Modeling a Fairer, Safer

Fashion Industry

This month, we are working to create a more just fashion industry, supporting emerging community investors in the Appalachian region of the United States, honoring a pioneering Jewish American philanthropist and visionary Asian American and Pacific Islander filmmakers, and revisiting an early leader in community funding.

Fashion is a trillion-dollar industry built on perceptions of glamour and decadence, from glossy magazine covers to celebrities gliding down red carpets. However, for millions of workers around the world, the reality behind the scenes is much uglier: Conditions are often exploitative and unregulated, from factory workers being denied fair pay and reasonable hours to models being forced into unsafe environments and denied the autonomy to see their own contracts. Racial and ableist discrimination persists at every level of decision-making, threatening not only individual livelihoods but setting narrow, exclusionary social narratives about who is allowed and who is not.

Amid these challenges, leaders in the fashion industry are coming together to create a new norm of acceptance, respect, and creativity. This month on “Ideas at Ford,” Model Alliance founder and executive director Sara Ziff, Tilting the Lens founder and CEO Sinéad Burke, and The Cut editor-in-chief and Black in Fashion Council co-founder Lindsay Peoples joined host Charles Blow to discuss how they are furthering equality for fashion workers around the world. They are elevating creatives from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives, fighting for policies that protect workers from harassment and predatory financial arrangements, improving accessibility for workers with disabilities, and creating a broad vision for labor solidarity.