“Fashion gaffes are a reflection of the industry’s diversity problem” is an article written by Aileen Kwun for CNN. If I were to give this article a grade it would be an A. I give this grade for several reasons. The first of which is there was no sign of bias in the reporting. I appreciated this as a reader and know that it is important to other readers as well. There is nothing wrong with bias in opinion pieces as there is no way to escape it but in news pieces, such as this, it’s important to attempt to eliminate bias.
Secondly, this article linked many sources. A few of them are not see credible such as random tweets and a instagram profile. But they are crucial for adding nuance to the article. For the most part though the other sources are credible and clearly linked. An example of a credible source when Kwun wrote, “Chinese consumers account for nearly a third of spending on luxury goods worldwide” she sourced this information from Bain and linked the article as I have done so as well. Kwun also conducted several interviews for this piece which she quotes throughout the article.
Kwun herself seems to be credible as well. I was able to locate her on LinkedIn and her personal website where she links her various works. With this information along with what we learned about her from her writing I would say she is a credible writer. I didn’t find that Kwun failed to ask any questions in her reporting. She was very thorough throughout the entire article. Very detail oriented.
Th article itself was about some mess ups in the fashion industry that are actually an indicator of diversity problem. Chanel, Gucci, Burberry, and Prada are just a few brands mentioned throughout the article. These brands and others have appointed diversity and inclusion advocates but some are finding that they are still missing the mark.
A lot of the appointed advocates are white themselves and some people took issue with that. Some people do not understand how you can approach the problem in such a way that you are still excluding people of color. With social media the missteps do not go unnoticed. People are questioning how it can be that brands can continually mess up.
Kwun dives deeper into the question of how this happens. She writes, “brands pursuing profit at the expense of cultural sensitivity”. Kwun questions whether it is possible that brands simply do not care or do they just mistakenly miss the mark time and time again. I think it would be biased to simply say the brands don’t care. But it is possible to say that maybe they just don’t know better.
Kwun closes the article by talking about accountability. “While no fashion house has explicitly blamed their transgressions on insufficient in-house diversity, their responses to controversy offer a tacit acceptance of its role”. These fashion houses are making attempts to right their wrongs and that is worth acknowledging.
