DIFFERENT CLOTH

IN AN INDUSTRY AS GLOBAL AS FASHION, AVOIDING CULTURAL APPROPRIATION CAN BE A TOUGH NEEDLE TO THREAD. BUT THERE'S A SIMPLE WAY TO AVOID IT

A TOUGH INDUSTRY

If I were to ask you to picture the average runway model, what would I you see? If you're anything like me, odds are it's a young woman. She's white and she's a size 2. Now picture the designer who made the gorgeous dress she's wearing: What do they look like? If they turned out to be white, too I don't blame you.

I can't because you're most likely right. The fashion industry, in all its glory, is still painfully monochromatic. Even in the best rooms to be in - backstage at London or Paris Fashion Week, for example - black creators and models stand out from the crowd.

We're the minority, we're often tokenised, and our work is often plagiarised. Often, we only seem to be there to tick a box. And it's these truths that we're forced to sit with as we hold our tongues and try to be thankful.

Now this is not to say that fashion is a racist, bigoted industry, and that any POC with runway dreams should drop them and take up accounting.

But, what is true is that as a POC, fashion is that much harder of an industry to crack.

I mean, think about it: How many POC models or designers can you name off the top of your head? To make the question even tougher, how many of those designers' names are attached to houses that have existed for more than 20 years? And what does that mean when we acknowledge that fashion looks to the whole world, to all races and creeds, for inspiration? Well, it means we have to be aware of the problem that is cultural appropriation.

THE 'WHAT' AND 'WHY'