When Sarah Burton announced she was stepping down as creative director of Alexander McQueen this year, she left big shoes to fill. Burton, who designed the Princess of Wales’s wedding dress, had run the brand for thirteen years, making it one of the most popular British fashion houses. When Seán McGirr was announced as her replacement in October, although his talent was never in question, his appointment meant that all creative directors at Kering – the group that owns McQueen – were now white men.
After McGirr’s appointment, a photo – or grid of photos – began making the rounds in fashion circles, showing the faces of the six men who worked at Kering, which also owns Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga. This sparked a conversation about who can progress to the top positions – the creative directors of the big houses. These are the most visible roles, the public side of an industry full of faceless cogs.
Two other fashion brands – Blumarine and Moschino – also hired new creative directors this fall. Both were white men. By the time the shortlist for Designer of the Year was announced at Monday night’s Fashion Awards in November, it felt like the fashion quotient for white men had certainly been filled. But – even though there are two women on the list – four of the six are men, and all the nominees are white.
Related:Black British fashion celebrated in London’s The Missing Thread show
When you look at the winners of the past decade, it’s easy to see an uncomfortable precedent. Although women have won several awards – and the award categories vary slightly from year to year – the last time a woman was named Designer of the Year was in 2012, when Stella McCartney won. All of the most recent recipients were white men.
This is an industry-wide problem. Of the top 30 luxury brands in the Vogue Business Index, eight of the 33 creative director positions are currently held by women – and only one, Sandra Choi of Jimmy Choo, is a woman of color. There are two non-white men in the role of creative director: Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton menswear and Maximilian Davis at Ferragamo. Olivier Rousteing at Balmain is the only other man of color at any of the major fashion houses.
Fashion and identity commentator Caryn Franklin is at pains to point out that all of these men are talented. “All leaders justify that it’s only based on merit – what they don’t recognize is that it’s so much harder for other minority creatives to get to that place where it’s only based on merit.”
The diversity problem seems to be increasing in fashion. Recent analyzes have shown that the share of female creative directors is now lower than fifteen years ago.
“Misogyny is rife in this industry,” says Jeanie Annan-Lewin, creative director of Perfect magazine. “We market clothes for women, but normally it’s all because of the male gaze.”
According to a 2022 report on diversity from the British Fashion Council, despite women making up the majority of customers, most senior positions in fashion are held by men. The percentage of women in executive committees fluctuates around 40%. The picture when it comes to ethnic diversity was bleaker, with only about 10% of boards made up of people from an ethnic minority background.
Ultimately, what matters is that those in charge prefer people who are like them
Caryn Franklin, fashion commentator
When big jobs at luxury houses come up, the role of a “responsible executive search consultant” would be to put together a “balanced shortlist,” says Moira Benigson, founder of The MBS Group. But the CEOs are largely responsible for appointing creative directors, and the CEOs are largely white men. “At the end of the day, what matters is that those in charge prefer people who look just like them,” Franklin says.
The problem starts, she says, at university: “Fashion education in the past was very Eurocentric.” Students of color have reported that they are “afraid to bring references from their own cultural heritage,” and that they “get the feeling from teachers that this is not the right fashion.”
The archetype of the male genius plays a role, thinks Natassa Stamouli, online editor at 1 granary magazine, a fashion education platform and creative network that has led this discussion. “The industry doesn’t provide enough support to women, people of color or anyone who doesn’t fit the mold.”
Olya Kuryshchuk, founder and editor-in-chief of 1 Granaryalso highlights “the clash between parenthood and the industry…The work culture in fashion studios is shaped by a lifestyle that excludes people who have responsibilities outside of work.”
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While she was creative director of Chloé, Phoebe Philo rose to fame, becoming the first such high-level designer to go on maternity leave in 2005. But not everyone has Philo’s influence, and few, if any, women could take time out. and rest assured that there is still a career waiting for them.
For Andrew Ibi, one of the curators of The Missing Thread: Untold Stories of Black British Fashionan exhibition at Somerset House, London, and co-founder of the Black Orientated Legacy Development (Bold) agency, fashion has also historically fallen prey to the perverse idea that “if there is one black designer, we don’t need another. ”.
There are clearly many talented designers from minority backgrounds. Shortlisted for the ‘new establishment’ category of the Fashion Awards 2023 are Nicholas Daley, Saul Nash and Supriya Lele.
Ibi also points to designer Grace Wales Bonner, who has yet to get a top job. “Her approach to culture, luxury, her understanding, her intellectual capabilities – she should definitely be a creative director somewhere.”
Franklin also wonders why British designer Martine Rose hasn’t been recruited to a major fashion house. Employers, she says, “are really missing out on some of the magic if they settle for the same identity every time.”
Related:‘You can’t keep teaching people to dream’: why Britain’s young designers are struggling
How could the sector develop? Annan-Lewin believes that change must start with education. “You have entire fashion schools and there is not a single black teacher or person of color there. You can’t be what you can’t see.”
Franklin points to a study on racism that pointed out the importance of educating more privileged students so that they understand that they can be part of the solution: “Rather than choosing to start a creative project in a team with everyone who looks like them, speaks like them, thinks like them… they are responsible for choosing team members who feel that tension.
Perhaps part of the solution is to rephrase the question. Instead of asking why more women and people of color aren’t getting the top jobs in luxury houses, perhaps the real solution – or part of it – is supporting them in their own efforts.
For this to work, however, Annan-Lewin believes designers need to be properly nurtured and “taught how to be a business, rather than just having great viral moments.” As it stands now, she thinks, “we pick them up, give them a lot of hype, and two years later no one knows what happened to them.”