‘You’re wrong for fashion’: Confessions of a black fashion industry veteran

The fashion industry’s lack of diversity isn’t just on the runway.

The topic usually surfaces around fashion week, when thousands of models appear on runways and the world can watch which designers embrace diversity, and which don’t. Among designers, there’s also a striking lack of diversity. And behind the scenes, the fashion industry is often just as lacking in diversity at the executive level. In the retail industry, black workers account for 11 percent of retail employment, but just seven percent of management and senior positions like human resources, public relations, administration and sales, according to a 2015 report on retail race divide by Demos, a public policy organization.