‘ROUNDTABLE NOT RUNWAY’ [@TEATUMJONES] SS19 challenges industry norms

British brand Teatum Jones, founded by duo Catherine and Rob is a fashion brand with a conscience.

Their SS19 campaign comes with a roundtable, not a runway! The roundtable features women trying to make a difference in fashion such as Claudia Croft, Simran Randhawa, and Munroe Bergdorf. 

Teatum Jones is all about creating fashion from human stories. As a result their SS19 campaign supports the UN women international campaign, 16 days of activism. The roundtable seeks to answer the question ‘What is fashion’s responsibility and role in the protection, unification, inclusion and equality of women?’

Like a lot of  luxury industries, fashion is responsible for reinforcing inequality. This includes divisions between the rich and the poor, race and body types. Therefore, fashion has a huge responsibility in reflecting new attitudes towards inequality. 

Marai Larasi the Executive Director of Imkaan:

We need people like you to make a difference, because people who look like me don’t have the space or opportunity to push back.

Speaking on white privilege, Marai Larasi points out that the industry’s key drivers are those with privilege and it’s only when they decide to use their position to promote inclusivity, can change happen.

We have to disrupt the idea of womanhood which is white heterosexual and a particular body size. If we disrupt, than we are able to disable it.

Another issue discussed,  is the fact that not everyone in fashion is responsive to the changing nature of society’s thoughts and ideas. Although inclusivity and equality appears obvious to a lot of people, when you’re so used to not seeing diversity, it becomes more difficult.

Contributing British Vogue editor, Claudia Croft:

A lot of people turned away from fashion because it was stuck in a time wrap.

Model and writer, Simran Randhawa:

For a long time I was put off fashion until I resonated with people on social media. We need more people that are actively educated on issues like intersectionality and diversity.

Model and activist, Munroe Bergdorf:

It’s about providing an option. It’s about saying ‘ I can’t do all of this myself,  help me, use your privilege’

Change is being led by consumers. It’s clear that people are no longer accepting what is being fed to them. Director of Teatum, Rob Jones says that  ‘ we need to stop labelling it.’ People from generations who are used to an elitist and exclusive fashion industry sometimes struggle to organically implement inclusively. It becomes a trend rather than the norm. The current situation in fashion, is how can we make inclusion and the protection of women a norm rather than a movement.