designers, as much as they are cultured and know about arts, evolved in that occidental culture that doesn’t allow them to see outside of it, so their knowledge of social and political issues is superficial.
Yes, I see what you mean. It is like Pierpaolo Piccioli casting Black models for this show but then having an all-white team. It is practising what you preach only in appearance.
This interview is paywalled. If you enjoyed what you read so far, this is what expects you under the paywall:
A note about the concept of “Italiano brava gente” (the good Italian) and how it is linked to the Italian fashion industry
A reflection on how who is responsible for the lack of diversity in the fashion PR
What responsability the PRs hold in that lack of diversity