Rebecca Minkoff: Fashion industry 'definitely having a reckoning’ on racial justice

Famed fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff thinks the industry needs to do a better job of being more inclusive at all levels.

The effects of COVID-19 and the fight for racial justice have been front and center in 2020 have buffeted a number of industries. And when it comes to fashion, Minkoff told Yahoo Finance that her sector hasn’t been spared.

“The fashion industry is definitely having a reckoning. I think it can't be the call to action of just hiring black models,” Minkoff said in a recent interview on The Final Round. “It's who is in your organization at executive leadership that is black or BIPOC, where is the representation not just on the surface.”

She cited Aurora James -- who launched the 15 Percent Pledge -- as having done “an incredible job of taking these huge corporations to task,” Minkoff added.

Earlier this year, James, a Black designer and entrepreneur, launched the pledge with the goal of convincing major retailers to dedicate 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses. So far, fashion startup Rent the Runway, beauty retailer Sephora and crowdsourced business review website Yelp (YELP), among others, have all taken the pledge.

“We know money is power, and if you can tell these corporations that have billions of dollars at their disposal to buy Black and Latin-owned brands, really say, ‘here are our dollars and we are going to invest in these communities,” Minkoff said.

“The fashion industry needs to do a lot more than that and they can start by taking the pledge and looking internally and saying, okay, are we represented properly?” she asked. “It's not just what you put on your Instagram.”

Pamela Granda is a producer on Yahoo Finance’s closing bell show, The Final Round. Follow her on Twitter.

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