Aurora James on the Future of DEI in Fashion

The Run-Through with Vogue

Vogue

Fashion & Beauty, Arts

4.2 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With DEI rollbacks affecting every facet of American business and culture, this week’s episode of the Run-Through is a timely conversation between Nicole Phelps and Aurora James, the founder the 15% Pledge, a non-profit organization whose aim is to engage retailers to give 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.

In this candid conversation James talks about the organization’s success stories, the importance of industry support for small, independent brands, and the responsibility she feels to ensure the organization’s success.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of The Run Through is brought to you by eBay.
0:03.7	I'm Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue's Beauty Editor at large.
0:06.9	Everyone's talking about tassels right now, and that's the moment that I end up typing it into eBay.
0:11.5	I found the perfect vintage triple chain belt with golden tassels, and it just looks so elegant, timeless, and it's on the way in the mail to me thanks to eBay.
0:27.6	This is The Run Through. I'm Nicole Phelps. Today I'm joined by Aurora James, the founder of a 15%ledge, a nonprofit launched in 2020, with a goal
0:39.3	to have retailers commit 15% of their shelf space to black-owned businesses. We talked about
0:44.9	the 15% pledge origin story, its wins, and the challenges she's facing as many companies
0:50.2	continue their rollbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We also discussed her work as the
0:55.5	creative director and founder of luxury accessories brand Brother Vellies and her obsession with
1:00.2	vintage shopping. Here's my conversation with Aurora.
1:07.8	Well, thank you very much for being here. Oh, thank you for having me. I'm excited to chat with you today.
1:12.9	We are here to talk about DEI rollbacks in the fashion industry. This is something you have spent a lot of time thinking about and working on. How, in your experience, has the fashion industry done when it comes to diversity, equity, inclusion. I can't even imagine a bigger question.
1:29.8	Right.
1:30.3	I mean, I think first we'd have to define what diversity, equity, and inclusion means, right?
1:36.8	Because it means a lot of different things, so a lot of different people, which I read about a lot in my comment section.
1:43.0	But I think for me, it's about this idea of creating
1:46.2	a diverse meritocracy, right? Making sure there are a lot of different voices that are represented
1:50.8	in a room, in a company, in the world, in seats of power, and in, like, cultural archives.
2:00.5	That's kind of what I think about a lot.
2:02.7	And I think historically fashion's done a pretty bad job,
2:05.6	especially at like first person narration from people of color.
2:10.2	And so five years ago, you launched the 15% pledge to begin addressing some of these issues.
	...

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