Luxury clothing retailer Matchesfashion has joined Aurora James’ 15 Percent Pledge, becoming the first U.K. based company to join the commitment.
Established by Aurora in 2020, in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests taking place across America and globally, the 15 Percent Pledge is a non-profit organisation that encourages retailers to pledge at least 15% of their shelf-space to black-owned businesses.
Matchesfashion has committed 15% of its purchasing budget to Black-owned brands by 2026 (currently Black owned brands only make up 3% of the retailer’s stocks), as well as devising plans to increase the number of people of colour employed on the business side, including creatives and freelancers, to 15%.
“We will work closely with the Pledge on their mission to advance racial equality,” the company wrote in a post on Instagram. “As a business, we have set out several goals that we are working towards achieving internally. These are, but not limited to: reducing bias and increasing representation through our recruitment processes; ensuring 15% of freelance creative collaborators are Black; and ensuring 15% of artists and people of influence in our editorial content are Black. This is just the start of the work we are committed to doing at MATCHESFASHION, and will be sharing more initiatives in the coming months.”
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“As we approach our one-year anniversary, we could not be more excited that MatchesFashion is the first retailer in the United Kingdom to take the 15 Percent Pledge.” Aurora James said in a statement. “This partnership only underscores our momentum and shows that our movement to drive equity across the retail and beauty industries is just beginning.”
“We’re looking forward to working with MatchesFashion to create more diverse and equitable workplaces and hope this announcement inspires other companies across the globe to partner with us.”
Matchesfashion joins major retailers including Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Sephora, and luxury e-commerce brand Moda Operandi in being members of the 15 Percent Pledge.
