Luxury brands are still trying to figure out how they can incorporate diversity into their workforce and brand identity.
According to Maloni Goss, Chanel’s Head of Insights, there’s a big need for luxury brands to embrace diverse cultural perspectives and gender identities if they hope to reach more conscious consumers.
The “table stakes” are higher, she said, adding that Gen Z and millennials currently have the greatest impact on the luxury market. The two demographics care deeply about different shapes, sizes and skin tones, she said in reference to a McKinsey report focusing on aspirational luxury consumers.
“Traditional brands are still figuring out how to incorporate some of those aspects into their marketing campaigns,” Goss said during the Lead Innovation Summit in New York City on Wednesday. “There’s really an opportunity there.”
In Chanel’s case, the retailer has aimed to increase its share of diversity. In May, Chanel’s president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky told the Guardian that Chanel could be for all consumers. Pavlovsky boasted during the brand’s first show in Marseille, France that it did not want Chanel “to be stuck.”
But even so, Chanel’s reputation has come under close scrutiny, largely due to its complicated relationship with former creative director Karl Lagerfeld. The decorated designer who donned a long silver ponytail and dark sunglasses was notoriously known for comments that were racist, misogynistc, and fat-phobic.
Goss said that greater diversity is an “internal and public need” that ultimately relies on luxury brands “accepting larger sizes, reflecting diverse consumers in their marketing, and hiring people of color.”
“It’s clear that that there’s an opportunity,” she said, adding that its up to brands to think about what’s causing that gap and how the industry can better represent and reflect the real world.