Fashion’s Pipeline for Diverse Talent? A New Challenge With Affirmative Action Ruling
By the time the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action rolled around, much of fashion was already settled into their efforts around DE&I — whether that meant working hard at it or hardly working on it, given waning public pressure for progress.
Now, the decision that effectively ends admissions based on race means companies may need to shore up their DEI efforts if they are serious about investing in the pipeline for diverse talent as they’ve promised.
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The court decision dealt “a blow to one of the main levers folks in the DEI space have relied on for decades in higher education,” said KeyAnna Schmiedl, chief human experience officer at Workhuman, which helps companies focus on human connection using management software solutions. “The measure was an often overemphasized tool to help level an unequal playing field, which allowed folks to focus too much on who the tool was helping as opposed to the legacy measures that continued to lower the bar of opportunity for a broader range of communities.”
Schmiedl said the aftershocks of the decision will be felt in the workforce talent pipeline, “making it more important than ever for companies to dig deeper into their DEI goals as an organization, and critically examine their own cultures beyond the recruitment and hiring practices.”
Companies should look at: who makes up internal talent, how the business is investing in removing internal barriers to progress, what can be done now to ensure the current workforce is excited to share opportunities with their networks, and how that might impact the future of the organization, Schmiedl said.
The good news is, according to Tom Wilson, president at Frederickson, a Gallagher Company that specializes in placing chief diversity officers, “companies that are already committed to DEI as a way of doing business will not change that approach because of this ruling.
“They know that the business case still holds that a diverse workforce helps them meet customer needs, innovate better, grow their businesses and create an attractive work environment for employees,” he continued. “But they will need to add a new layer to make up for possible changes in the diversity of the candidate population, especially in early-career recruiting efforts. This may mean more deliberate efforts to develop/run programs focused on high-school and non-traditional, post-high school academic and non-academic sources of candidates.”
Fashion, as many other industries, has been guilty of leaning on the storyline that diverse talent has been too difficult to find or too sparse to rely on for progressively populating an organization. And that’s why many chief diversity officers and their respective teams have been focused on putting structures in place to find and cultivate talent early on.
At Prada, for one, cultivating talent has looked like backing artist Theaster Gates’ Experimental Design Lab, a three-year collaborative program designed to support creatives of color and amplify their work, whether they’re just getting started or could benefit from greater visibility.
At UPS and IMG, it meant launching a fund to help designers from HBCUs debut at New York Fashion Week.
At True Religion, plans were put in place to work with the Fashion Scholarship Fund to find students outside of the elite fashion school club for a program that would involve mentoring and an internship at the denim brand.
The Fashion Scholarship Fund is an education and workforce development nonprofit that has been working to award more than $1 million in scholarships each year for diverse students studying all sectors of fashion. In 2020, the late Virgil Abloh partnered with FSF to establish The Postmodern Scholarship Fund to improve equity and access for Black students in fashion.
The removal of affirmative action proves a setback for all students, according to Peter Arnold, executive director of the Fashion Scholarship Fund, who noted the decision broadens calls that had already been made in Michigan and California.
“Both the University of California and University of Michigan submitted arguments in favor of race-conscious affirmative action policies, not only citing severe drops in their Black and Indigenous enrollment post statewide bans, but also presenting the failed attempts of other strategies and tactics intended to make up for that loss. Neither school has been able to get to their pre-ban percentages and educators have cited the many ways that hinders progress for all students. I think that’s the part that is forgotten: all students suffer when they are not connected to diverse communities and experiences.”
The same is true of the workforce, he said.
And for fashion, which has a well-established history of being exclusive, “a decrease in representation across colleges and universities shrinks the pool of talent from diverse backgrounds coming from higher education,” Arnold said.
“Our industry is full of creatives, and now is the time to really ask ourselves ‘where does talent live?’” Arnold said. “At the FSF, we have been exploring for some time what it means to open up more pipelines into the industry to ensure that talent that would otherwise be lost can get into the industry. That’s the proactive work we have to do.”
For colleges and universities, the proactive work entails going even further back to build the pipeline.
LIM College president Elizabeth S. Marcuse told WWD while the decision “could prove to limit access for some students, particularly at ‘highly selective’ colleges and universities, [it]…does not directly impact LIM College’s admission policies. We are committed to continuing efforts that have been in place for many years to build strong partnerships and pipelines with many high schools, college-bound programs, and community colleges that have ethnically, racially and socioeconomically diverse populations both in the NYC Metro area and around the United States.”
While she admits there’s always work to be done, Marcuse said LIM students hail from 44 states and half identify as students of color. Having built diversity into its curriculum with a DEI minor on offer and plans to expand it, the aim is to “continue to make great strides in being a vehicle for change and improved representation in the fashion industry.”
It’s going to take ramping up DEI efforts to counter any impact from the Supreme Court’s ruling, experts agree.
For fashion, according to CFDA president CaSandra Diggs, it’s going to mean proactively creating ways to identify and recruit “well-deserved talents from marginalized and historically underrepresented communities.”
“Identifying historically disadvantaged talents through socioeconomic status, geographical origins, cultural practices and norms, club affiliations and other non-race-based factors could also build a channel for talent throughout our industry,” she said. “However, the work does not end there; we’ll need to provide skill development and training earlier than the college level as well as after the entry-level in order to grow and strengthen the talent pipeline.
“Additionally, we will need to build accountability for ourselves as an industry and as brands, and as individuals through greater levels of transparency as to where we are and what we are doing on DEIB.”
And especially now, it’s not a time to do away with DEI roles or leave those teams sidelined.
A handful of companies have recently announced changes in their DEI roles, with some positions eliminated and some leaders leaving. The Supreme Court decision came on June 29, and on June 30, Warner Bros. let go of Karen Horne, its senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, confirming to the L.A. Times the decision was part of a rethinking and reorganization of the company’s diversity organization. The company could not be reached for comment on Horne’s departure, but Asif Sadiq, its chief global diversity, equity and inclusion officer, is still part of the organization.
Rethinking strategies should not mean reducing the role DEI plays in an organization, experts contend.
“Regardless of whether the title of chief diversity officer is phased out, the function will always exist. Diversity is an inextricable part of people management; what is and will need to continue to shift is the sense that this work should continue to run alongside people functions as opposed to being embedded in leadership positions that also share responsibilities for these functions,” Schmiedl said. “The function will always exist because DEI initiatives aren’t there for decoration; they’re an essential part of building psychological bravery to continue to progress our ways of working. A truly inclusive culture can make or break employee engagement, which informs productivity, retention and much more.”
In fact, a Workhuman survey released in January this year found that one-third of respondents would leave an organization if they felt their employer wasn’t taking DEI and goals around it seriously.
“Employees aren’t willing to make compromises when it comes to culture and benefits at work. For many employees, these are the new definition of DEI-related priorities,” Schmiedl said.
CFDA’s Diggs remains hopeful that things will remain on the right side of equality, despite how things may seem now.
“While all of these independent happenings with DEI leaders can together appear concerning, I remain optimistic about these types of roles and the responsibilities they are tasked with,” she said.
“Let’s be honest, due to enormous economic uncertainty from unstable market forces, I would venture to assert all jobs are in jeopardy as companies look to reduce costs in reaction to slow revenue growth — or in some cases revenue decline. With that said, DEIB practitioners sit in a unique position to help companies develop their culture by bringing fresh perspectives, creativity and a broader range of experiences from diverse talents,” she said. “This work remains critical, and brands or industries that abandon this work will not fare well in the long term. I think many media and entertainment companies understand that as well and will, if they haven’t already, relaunch these roles but perhaps under different framework and title.”
RELATED: Are Companies Handling the Chief Diversity Officer Role All Wrong?
Whatever the framework, fashion can’t afford to fall behind in bringing more varied faces to the fore and creating the avenues for them to get there.
“Rising talent deserves pathways, that’s our philosophy. And speaking about that talent, they need to be a part of the discussion as well. Inclusion also means the industry, at times, needs to listen to those within the industry who have experienced adversity, discrimination and bias,” Arnold said. “Much of our progress over the last five years began with creating spaces for scholars and alumni to share their experiences on their campuses and within the industry. If we’re committed to equity, we have to move from good intentions to effective strategies.”
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