The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The online index includes more than 1,200 Black-owned businesses, the organisation said Wednesday. It is designed to connect them with retailers that have signed the organisation’s pledge to increase the diversity of its vendors. Google signed on to back it for two years and will offer “digital trainings and workshop events” to the founders and provide marketing support.
Aurora James launched the 15 Percent Pledge in the summer of 2020 to urge retailers through Instagram to increase the amount of inventory they order from Black-owned brands, which in many cases represented only a few percentage points of total vendor lists. Retailers like Nordstrom and Sephora have since partnered with the organisation.
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One Year Later, the 15 Percent Pledge Raises Its Ambitions
As Nordstrom announces a 10-year partnership with the organisation launched on Instagram after George Floyd’s death to call on retailers to spend more money on Black-owned brands, founder Aurora James and board member Emma Grede tell BoF about keeping up the momentum and supporting entrepreneurs.
The Los Angeles-based accessories label has been a well-kept secret in the industry, but founders Yang Pei and Stephanie Li are hoping to change that through new acquisitions, opening brick-and-mortar stores and using AI to speed up the design and production process.
Designer Carly Mark sparked conversation about what it takes to make it as an emerging designer in New York when she announced she was shutting her ready-to-wear line and moving to London. On Thursday she held her last sample sale.
To stabilise their businesses brands are honing in on what their particular consumer wants to buy, introducing new categories and starting conversations.
That’s the promise of Zellerfeld, a 3D-printing partner to Louis Vuitton and Moncler that’s becoming a platform for emerging designers to easily make and sell footwear of their own.