Luxury Doesn't Speak

Isn't it about time all these white, male creative directors took a stand? Their silence is complicit.

Some gossip for you. A lunch this summer in the Mediterranean, at a long table littered with fashion’s most fabulous. Make up queens, stylists, photographers, models. Also present, the creative director (CD) of a beleaguered superbrand. The CD finds himself opposite a well known photographer, though she and he have never met before. Politely, she begins to ask him questions. Some personal, some professional, and politely he answers. It’s a long lunch, so the photographer presses on, and the CD graciously responds.

Eventually proceedings draw to a close and the photographer leaves the table with an uneasy feeling. “I couldn’t work out what it was,” she confided later. “After all, he had been so polite. Then it dawned on me - he didn’t even know my name. We had been talking for the entire time but never once did he ask me a question. He didn’t attempt to find out anything about me. He just sat there, happy to talk about himself, and it didn’t occur to him to be curious about anything else beyond that.”

Clockwise from top, the Bottega, Gucci, McQueen, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Brioni creative directors, all looking remarkably similar. Illustration Natassa Stamouli for 1 Granary, the first publication to point out the lack of diversity

This rest of this post (and the story) is for my paying subscribers. I brought up the ideas below at the Bath Fashion Festival this weekend and the audience gave them a cheer. I really do believe that we are ready for change, that we want and need to do things differently. Please do subscribe and join me on this journey.