BINDING PROMISES

Fashion magazines say they’re serious about addressing diversity, but will they take action to make meaningful, lasting change? By Sarah Skelton

American fashion magazines have come out loud and proud in support of social justice. In print, on social media and across video platforms, these media brands have denounced racism and pledged solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

But such actions are simply theater if executives and other people in power on the magazine mastheads don’t also take action to bring about meaningful, lasting change.

“Anyone can say they support Black Lives Matter,” said Karen Thomas, a professor of practice in the journalism division at Southern Methodist University, who teaches a course on women and minorities in the media. But without actions, she said, “it’s just words.”

While the support for Black Lives Matter among magazines may be new, the movement dates back to 2013. It was founded in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin, a Black 17-yearold, in Florida and the acquittal of the man who killed him. Celebrities, fashion designers and actors tried to bring attention to the situation and to the issue of racial justice in general, but the issue and the emerging BLM movement wasn’t seriously embraced by those in power.

The fashion industry was no exception.

In fact, the fashion industry continued on as if nothing happened, said Brandice Daniel, founder of Harlem’s Fashion Row, a prestigious platform for multicultural fashion designers in New York City.

In a June 2020 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Daniel said that she’d been talking about race in fashion since 2007, when she started Harlem’s Fashion Row. “I had white people flat out tell me, ‘Brandice, I don’t want to talk about race,’” she said. “In 2013, in terms of Black Lives Matter, the fashion industry didn’t budge.”

But 2020 has been different. A spate of videos showing police brutality and killings has sparked a reaction like never before.

“Social media made it impossible for people to ignore it because iPhone videos of injustices were trending on Twitter and Instagram,” said Leah Faye Cooper, editorial director at Coveteur, an online media company in New York City.

Cooper notes that fashion magazines released messages of solidarity, but she believes this is not enough. Speaking up and speaking out, while important, won’t change the system that perpetuates inequality, she said.

Where to start? How about at the top, with magazines like InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. These are among America’s most powerful consumer fashion media companies, publishing consumer fashion magazines that, because of the size of their circulations, help shape society’s standards of cultural acceptance and beauty. According to Echo Media, InStyle has an average circulation of 1.7 million; Condé Nast reported Vogue’s global total footprint of 24.9 million monthly readers; and, the Alliance for Audited Media released Harper’s Bazaar total circulation of 714,378.

All three have made statements supporting BLM this year, advocating for anti-racism by saying there needs to be change. In fact, all 26 editions of Vogue magazines joined together in September — a first in the brand’s 128-year history — with the unified theme of “hope.” Editorial content across all magazines focused in part on social justice issues, systemic racism and police brutality.

While such efforts are important, they are as fleeting as the month the issues spend on the magazine racks. It is time for these three fashion media leaders to show how serious they are about inclusion. They can do this by hiring and promoting more people of color in leadership positions — and retaining them — and by showcasing more Black talent when it comes to photographers, designers and other creatives.

The first step is leadership, said Cooper. “Diversity and inclusion needs to be incorporated from top to bottom, and it starts with the staff and who you’re hiring and recruiting,” she said.

So far, it seems two of the big three have gotten the message.

In July, Harper’s Bazaar hired Samira Nasr as editor-in-chief, the first Black woman to helm the magazine in its 150-year history. American Vogue magazine’s publishing company, Condé Nast, announced in September that Chioma Nnadi, a native of London with a Nigerian and Swiss-German background, was to become the new editor of the magazine’s website. Prior to her promotion, Nnadi had spent six years as the website’s fashion news director.

InStyle has yet to name a person of color to an editorial management position.

Even if these magazines continue to hire talented editors and other leaders of color, are they willing to do what’s necessary to retain this talent?

“Great that more than a third of people that you hired were people of color last year, or 50 percent, or whatever the stat may be,” said Elizabeth Paton, the International Styles Correspondent at The New York Times in London, England. “But two years later, were they still there, comfortable that this was an environment in which they could thrive? Four years later, were they getting promoted, and as leaders able to contribute to necessary structural changes to operations or workplace culture?” Condé Nast’s legendary American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour acknowledged that hiring and retention were a problem in a widely circulated email she sent to Vogue staffers in June.

“It can’t be easy to be a Black employee at Vogue, and there are too few of you,” she wrote. “I know that it is not enough to say we will do better, but we will — and please know that I value your voices and responses as we move forward.”

Editorial isn’t the only aspect of a magazine that is involved in establishing and encouraging diversity. Visuals are equally important. Hiring a Black model for the cover is a high-visibility way for a magazine to show its commitment to diversity, says Cooper.

But it’s just as important to feature Black talent behind the camera and as members of the crew, like makeup artists and stylists, she said.

“It is a disservice to the readers if the creators of fashion magazines are all the same. There needs to be people at the table who come from different backgrounds and walks of life to produce content that is interesting and inclusive,” said Cooper.

In her June email, Wintour acknowledged that the magazine had not supported Black creators like photographers and designers, and she vowed to correct that.

InStyle has also been in correction mode. This fall, it made a last-minute decision to reshoot its original September issue cover of the Black actress Zendaya to feature two Black photographers and include pieces from Black designers.

One day, Daniel said she hoped it would no longer be necessary to release statements on racial injustices and what’s being done to address diversity and inclusion because diversity and inclusion would simply be business as usual.

And, if that’s not happening at a magazine, she said, “we honestly need to not spend a penny or waste any time with it.”

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Get to know these unique students. By Loni Nunziata

Molly SMU Student Body President PATRICK

everettRAYSMU Senior Basketball Player

HOMETOWN: Baton Rouge, LA MAJORS: Political Science, Public Policy and Economics MINOR: Law and Legal Reasoning STYLE IN 3 WORDS: Chic, Classy, Fun WARDROBE STAPLE: a velvet blazer

SMU’s Student Body President Molly Patrick is a well-known person on campus. The Louisiana native’s desire to help others through policy led her to the student senate her freshman year, and she’s continued to be a campus leader throughout her college career. Molly has climbed up the ranks, serving as a senator, committee member and student-body vice president. She is also the first woman to serve as SMU’s student body president in 13 years. The triple-major is unsure if politics will be in her future, but she plans to attend law school, with the hopes of one day becoming a judge. But Molly isn’t all business. She’s a member of Delta Gamma and enjoys going to Corepower to get in a good sweat.

HOMETOWN: Irving, TX MAJOR: Finance STYLE IN 3 WORDS: Fun, Serious, Wildcard WARDROBE STAPLE: a good hoodie

Everett Ray is #24 on the court and on the cover of the SMU LOOK magazine. The basketball player is a well-rounded studentathlete, with no intentions of leaving the Hilltop anytime soon. The Texas native will further his studies through SMU’s Cox School of Business and play one final basketball season with the Mustangs. Everett’s work ethic has resulted in prominent positions on and off the court. He is on the Student Athletic Advisory Committee and a member of the highly selective Cox School of Business Alternative Assets Management Program. Within Cox, Everett also works as a Don Jackson, mentoring younger students by conducting mock interviews. Over the past four years, he’s most grateful for the community and experiences this school has shared with him. brookleeHANSMU Senior, and Former Olympic Figure Skater HOMETOWN: New England MAJOR: German MINORS: Journalism and European Studies STYLE IN 3 WORDS: I Have None WARDROBE STAPLE: durable classics

Brooklee Han did not have a typical transition from high school to college. Instead of attending office hours and tailgates, she was training for a spot in the 2014 Olympic Games. The 25-year-old figure skater competed internationally for nine years, one of which led her to represent Australia at the Sochi Winter Olympics in Japan. The northeasterner began college in Connecticut, but a training opportunity led her to a new life in Texas. Brooklee took two years off school before enrolling as a full-time student at SMU. The retired figure skater coaches in her spare time and is working towards becoming a figure-skating technical judge. She’s combined her love for skating and journalism to work as a freelancer for skating magazines.

looking out POWERPLAY America’s most influential women challenge double standards surrounding fashion and politics. By Brooke Betik Illustration by Sarah Scambray

“In my opinion, it’s kind of like a mini protest to love yourself.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) applies concealer while saying these simple but impactful words. Filmed in one take on a camera propped on her bathroom sink, Ocasio-Cortez’s “Get Ready With Me” August 2020 video for Vogue’s YouTube Channel is a change of pace from the channel’s typical model-actress-influencer-focused content. And the sentiments she shares during her morning routine are even more refreshing.

AOC, as she is known, has been a game-changer since she drew national attention by defeating a 10-term incumbent opponent during the 2018 midterm primary elections, later defeating her Republican opponent to cinch her seat in Congress. She’s the youngest woman to ever serve in Congress and one of the first females elected to hold public office as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Ocasio-Cortez’s outspokenness on progressive politics shook up the American political scene from the get-go, with her personality and politics receiving both intense criticism and high praise.

AOC’s critics have attacked her for her boldness — she is notorious for making a statement by wearing red lipstick, ignoring her fellow congressmen’s opinions. As a young woman of color who refuses to conform to the norms of her chosen career path, she says that people hold her to a different beauty standard in the world of politics. Doing your makeup and caring about your appearance has become an expectation, rather than a self-confidence booster, for women in American leadership, a problem that AOC sees being exploited by the patriarchy.

“If waking up in the morning and doing your makeup gives you life, then that is amazing and you should do it,” said AOC in the Vogue video. “But what we are also seeing all too often is that women who wear makeup… also make more money.”

The issue of expected femininity does not stop at the level of national politics either. Current SMU Student Body President Molly Patrick said these same pressures apply to her.

“In my position, especially when I’m having meetings with administrators, I feel such a pressure to do my hair and makeup that I’m unsure my male peers feel,” said Patrick. “If I showed up to a meeting without any makeup on, my fear is that I will be perceived as unprofessional or not put together.”

Patrick said that when she is in what AOC would refer to as “full glam” for nicer events,

she is often mistaken for the significant other of a male colleague. Her experience validates the idea that, while our society has made significant progress in empowering women, traditional systems taint our view of females in power. Lexxi Clinton, president of SMU’s Association of Black Students, says that she feels the same pressures as Patrick and AOC. But, she has found power in using her own beauty as a self confidence booster rather than conforming to societal expectations.

“Normally, people comment on my hair or have thoughts about if it’s professional or not,” said Clinton. “I think my hair is a part of my femininity and strength, and I wear it proudly because I know I’m different.”

Clinton added: “I love a power suit. I love getting dressed for a professional event because clothes can help command a room.”

AOC’s shared sentiment in her “Get Ready With Me” video emphasizes that women in politics from the collegiate level to the national level are facing — and defying — these same pressures.

“You cannot get your feelings of beauty and confidence from anyone but yourself,” said AOC in the video. “Regardless of your career path or passion, you should get your confidence in your appearance from you, not from a societal expectation to look good.”

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