In the wake of the tragic aftermath following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery, along the racism, injustices, and brutality seen on nationwide protests, fashion brands and retailers have taken a stand by encouraging the community to help fight racism by protesting, donating, educating and informing family and community members, and voting.
The impact that fashion brands can generate for a positive change, going beyond the incitement to participate and educate, can be on a corporate scale, translated into supporting black-owned businesses, associations and foundations like Black Lives Matter, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, The Bail Project, BlackVisions Collective, Reclaim The Block.
An example of this is The 15 Percent Pledge by Brother Vellies’ founder Aurora James, an initiative that calls major retailers to pledge 15% of their shelf space to black-owned businesses. The initiative is based on the fact that black people make up 15% of the United States population. It was addressed specifically to Target, Sephora, Whole Foods, Shopbop, Net-a-Porter, Home Depot, Sephora, Barnes & Noble, and Saks Fifth Avenue. By doing this, big retail companies can help small Black-owned businesses grow.
These unfortunate events have also given us the opportunity to build more informed and conscious decisions regarding the support and exposure given to Black-owned businesses when buying clothing or other kinds of products. On this sense, one can support by buying Black-owned brands products and brands that support the Black and African-American community, especially independent designers. As A-Cold-Wall* shows on its Black-Owned Means Black-Owned action posts:
Here are some designers and brands you can support now and always:
A-Cold-Wall*
Wales Bonner
Telfar
Pyer Moss
Heron Preston
SSense Black Lives Matter: A Working Resource for Mobilizing
High fashion brands that have reacted to the tragic events and stand together with the Black community include: