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 to amass “cult status” 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 nearly moved 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 thirty-three luxury houses, only three creative director positions are held by creatives of color in the 21st century, no less.
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 various 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 relaxation that they can not always see themselves reflected within the luxury space. Even within something as harmless as the fashion aesthetic “old money,” how it’s reflected is tied not just to having wealth but 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, we’ve seen that long gone are the days we’re pandering to the gallery works. Many shoppers only want to support brands that put their money where their mouths are 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. But first, a bit about this iconic Italian fashion house…