Making the Marginalized Mainstream: The Fashion Editor’s Duty to Strive for Diversity

With Black female icons such as Michelle Obama and Zendaya gracing endless magazine covers, some may assume that the issue of the lack of diversity in the fashion editorial industry is fixed. The truth is that the industry and its leaders have much more work to do. Just this year, Vogue’s reigning editor-in-chief of thirty-two years, Anna Wintour, was called out for failing to increase visibility and opportunities for Black creators as well as publishing intolerant images and stories in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the killing of George Floyd. She apologized for her mistakes as editor and promised to do better, while also stating that “it can’t be easy to be a black employee at Vogue” and that she has “too few” Black employees (Lee).

Wintour is the most highly regarded and powerful editor in today’s magazine industry and quite possibly the fashion industry itself. Editors have immense power and with this power comes a responsibility to reflect the culture - all of it. Fashion and beauty editors have the responsibility to redefine the industry’s standards by striving for more visual representation in their pages, by sharing diverse perspectives, and by hiring diverse talent to their teams from the ground up. In their pages, editors show the public more than just the latest trends; they show who’s important, whose voices are heard, and who matters.

Merriam-Webster defines diversity as “the practice or quality of including or involving people from a

range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc.” Including diverse images and figures in fashion magazines allows marginalized groups to see themselves and their own possibilities reflected in the world rather than othering these groups and making them feel invisible. In her memoir, More Than Enough, Elaine Welteroth, former editor of Teen Vogue, writes about how a lack of representation affected her from a young age, and how, as only the second African American editor in chief in Conde Nast history, she worked to allow a diverse audience see themselves in her publication’s pages. She includes a memory of flipping through a magazine as a child and how it made her feel invisible. “I was still slowly flipping through the pages, searching for any hint of myself or my mother or brother. Each page was teeming with white smiling faces, and visual cues that seemed to confirm it was better to be white than whatever color I was.” Not only do fashion magazines reflect who society deems beautiful, but they also reflect who exists.

It’s important that editors strive to illustrate to the public that beautiful people are not just white, thin, cisgender (those whose gender identity matches the sex assigned at birth) women. They should work to reflect the diversity of the American public to reshape the way society views beauty by including images of models of all cultural backgrounds, sexualities, and sizes. From working in the fashion industry as a model, marketer, and buyer for over five years, I’ve seen a lack of inclusivity in ways big and small, from which models get picked for a shoot, to microaggressions behind the scenes that are overlooked. There seems to be some trepidation for changing the ways we think about beauty in the fashion world as if it’s a disruption, and it all trickles, along with each new trend, from the elite world of fashion we see in the pages of publications like Vogue.

However, representation isn’t just crucial in terms of the images we see, but in the stories that are shared. It’s not only important for editors to tell the stories of diverse celebrity figures in their cover stories, but to strive for diversity throughout their pages by selecting diverse stories for their issues and hiring diverse writers. It’s important for editors to work to include these voices in their publications to allow marginalized voices to be heard. This allows for a more diverse readership, where all readers can find stories they connect to, while also allowing for more perspectives. It’s the duty of the magazine editor to elevate voices that have been marginalized and to enlighten their readers on issues that matter while validating and celebrating all identities. Additionally, editors need to work to create content that can be applied to a broader range of readers. For example, fashion and beauty tutorials should include makeup options for a wide range of skin tones, as well as styling advice for a variety of hair types and textures. Fashion magazines allow their audiences to celebrate artistic empowerment, but only when they are representing their entire readership.

Allure magazine has been noted by many as a publication that incorporates diversity seamlessly since Asian American, Michelle Lee, became editor in 2015. Lee has spoken out about how inclusivity is at the core of the publication and every decision they make when it comes to visibility and appealing to a diverse readership. Lee notes that her team analyzes every detail of the publication in terms of inclusivity, such as choosing to highlight makeup that works for every skin tone or writing eyeliner tutorials for different eye shapes. Allure is a beauty magazine, and giving beauty advice to a diverse audience, but also allowing all audiences the opportunity to feel beautiful, is a conscious way to speak to a larger readership.

Lee has recently been working towards diversity not just racially, but also by incorporating gender inclusivity in the publication. With the amount of male, non-binary, and transgender beauty influencers out there, Allure is working towards making beauty accessible for audiences outside of the cisgender female norm. Yet, Lee notes that she does not think of her practices as checking off “some quantifiable quota,” and encourages that other editors treat inclusivity as the norm as well.

For example, in a recent issue, the magazine included a story on nail art and included a male as one of the hand models without doing a separate story on men doing nail art. Lee claims that it was just part of the shoot and was “treated like any other hand” in the story. She claimed that she believes that this is where inclusivity should be headed, by including diverse images without having to identify anything outside the norm, or anyone as the “Other.” Lee does this by working to include diverse talent in the makings of her issues, from the models she casts, to the writers who create the magazine’s beauty advice (Bryant).

To create diversity on the pages of their publications, editors have the responsibility to hire diverse talent at every level. Diversity needs to be seen in leadership as well as in the creative teams that work behind the scenes to produce covers, such as photographers, makeup artists, and stylists. This allows marginalized groups more opportunity while also allowing for fresh ideas and vaster perspectives which is equally beneficial to the success of a publication. Research from the Boston Consulting Group found that in 2019, companies with above-average diversity in management produced innovation revenue that was 19% higher than companies with below-average levels of diversity in the workplace (Lorenzo).

A lack of diversity in the fashion industry comes at a real cost. Culturally insensitive mishaps not only result in an exclusion that limits a publication’s audience, but it also results in a backlash that can soil a publication’s reputation and its revenue. If editors like Wintour hire more diverse teams, they will have diverse perspectives behind their publications which could perhaps help to avoid offensive mishaps. For example, perhaps Wintour would have avoided publishing an offensive editorial of the white model, Karlie Kloss, in yellow face and pictured as a Geisha if she had a more diverse staff at the time that could have identified that this was an act of cultural appropriation. It is the editor’s responsibility to strive for inclusivity in the workplace and to hire diverse staff members to do right by their readers.

This shows that there is a real monetary value that comes with inclusivity in workplaces, which is yet another reason editors should strive for diverse images, voices, and teams. This works against any beliefs that by publishing pieces that speak to minorities, magazines risk producing content that speaks to the majority. In 2017, Alexandra Shulman, former editor of Vogue U.K., claimed that her "chief remit was not to show ethnic diversity as a policy," because "you would sell fewer copies,” after facing criticism for the publication’s lack of diversity. In her twenty five years as editor of the publication, only twelve Black models appeared on the cover. Her comments were denounced and criticized by many, including Black model and activist Naomi Campbell (Petter).

This lack of inclusivity is somewhat unsurprising, especially when, in the same week, Shulman included a photo of her all-white staff in an issue. With the amount of criticism that followed this incident, Shulman was asked to step down and was replaced by Edward Enninful, the first person of color to edit the publication in its 100-year history (Indvik). This proves that to create publications that speak to the readership, inclusivity behind the scenes is a must. Thankfully, the public is beginning to push back against non-inclusive media, and as we’ve seen in Shulman’s case, this pushback can be enough to end the career of an editor or the success of the publication itself. Yet it’s important that those in leadership do not make diversity a priority for their own gain or success, but for the gain of the marginalized voices that have not been given the opportunity before.

The hope is that by including diverse voices in the fashion industry organically, editors will no longer feel that they need to check off boxes to fit certain criteria when it comes to diversity in the workplace, or within their publication’s pages, but that by giving minorities more opportunity, inclusivity will occur naturally. I’ve seen issues of a lack of inclusivity within fashion but I’ve also seen what happens when leaders treat diversity in fashion as boxes that they need to check off in order to avoid getting “called out.” For example, when working as a buyer for a women’s clothing store, my boss came under heat for the lack of inclusivity in both her staff and her marketing campaigns, as all models in her ads were thin white women, a representation that did not fully reflect her customer base. My boss reacted as if she were being attacked and began crying in the workplace and continually claiming how “not racist” she was and how the individual that called her out in the press for lack of inclusivity was doing so for separate political reasons.

Our team watched uncomfortably as she asked one of her store managers, the only person of color she had on staff, a woman who had never modeled and didn’t seem to have any interest in doing so, to participate in a live video with the owner promoting our new fall line. We all cringed as we watched our coworker participate in this video, which she had never been asked to do before this incident, and which she had no prior training or experience for. Noticing that my coworker was uncomfortable, I approached her after, and we discussed the issue. My coworker remarked that she felt she was being used to protect the boss, a wealthy white woman, and that being the staple person of color in spaces was something she was used to. She also stated that if she turned down doing the video, she feared that our boss would react strongly and that it would be easier to just do it rather than explaining to our boss that what she was doing was in itself racist.

Our boss had never chosen to highlight her only Black employee until she had been called out for a lack of diversity, and in doing so, it was not for my coworker’s gain, but for her own. She wasn't choosing to elevate the voice of this employee but was rather using her as a visual to show audiences that she was not racist, and hired people of color, even if just one. It is incidents like this where diversity gets tricky, but I feel it is one we can solve when we allow more diverse voices throughout an organization, and especially in positions of leadership, rather than having one “staple” person of color on staff or none at all.

However, it’s important to note that hiring with inclusivity in mind is only half of the conversation. In these spaces where, in many cases, marginalized groups are just now getting an opportunity, there needs to be work done to create a safe space for minorities through training and company culture initiatives. The fashion industry needs to use its resources to take action to create a sense of belonging and inclusion to allow for the safety of minorities working in fashion.

While our modern-day “cancel culture” can be at times brutal, it can also push for change in industries where some may have otherwise felt powerless. While the fashion industry and fashion publications have much work to do, we are seeing slow, incremental change. If the likes of Anna Wintour are promising their readers that they are striving to do better in terms of diversity in their workplaces and editorial pages, I feel that we are headed in the right direction. The fashion industry and its leaders need to be educated, and fast, to make sure they reflect the changes their readers want to see in their pages, and in society.

In the magazine industry today, it’s necessary that editors listen to the diverse voices of their staff members and their readers to create content that speaks to all. In this struggling industry, it will be a must for keeping publications alive. Ultimately, the fashion industry needs to get to a place where editors do not consider issues of diversity and inclusion as quantifiable quotas they need to check off to meet certain standards, but that diversity in these spaces becomes the norm and a strength.

Thanks to our current political and cultural climate, and the power of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, the fashion industry has been forced to take a step back and reexamine its practices when it comes to inclusion as well as fashion’s effect on the environment. This year’s October issue of Vogue features hip-hop artist Lizzo, the first plus-sized Black model to appear on the publication's cover. The artist announced via Instagram "I am the first big black woman on the cover of @voguemagazine. The first black anything feels overdue. But our time has come." In her cover story, the artist speaks on how many fans look to her as a role model for body positivity, but that she would rather work to normalize her body type than make people “work” to accept it (Rankine).

It is clear that the BLM movement has caused inclusivity to become a priority for fashion publications, with magazines like Vogue publishing black figures on their covers the last four issues in a row. However, many Black voices in the fashion industry fear that leaders in fashion may treat this movement as a trend rather than a change in how the industry works to elevate diverse voices indefinitely. While we may be seeing more diversity in publications today, it is important that this diversity is a reality people can see in the world around them rather than something that is trending.

For example, Benoit Guinot, co-founder of The Claw Models agency, which works with many fashion publications and advertisers, saw a high increase in demand for black models in the wake of the BLM Movement. Guinot stated, “I am afraid of the trend and the fact that everyone wants to jump on it now. Of course, it's still visibility for people of color and diversity but the real matter is what are we going to do after that? How do we make sure that this is going to last?” One suggestion from Guinot is to educate brands on the commercial value of diversity in the fashion industry.

Guinot notes that the end goal would be a commitment to diversity in the fashion industry that is embedded throughout the entire fashion system. In reference to the diversity of his agency’s casting, Guinot states that what his company is doing is normal and nothing special: “What is not normal, is a lack of diversity”(Guilbault). In terms of the future of fashion, its publications, and its leaders, a lack of diversity as the anti-norm in their pages and in the creation of their pages, is perhaps the best way to move forward toward reflecting the diverse reality of the world around us.

Works Cited:

Bryant, Taylor. “What Does Diversity in Magazines Mean in 2019?” Fashionista, 20 Dec. 2019, fashionista.com/2019/12/diversity-in-magazines-2019.

Guilbault, Laure. “Can Diversity in Fashion Be Systemic?” Vogue Business, Vogue Business, 14 July 2020, www.voguebusiness.com/fashion/can-diversity-in-fashion-be-systemic.

Indvik, Lauren, et al. “Edward Enninful on Vogue, Gen Z and What Makes a Great Editor.” Vogue Business, 5 Aug. 2019, www.voguebusiness.com/companies/edward-enninful-interview-editor-in-chief-british-vogue.

Lee, Edmund. “The White Issue: Has Anna Wintour's Diversity Push Come Too Late?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Oct. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/business/media/anna-wintour-vogue-race.html.

Lorenzo, Rocío, et al. “How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation.” United States - EN, United States - EN, 17 July 2020, www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2018/how-diverse-leadership-teams-boost-innovation.

Petter, Olivia. Don't Lose Hope for Vogue after Alexandra Shulman's Disaster Interview. 13 Nov. 2017, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/vogue-ethnic-diversity-alexandra-shulman-edward-enninful-change-black-minority-models-fashion-a8052706.html.

Rankine, Claudia, and Photography by Hype Williams. “Lizzo on Hope, Justice, and the Election.” Vogue, www.vogue.com/article/lizzo-cover-october-2020.

Welteroth, Elaine.“White Paper Family.” More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say), Viking, 2019, pp. 16–17.