Amid creative shakeups and a luxury slowdown, the fashion industry must confront how its lack of diverse creative leadership is stifling progress.
There are significant changes happening in the fashion industry right now. According to Vogue Business, the global luxury market lost 50 million customers in 2024, highlighting a sharp decline in sales. McKinsey’s State of the Consumer Report 2024 found that despite the fact that the luxury client base is more diverse than previous years, consumer loyalty is decreasing. Simultaneously, as the luxury consumer base grows more diverse, the presidential administration has targeted and rolled back DEI initiatives through executive orders. Part of the reasoning behind the lack of consumer excitement and decrease in consumer spending is attributed to the lack of diversity found within the creative direction at major fashion brands.
As of April 2025, there have been at least ten creative director appointments and eight exits in the last six months alone. However, across the nine debuts this Spring/Summer 2025 season, only three were women and one person, Haider Ackerman for Tom Ford, was a person of color. The phenomenon coined “white man musical chairs” by many fashion journalists has been circulating as the wave of new appointments and continues to reinforce the idea that the current majority of creative directors (CDs) are white men. Creative directors are at the top of the chain for fashion brands as they determine the perspective of the brand itself, which funnels into the products that are made for consumers. The current DEI cutbacks in the fashion industry are part of the reason why the growing diverse luxury consumer base isn’t connecting with the luxury brands themselves. If this trend continues, the luxury industry will continue to stifle. Vogue analyzed the diversity of the creative directors at 35 of the top luxury brands, along with five additional new designer appointments. Among this group of 40 designers, only 10 positions were held by women.
- Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior
- Sarah Burton at Givenchy
- Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta
- Donatella Versace at Versace (who has now stepped down and been replaced by Dario Vitale)
- Sandro Choi at Jimmy Choo (the only woman of color)
- Veronica Leoni at Calvin Klein
- Miuccia Prada at Prada and Miu Miu
- Stella McCartney at Stella McCartney
- Chemena Kamali at Chloé
- Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski at Hermès
There are three creative directors who are men of color: Pharell Williams at Louis Vuitton, Maximilian Davis at Ferragamo and Haider Ackerman at Tom Ford. What’s interesting about these creative director appointments is that so many of the male directors are head executives of Ready-To-Wear (RTW), aka the womenswear leg of these designer brands. Fashion director and consultant Jeanie Annan-Lewin said, “If you’ve got a bunch of people designing out of the same narrow male gaze, we’re just pushing the same message over and over again.” 61% of luxury fashion consumers are women yet the top creative positions are held by men, which highlights disparity in the industry. There is also a huge difference in the perceived disparity of diversity in general within the industry. According to The Guardian, 86% of white men in luxury fashion think the industry is diverse, while only 46% of women of color believe the same. This is an illuminating statistic that underscores the inequity of diverse positions within the industry.
There are a few reasons explaining why the fashion industry is suffering from a lack of diversity. This issue is not just excluded to fashion, as systemic issues that permeate Western society currently experience having an inherent impact on the hiring practices along with diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, affecting practically every industry. DEI as a whole has come under attack from the Trump administration based on the perception that, in the United States, people of color are being hired for the sake of diversity rather than merit. As mentioned earlier, the luxury industry is in a slowdown period and has been for the past couple of years. During a time where the market as a whole is less stable, new perspectives from diverse creative directors seem quite “risky.” As the luxury industry continues to navigate changing tides regarding switching out creative directors, facing waves of tariffs that will impact production costs, and taking orders from a presidential administration that looks down on diversity as a whole, fashion companies nationwide will need to find a way to reconnect with their consumer base.
The industry has been playing it safe for many years by consistently putting white men in positions of power, but when given a platform to shine, female directors and directors of color are successful at creating buzz around their collections, which translates into sales. This can be seen in the acclaimed collections of Pharell Williams debut SS24 collection for Louis Vuitton, which according to Vogue Business, garnered more than 1 billion views across social platforms, hosted over 1700 guests at the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris for the show and balanced sleek tailoring with retro hip-hop motifs in the streetwear focused collection. Black culture is often incorporated into the industry with rappers and prominent NFL or NBA players at store openings and fashion shows. However, even though Black culture is used to boost brand awareness, it’s not common for Black designers to be given the opportunity to make strides within the industry in meaningful ways. Meanwhile, female designer Dilara Fındıkoğlu, who is based out of London, has built a rising cult following. Her designs have made it onto numerous red carpets and her pieces have been worn by pop stars such as Charli xcx and Doja Cat.
In a world where people are surrounded with diversity in their everyday lives, it’s not surprising that consumers want diverse and exciting viewpoints from luxury brands. However, if the luxury brands want to reflect said diverse reality, they need to push back against the current political environment by wholeheartedly embracing hiring more women and people of color in positions of power in order to platform new stories that resonate with audiences everywhere.
Written by Faith Phillips