From an all-white panel to Off -White: Virgil Abloh and Rihanna joining the LVMH prize panel

The fashion industry has been known for its lack of representation and inequality due to this. Often designers of colour falling behind the shadow of white designers and simply not being given the time of day. Once we start to see more diversity within higher positions such as creative directors, editors and powerhouse brands we can begin to hope for equality in the industry.

Unfortunately, covert racism and more often than admitted outright racism is still heavily embedded in the fashion industry. We’ve seen this from Gucci’s blackface scandal just last year. Creative director Alessandro Michele expressed his pain that one of his creative projects was seen as “an intolerable insult”.This response, not only negates the feelings and realities faced by black people but denies responsibility considering his own pain and not the pain of millions of people, a constant issue when it comes to progression. Looking back and admitting these sorts of disasters would not happen if we had more black people in positions to speak up and steer companies into the right ( not racist ) direction. It may seem obvious but it seems people in the industry still feel things like blackface are acceptable to use in the name of fashion.

Giving everyone hope for diversity, are new judges fashion idol and owner of Fenty Rihanna, and Artistic Director for Louis Vuitton as well as chief executive officer of, Off- White, Virgil Abloh. With a previously all-white panel, The two will play an important part in choosing the winner for this years LVMH  award. They will be in charge of changing one person’s destiny but also sending across a message of hope for the future for black people. It’s our time to speak up and make decisions on how our future will look like.