Designer urges fashion industry to support Black Lives Matter
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New York-based fashion designer Maxwell Osborne, co-creative director of Public School and DKNY, has called on the fashion industry to embrace the Black Lives Matter movement in an open letter.
Entitled ‘Why I Stand with Black Lives Matter’, Osborne wrote for W magazine: "I write this open letter to encourage the fashion industry to not just continue the dialogue of race in America, but to do something about it.
"Fashion exists in a world of make believe. Our job is to offer an escape from everyday life and a fantasy of glamour and beautiful clothes. It's easy to forget the real world with its very real problems. But it doesn't have to be that way."
Osborne added: "Fashion is always at its best when it looks outside of itself for inspiration and holds up a mirror to society. Sometimes we do that on the runway and sometimes when we come together as an industry and take up important causes, like so many of our peers have and continue to do with breast cancer and HIV/AIDS."
In the letter, Osborne reveals that he attended his first protest this month, following the police killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, and he highlighted how individuals within the industry could aid the cause.
“Stand with Black Lives Matter. Go out and educate yourself and learn how you can help and join the conversation as an active participant and not just as a passive, if well-meaning, observer. Encourage diversity on your runways and campaigns,” said Osborne. “Empower your social media fans to raise their voices. Use your designs for the public good. Attend a protest and see change in action. Raise awareness – it’s not as empty a gesture as it may seem – and others will follow your lead.”
His letter follows a protest by Black Lives Matter supporters at New York Fashion Week: Men’s where they called out the industry for its lack of diversity and representation.