Although no one can argue that fashion moves fast, the industry is slow to change. Sure, it seems like fashion is quickly evolving—we’re constantly witnessing specific trends or even items being catapulted into the cultural zeitgeist and amassing cult status seemingly overnight. While we might feel things continuously change from season to season, exposing the seams can tell a different story. Actual systemic change has not moved nearly as fast as everything else in fashion, for who gets to attain positions of power has remained essentially unchanged. Just to put it into perspective, late last year, Vogue Business reported that of the top 33 luxury houses, only three creative director positions are held by people of color in the 21st century.
It’s a fact that seems to fly in the face of the fact that we’ve recently witnessed the largest spike in cultural appetite for luxury fashion due to the quiet luxury movement that spans generations, demographics, and socioeconomic backgrounds. For so many people, the allure of investing in designer goods has never been higher, but with that desire also comes the stark realization that they can not always see themselves reflected within the luxury space. Even within something as harmless as the old money fashion aesthetic, how it’s reflected is tied not only to having wealth but also one’s proximity to whiteness. Within fashion, ideas about who the “typical” luxury consumer is and which creatives get to determine what high fashion is have long been exclusionary. But not all hope is lost—change is coming slowly.
With a new wave of fashion consumers, long gone are the days when pandering to the gallery works. Many shoppers only want to support brands that put their money where their mouth is by giving people of color positions of power. That shift in consumer behavior can be most adeptly traced to the rise in popularity of Ferragamo. Since the Italian fashion house appointed its first-ever Black creative director, Maximilian Davis, the brand has become the place for luxury lovers of all kinds to see their desires reflected on the runway. While the brand’s ready-to-wear collections have captivated the fashion crowd’s attention, the brand’s bags have received the most buzz thus far. In light of that, we’re sharing a list of the six best Ferragamo bags and why we believe that Davis’s appointment signals a change for the house and—dare we say—the wider industry. First, here’s a bit about this iconic Italian fashion house…
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