The Unfiltered Truth About the $2.5 Trillion Fashion Industry

We’ve confused cheap praise for validation, digital following for influence, and hype for talent.

Working in the global $2.5 trillion fashion industry I’ve seen people succeed, fall, and rise again. I’ve seen laughter, tears, betrayal, theft, jealousy, and nepotism. In just six years working in London I’ve seen hundreds of local editors, brands, PRs, executives, interns, designers, photographers, stylists, and models leave their jobs, to later pop up when another opportunity arises. 

Because in fashion, no one ever leaves in fear of losing relevance. The highs are too good. In fashion, work and leisure are so interconnected that your social circle is always walking on thin ice. Go against the grain and risk it all. In fashion, I’ve been dismissed and laughed at by the exact same people who have come to kiss my ass when I rose through the ranks at The Business of Fashion and Highsnobiety.

In fashion, we’re fluent in hypocrisy. We’re all such good friends, but on my terms. In fashion, we eat organic but won’t give up excessive alcohol or drug use. Because in the room where there is always someone more important we need the confidence to work our way into their arms, until next Thursday when that person’s director is attending. 

In fashion, we love sustainability, responsibility, eco-everything as long as a blind eye is turned to the perpetrating brands that pay our bills. In fashion, we share shocking metrics on our industry’s impact across our social channels less than a week after posting our latest partnership with fast fashion giants that we’ve shot, styled and whose businesses we’ve amplified. 

In fashion, we talk a big game about inclusivity while we forgive racist designers, casting directors, press, and influencers. Because we believe that it’s simply their following and clout we need, we can dismiss their ethics. 

In fashion, we give you a fair chance at employment as long as you can live in a top tier city where your parents can foot the rent. 

In fashion, the same brands that talk about body inclusivity only offer sample size. In fashion, we’ll sell you literally anything but bigger sizes for men or adaptive clothing for those less abled.

In fashion, we especially love talking about our safety practises while we silence the survivors of sexual assault but refuse to turn our backs on the perpetrators. I once had a breakfast with the creative director of a big European luxury brand who told me they were torn in their stance about a rapper friend, an accused sexual assaulter, as they knew his family. Later that year a world famous fashion editor of a major publication was equally torn about their view on their accused sexual assaulter photographer friend. He, after all, was a friend of the family. Because in fashion, we denounce assault, as long as it’s outside of our own realm. We’ll work with the rest. 

In fashion, we’re plagued by hyper insecurity. In school, most of us just weren’t that cool. We’re the nerds, the fashion geeks, the outcasts, and the bullied. So for decades we’ve created our own fantasy football league of made up hierarchy. You can sit in the meeting but please don’t interrupt me when I’m speaking. 

In fashion, we’ve forgotten about Rana Plaza, the eating disorders we’ve caused, and the people we continue to exclude. In fashion, we’ve treated inclusivity as a box checking exercise.

In fashion, we wont show up to your brand’s show if you put us second row at a fashion show, we’ll cut off your publication if you negatively critique our brand, we’ll boycott you entirely if our creative directors ego is hurt. In fashion, we’ve turned fashion week into a pageant. Who is in and who is out is a carefully orchestrated spectacle created by the gate keeping brands, PRs, and agencies that continue to operate in a world they refuse to evolve. Oblivious to the fact that there’s a new generation of creators, critics, buyers, PRs, photographers, stylists, models and designers who have created an ecosystem of their own. For us by us. 

In fashion, the rug under which we swept it all has piled up so high that we’ve made the problematic culture our unique selling point for new entrants. In fashion, only a few win. In fashion, we rule by fear with a smile while wearing a Prada coat and holding a glass of champagne. Don’t you know we won’t drink Prosecco? Because in fashion, everyone but us knows that every cliche is true.

We’ve confused cheap praise for validation, digital following for influence, and hype for talent.

In fashion, we’ve most of all forgotten what attracted us to the industry in the first place before our longing for belonging soured into frustration for not having as much as the next person. We’ve forgotten how it felt when we found our people for the first time. How we once wanted each other to succeed and push creativity forward as it would validate us all.

In fashion, we’ve all benefited from the immense privilege of seeing the best places, meeting the best people, and experiencing the best moments of magic that are hard to describe to others who haven’t witnessed it for themselves. But in fashion, I’ve found no home. We’ll always be the outsiders. 

In fashion, we can do better, be better. We can choose the people we work with, who we celebrate, who gets to exist in our pioneering space. We must decide how much and who we want to impact with our work. Make them understand how it’s done. Evolve or die. 

So come back tomorrow, we’re doing it all again.