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vogue

British Vogue Releases First Braille Edition In Publication’s 107-Year History 

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British Vogue has released a braille edition of its magazine for the first time in the publication’s 107-year history. 

The issue, which is released this month, is also being made available in audio format as a means of increasing accessibility to people who are blind or partially sighted. 

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The publication’s editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, wrote on Instagram: “The Vogue team and I are delighted by the response to the May issue, but what the process of making it taught us is that what’s most important are tangible and lasting changes.

“Vogue and the fashion and publishing industries have a great deal to do still, but it makes me very happy to see the arrival of these first braille issues today.”

The title of the issue is “Reframing Fashion,” and as a whole it will focus on disability justice, accessibility, and pride. 

Tilting the Lens is an accessibility and inclusion consultancy company that worked with British Vogue on the issue. The company is well known for working as an advisor for brands like Netflix and Starbucks on how to make their businesses more disability-friendly. The edition features 19 disabled individuals from fashion, sport, activism, and the arts. 

There will be five covers available for the special issue, each of which will highlight an influential disabled activist or prominent public figure, such as actor Selma Blair and consultant editor Sinéad Burke. 

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Enninful recently spoke to the media about his own experiences with having an invisible disability. 

“I’ve had five retinal detachments, I’m partially blind and my hearing is less than 50% – I’m wearing hearing aids now. It’s never stopped me, but there are so many people with invisible disabilities who never talk about it, because it might hinder them. I’ve never had that fear,” he explained. 

“When I’m reading, it’s still difficult: when I’m doing interviews, I have to ask people to talk at a certain level. But these are things that are me; these are things that I’ve embraced. We always talk about diversity and inclusivity, but that also has to extend to our disabled brothers and sisters.”

Individuals will have the opportunity to receive an audio file and the ability to print a braille file of the issue from their own home for free, as well as register to be sent a physical braille copy of the issue. 

Enningful was initially made editor-in-chief in 2017, and from the beginning has promoted his message and goals of increasing inclusivity and diverse representation in fashion. He’s turned down advertising from major fashion brands during his time with British Vogue due to their vision’s not aligning with his desire to increase inclusivity. 

Enninful was also awarded an OBE for his services and work to implement more diversity in the fashion industry.

Television Academy Makes Changes To Be More Inclusive To Nonbinary Entertainers 

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The Television Academy has announced a small list of new changes they would be implementing in the future in terms of inclusivity for entertainers, as well as allowing for a wider range of films and television shows to be eligible for nomination. 

The Academy announced that they would be recognizing gender-nonbinary performers in the Emmy competition specifically. Effective immediatly any nonbinary nominee and/or winner of a given category can request that their nomination certificate and Emmy statuette carry the term “performer” instead of “actor” or “actress” which are traditionally gendered terms. 

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“We aren’t abolishing the actor, actress, supporting actor or supporting actress categories, but acknowledging that no performer category titled ‘actor’ or ‘actress’ has ever had a gender requirement for submissions.”

Asia Kate Dillion from the show “Billions” was the first nonbinary performer to get a role on a major TV show that was nominated for an Emmy back in 2017. At the time, Dillon asked the TV Academy to clarify its gender distinctions, but ended up asking to just be entered into the “supporting actor” category.

Last year, Dillion continued the fight for inclusivity for nonbinary performers, and wrote an open letter to the SAG Awards in which they asked yet again to drop the gendered acting categories. 

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“I now realize that being submitted or nominated within categories that reinforce the gender-binary should have been met with my outright rejection of those nominations, alongside calling for change.”

The MTV Movie & TV Awards and the Television Critics TCA Awards have implemented nonbinary categories in recent years, setting a hopeful precident for future award shows. Dillion and other activists have continued to emphasize that separating performers by gender in terms of these cateogries only works to further emphasize prexisting inequalities between men and women without even taking into account nonbinary performers. 

The TV Academy also announced that documentaries will be restricted more in terms of their nomination eligibility for multiple major awards. Many have complained in the past that documentaries are able to “double dip” with the Oscars and Emmys due to a lack of clarification within the categories. 

Starting in 2022, “documentary films placed on the AMPAS viewing platform will be ineligible for Emmy consideration. In other words, any film placed on the AMPAS viewing platform will be deemed a theatrical motion picture and thus ineligible for the Emmy competition.”

Target Store

Target Announces Diversity Plans To Increase Number Of Black Employees By 20%

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Companies all across the country have been put under fire in recent months as the Black Lives Matter movement has been mainstreamed, prompting consumers to call on their favorite brands to step up their inclusion and advocacy for racial justice. 

This Thursday, Target pledged to increase the amount of Black employees across its entire workforce by 20% over the next three years. Target has around 350,000 employees in America, a majority of which are white, especially in their executive and leadership positions. 75% of its leadership team is White and 8% is Black; based on data from 2019. 

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When it comes to the retailer’s overall workforce – including part-time employees – 50% are White, 25% Latino, and 15% are Black; making up the top three groups. Within their pledge, however, Target also mentioned their many previous initiatives to increase representation within their stores and in their corporate offices. They claimed to have doubled their representation of non-White officers in the past five years; equating to about 30%. However, only 5% of that population is Black. 

Target also mentioned how now more than half of their stores are run by women and a third are managed by people of color, however, during a movement that is heavily focused on the injustices Black individuals face on a daily basis, consumers aren’t satisfied with the minimal effort they believe Target has put forward. Chief human resources officer for Target, Melissa Kremer, recently posted a news release regarding Target’s new pledge for inclusivity. 

“Inclusivity is a deeply rooted value at Target and we’ve had an ambitious diversity and inclusion strategy for many years for our guests and team. We know that having a diverse workforce and inclusive environment creates a stronger team.”

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Kremer went on to claim that Target would be emphasizing its recruitment and hiring of Black employees and look for new ways to advance their careers once they join the company. Anti-racist training will be implemented as well as new diversity programs that will focus on things like technology, merchandising and marketing; all aspects of Target’s corporate culture that’s mainly run by White individuals. 

Target is no stranger to publicly advocating for issues of social justice. They’ve made public statements telling customers not to carry guns in stores and welcomed all transgender customers to use their bathrooms and changing rooms whenever they need; which caused conservative groups to boycott the brand. 

After George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis Police this year, Target CEO Brian Cornell and other top executives released a statement expressing their pain over Floyd’s death, and made a call for change. He joined a subcommittee of the Business Roundtable to look for new policy recommendations that would directly address the issues with US law enforcement as well as create more opportunities for individuals who were previously incarcerated and looking for work. 

Other retailers joined target in this initiative by donating to civil rights causes and setting new standards when it comes to hiring and recruiting employees in the future. 

Womens Accessories

Brands That Are Putting Inclusivity At The Forefront Of Their Skin-Tone Products 

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In the beauty industry, the term “nude” often only refers to a minimal range of light skin tones that would only actually be “nude” for individuals with white skin. Some brands around the world are attempting to combat this inclusivity issue by creating lines of “nude” products that actually range in shades to be accessible for anyone. 

Shades Of Shades is a new sunglasses brand that specializes in making luxury nude eye-wear for all skin tones. They have a wide variety of standard eyeglasses and sunglasses as well. Marsha Douglas-Sydnor is the founder of the brand who also helped create the online shade finder tool on their website that can help people from home match which eye-wear products will match their specific skin tone the best. 

Rebecca Allen founded her own shoe brand, named after herself, after growing frustrated with the “variety” of nude heels that women of color are forced to choose from for their business attire. Her website has a standard 5 nude shades that range in lightness and darkness to be more inclusive. Allen sells heels, flats and sandals. 

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Salone Monet is another new nude shoe brand that runs their business on the motto “nude is not a color.” The brand has a total of six shades that fit a large range of skin tones. The shoes themselves are made in Italy and have grown to be very popular online within the past few months. 

Kahumune also sells nude shoes but is mainly known for their “Find Your Nude” shade matching guide which is said to be extremely accurate. The brand has a total of ten different shades of shoe, and with every purchase the website provides you with a list of different makeup foundation shades from popular brands like Fenty Beauty and Bobbi Brown that match the nude you chose. 

Nubian Skin is one of the most well-known brands on this list, as it’s one of the first women’s undergarment brands to specifically cater to darker skinned consumers. The company was founded on the principle of providing nude lingerie and beyond for women of color who were tired of exclusively buying light nude undergarments. The brand now offers intimates for men as well. 

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Nude Barre is another undergarment company advertised for women of color. The brand was founded 11 years ago and at the time was one of the most inclusive lingerie brands for women of color on the market. Erin Carpenter founded the company back in 2009. Carpenter is a professional dancer so wearing tights and nude undergarments was always a necessity depending on the costume she had to wear. After years of struggling to find a solid brand for her skin tone, she took matters into her own hand and just created one herself. 

Fenty Beauty is one of the biggest beauty brands on the market today and with good reason. Rihanna broke barriers when she launched the brand in 2017 with a foundation line that included 50 different shades to help consumers really find their perfect skin match. The basis of all of Rihanna’s brands has always been inclusivity. As a woman of color herself, Rihanna has discussed multiple times how frustrating it was to always have to have make up on, but never the right shades that actually matched her. 

Now, Fenty Beauty has created a new standard for beauty brands everywhere, especially make up brands. Companies that continue to release “nude” lines with little to no dark tones are receiving major backlash and losing tons of revenue due to the existence of brands like Fenty or Nubian Skin, while brands that have embraced inclusivity as the basis of their products are rising in popularity. 

Makeup

Rihanna And Lady Gaga Are Changing How The World Defines Beauty

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The beauty industry has truly evolved tremendously within the past few years. What was once an industry that only used celebrities as an image to sell their products has become a large community in which anyone can grow a business one way or the other, and celebrities go about endorsements by simply making their own brand. The biggest name in the beauty industry in the past few years has been Rihanna. The platinum album singer started Fenty beauty in 2017 and it has rocked the beauty world. 

A major issue that has been very prominent in the beauty industry is a lack of access to make up for people of color. Time and time again brands would release foundation, concealer, and powders all geared to fair and light skin tones, with a couple of darker shades just thrown in. That same concept goes for the beauty industry in its entirety. Advertisements mainly including white cis-gendered female models who are skinny and blonde and appeal to the classic “girl next door” vision that companies for whatever reason don’t think is a tired concept. 

So when Rihanna announced the creation of her brand Fenty Beauty, which would begin with the release of 40 different foundation shades, the beauty world was flipped on its head. Rihanna also exclusively cast woman of color for the campaigns and opened her business as one discussing the importance of diversity and inclusivity in all realms of life. The brand made $570 million in revenue its first year. 

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After the iconic launch of Fenty Beauty the entire industry scrambled to try to right the wrongs of stocking non-inclusive makeup products that mainly appealed to white audiences. However, makeup users everywhere knew that older brands switching up their marketing were doing it as a means of viewing inclusivity as a “trend” and “smart business choice” over genuine desire to appeal to a broader audience of individuals. 

“Women are smart enough to see an eye shadow and not have to see it on a blond person for them to want to buy it, but we’ve been fed that marketing analysis. Fenty proved it was complete bullshit” said makeup artist James Kaliardos, who helped launch Fenty as a resident artist, in an interview with Billboard Magazine. 

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Lady Gaga more recently also made major headlines in the same way Rihanna did with the announcement of her own make-up brand “Haus Labs”. Gaga launched her brand with less product but just as much of an impact. The initial launch included eye liners, lip glosses/liners, and the Haus Labs exclusive ‘face lace’. These products may differ greatly compared to Fenty’s initial launch, however, both brands launched with a similar mentality behind what the brands were really about. Haus Labs made headlines with its advertisements including multiple members of the LGBT+ community. Gaga has always been known for her advocacy for the community and she didn’t disappoint this time either. Her launch party included a bunch of queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race, and LGBT+ models/performers both professional and social media based. 

“We are celebrating everyone. At the forefront [of the brand], as much as the products, were questions of how we were going to spread messages of bravery and kindness and inclusivity” said Sarah Tanno, Haus Labs Co-Owner and Gaga’s longtime make up artist. 

Both Gaga and Rihanna are amazing figures to be leading the beauty revolution of pop stars starting their own brands, as opposed to being used as just an image behind someone else’s vision, as a means of creating a larger global impact. This way, they can play by their own rules and who’s gonna tell them no? 

“Everything we put out there tells people to accept or not accept people, and we have to be aware of how we do that. There are pop stars who just do a look — and then pop stars who really take you on a journey,” said Kaliardos. 

It’s not about how large of a platform they have but more so how they choose to use it, and Rihanna and Gaga are showing the rest of the individuals in the industry exactly what they should be doing. Having creative control over your own brand is so important if part of the mission of that brand is to spread awareness and emphasize diversity and inclusivity.