Ahead of the eighth annual celebration of World Afro Day on Sept. 15, over 100 supporters have signed an open letter to the UK government campaigning to make the UK the first Western nation with a law that protects people against hair discrimination.

In the US, 27 states have adopted similar legislation, which was first enacted as the Crown Act in California in 2019. These laws prohibit hair-based discrimination and require cosmetology schools to teach a curriculum on textured hair, which includes coiled, curly and wavy hair types.

The World Afro Day letter, spearheaded by the nonprofit organisation of the same name, calls upon the 2010 Equality Act to reform and include naturally curly or coiled hair as a protected characteristic. This act currently protects individuals from workplace discrimination based on race, sex, or disability.

Supporters of the letter include Beverly Knight, Patrick Hutchinson, Labour MP Paulette Hamilton and Spice Girls member Mel B, who expressed her experiences with hair discrimination and her stance on World Afro Day in an Instagram post. “I’m proud to support World Afro Day in its call for the Equality Act to protect against Afro hair discrimination in the UK,” she wrote.

Discriminatory and violent acts based on hair discrimination against the Black community can be traced back to the slave trade. Countless Black Britons still face hair discrimination in the workplace and schools, according to World Afro Day. Its letter cites that 98 percent of Black Britons feel that in order to fit into the workplace, they feel the need to adapt their speech, appearance and hairstyles. Children are unfairly penalised and sent home for wearing natural styles in their classrooms.

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How New Laws on Textured Hair Education Will Shake Up Beauty

The hair services industry has a long history of discrediting Black hairstyles such as braids, locs and twists as unworthy of study. Now, a new set of US state laws will finally require cosmetology and barber schools to teach students how to style curly hair types.

New York governor Kathy Hochul announced Thursday a new grant programme aimed at fostering sustainability and innovation in the state’s fashion industry.

New York state’s Fashion Innovation Center will dole out up to $10,000 in funding to support start-ups, farmers and researchers in their efforts to develop new materials, manufacturing technologies and agricultural processes. Awardees will also receive mentorship from experts in their industries as well as access to resources and equipment to accelerate their projects.

”Nothing is more synonymous with New York than fashion, and this industry generates more than $25 billion a year in wages for hardworking New Yorkers,” Hochul said in a statement. “With these grants though the Fashion Innovation Center, we are working together to advance innovative solutions and build a more sustainable industry.”

The initiative is part of a larger strategy by the state to revitalise the fashion industry by encouraging the growth of a New York-based supply chain in order to build a “sustainable and green economy,” said Hope Knight, president, chief executive and commissioner of New York state’s economic development agency. In 2022, Hochul announced $10 million in state funding for the Fashion Innovation Center to promote state-produced textiles.

According to a recent McKinsey report, New York’s fashion industry now employs 50,000 fewer people than a decade ago, with “declines of 30 to 50 percent in apparel and textile manufacturing jobs.”

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Is This the Year New York Regulates Fashion?

Two landmark bills taking aim at the industry’s environmental and social impact — the New York Fashion Act and the Fashion Workers Act — are back on the US state’s legislative agenda.

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Background

Clare Waight Keller’s career in fashion has been defined by her versatility as a designer and desire to step outside her comfort zone. She started out specialising in knitwear at the Royal College of Art before taking on a role in knitwear at Calvin Klein and moving on to Ralph Lauren. She returned to Europe to work at Gucci under Tom Ford, and then stepped into creative director roles at Pringle, Chloé and Givenchy. Last week, it was announced that she was becoming the creative director of Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo, which is targeted at the masses, not the classes.

Seeing new challenges as an opportunity to learn and grow, has led Waight Keller to make many unexpected decisions from the start of her career.

“Those moments when you are pushed to your boundaries and don’t quite know how to navigate … bring a great sense of drive for me. I love the idea of being uncomfortable with what I’m working on because it makes me learn quickly,” she said. “I enjoy the process of change, and I guess that’s why I’ve worked in so many different places.”

This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with Waight Keller to discuss her varied career path and her experience working in American, Italian, British, French and now Japanese fashion companies and how this has shaped her outlook on the industry.

Key Insights

• Growing up in Birmingham, England, Waight Keller was captivated by the vibrant subcultures she encountered. That influence led her towards art school, and eventually, fashion. “I distinctly remember standing at a bus stop, going to college, with punks, skinheads or goths — people who really expressed themselves through fashion and took it to a real sense of identity,” she said. “They just seemed like the most interesting people. I wanted to be part of that.”
• After working for predominantly male creative directors, Clare felt it was time to express her own perspective, leading her to the creative director position at Chloé in 2011. “There’s such a sensibility that women have in fashion because you try it on yourself, you wear it, you feel it,” she said. “I’m putting together what I believe to be my point of view of fashion and I really wanted to express that one day.”
• Waight Keller’s move to Uniqlo marked a shift from working in the world of luxury to mass fashion, which has required some adjustment. “Understanding the scale was just extraordinary. In luxury fashion, you work on a much smaller scale, even at big brands,” she said. However, with this came new opportunities. “With that scale comes incredible access to innovation, amazing fabric mills, and quality. They spend a lot of time developing the quality of their products.”
• Even as her career flourished, Waight Keller came to discover the inherent gender bias women face in the industry. “It’s still fairly male-dominated in management and across the business side of fashion ... I had to make my family work around my career because even a season out in fashion can put you back a year, and people look at you differently.” With that, her advice to fellow female designers is not to “be afraid of a challenge and having to learn on the ground. I think that’s actually how you really get knowledge and become valuable,” she says.

Additional Resources

• Do Mass Brands Need Creative Directors? This week, Uniqlo appointed Clare Waight Keller the creative director of its main line, while Stefano Pilati signed on for a collection with Inditex flagship Zara and Zac Posen staged a New York Fashion Week bash with Old Navy. The jury is still out on whether hiring designers from high-fashion will drive retail results.
• The Logic Behind Givenchy’s New Designer Appointment. Matthew M. Williams, founder of the luxury streetwear-inspired label 1017 ALYX 9SM, succeeds Clare Waight Keller. What expertise does he bring to the LVMH-owned brand?
• Uniqlo Appoints Clare Waight Keller as Creative Director. The British designer previously served as creative director at LVMH-owned Givenchy and Richemont’s Chloé.

The Biden administration’s move to close a loophole that allows low-value shipments to enter the US duty free won’t be a problem for Shein, executive chairman Donald Tang said in an interview Friday.

The conversation took place shortly after White House officials announced plans to crack down on a trade exemption for packages that fall under the $800 “de minimis” threshold. The provision was originally meant to make it easier for Americans to receive small parcels from abroad or bring home souvenirs from travels. But in recent years it’s facilitated a surge in trade from e-commerce companies like Shein and Temu, which ship direct to US consumers from China. Shares in Temu-owner PDD Holdings traded lower on the news.

But Tang said changes to the tax rules wouldn’t have a major impact on Shein’s market position. “Shein has a competitive advantage because of its on-demand model and not the de minimis rules,” Tang said. “The efficiency and the wide choice we provide gives the company not just a few points advantage, but a significant advantage.”

It’s unclear how quickly the rules in the US could change and there will be a period of consultation to give interested parties an opportunity to comment before they are finalised.

Tang said Shein would like to see any changes reflect taxes on the wholesale price when goods enter the country, rather than on the retail price. “We look forward to working with all stakeholders on reform,” Shein said in a statement. Changes should create a “level, transparent playing field,” it added.

Learn more:

US Looks to Curb Low-Value Chinese Shipments Under $800 ‘De Minimis’ Exemption

The White House announcement comes two days after Democratic lawmakers in Congress urged President Joe Biden to use executive powers to close the de minimis provision, which they called a “loophole” that has allowed Chinese imports to evade tariffs.