What is the experience of those who are the targets of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the fashion industry?
What are the unique experiences of those who have been excluded from the dominant and historical narrative of the fashion industry?
The fashion industry is problematic operationally, environmentally, and socially. It has a legacy of poor worker treatment in supply chains as well as at home offices. The workforce of the global fashion industry is overwhelmingly female and participation in the industry in the US market can be challenging for people of color or those of different socio-economic classes. For many that do enter the industry, longevity is short due to institutionalized boundaries and challenges for non-white, non-upper class workers. The fashion industry has a systemic issue with data and information and the information available about the industry is overwhelmingly from the perspective of white industry participants and is disproportionately told from the perspective of leadership, not from the perspective of non-upper-management employees or supply chain workers.
What is A Better Fashion Industry?
A Better Fashion Industry is academic study supported by Glasgow Caledonian New York College and led by researcher Michelle Gabriel and supported by researchers Martine Lunis and Lidia Alvarez.
There is very little collected information about the experiences of Black, Latinx, Asian, LGBTQIA+ or other non-cis gendered, non-white employees or workers in the fashion industry and almost none from the direct experience of the employees or workers themselves.
The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the first hand experiences of non-white and/or non-cis gender fashion industry employees. This study aims to gain information in order to answer the questions:
“What is the experience of those who are the targets of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the fashion industry?”
“What are the unique experiences of those who are not part of the dominant and historical narrative of the fashion industry?”
Though the collected data from this study aims to be shared in a future academic publishing opportunity, making study data available through social media and this website is an important component in the work of this research.
Who does the A Better Fashion Industry Study target?
Fashion retail employees, supply chain workers, brand/company headquarter employees, supply chain vendors, fashion marketing or PR firm employees
- who are -
Black identifying, Latinx identifying, LGBTQIA+ identifying, Indigenous identifying, Asian identifying, Pacific Islander identifying, other non-cis-gender, straight identity, or other non-white identity.
Why stories matter.
Storytelling is a collective endeavor which serves as the backbone of any culture. The stories of individuals become woven into the narratives of communities and eventually of our shared history. Our stories serve as a narrative feedback loop to tell us who we are. When our narratives are biased, limited, or do not represent all participants in a dynamic, in-groups and out-groups can form which in turn creates exclusionary systems which often function at the expense of historically marginalized groups.
Study Goals + Objectives.
To raise awareness of the experiences of historically marginalized employees within the fashion value chain.
To aggregate information on fashion industry participants who identify as Black, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, other non-cis-gender straight identity, or other non-white identity as very little data exists about the demographics groups outside of cis-gender, straight, white identifying fashion industry participants.
To reduce information asymmetries between fashion industry employees and employers by sharing individual stories that may illustrate trends in employee experiences which, in isolation, may feel unique when in reality are widespread and indicative of a typical experience for those who identify outside the white, cis-gender dominant industry narrative identity.