A by-the-numbers look at the proportion of black people in the industry’s ranks. Fashion an industry keen to promote its own diversity, often in a self-congratulatory way is also taking a fresh look at just how welcoming it is to the black community and how it can do better.
But for all of those efforts over many years, there continues to be a real divide at the very top of the corporate org chart, where the salaries are big and the faces remain mostly those of white men. There are black chief executive officers from A (Virgil Abloh) to Z (Jide Zeitlin), but very few in between.
In the broader workforce, statistics from last year show black or African-American representation is higher than average in some categories, such as shoe stores and department stores, but below average in other areas, including jewelry, luggage and leather goods stores. While parts of the country are starting to reopen now, many stores are still closed to slow the spread of COVID-19 and some will never reopen.
Still, even at retail, the vast majority of those black workers are sales staff, rather than at the executive level.
Here, some points of reference on fashion’s racial divide.
Virgil Abloh
ceo
Off-White
Jeff Tweedy
president, ceo
Sean John
Jide Zeitlin
chairman, ceo
Tapestry Inc.
Representation of black or African-Americans in key sectors of the fashion business.
Total
Black or African-American
U.S. population
328.2 million
13.4 percent
Overall workforce
157.5 million
12.3 percent
Retail
Electronic shopping
556,000
23.4 percent
Shoe stores
161,000
21.8 percent
Department stores and discount stores
1.8 million
18.9 percent
Clothing stores
924,000
12.1 percent
Jewelry, luggage and leather goods stores
172,000
8.5 percent
Wholesale
Apparel, piece goods, notions wholesalers
92,000
6.8 percent
Services
Barber shops
150,000
29 percent
Beauty salons
1 million
12 percent
Nail salons and other personal-care services
600,000
6.2 percent
Manufacturing
Textiles, apparel, and leather manufacturing
552,000
10.7 percent