Kerby BoF
Designer Kerby- Jean Raymond founder of luxury brand Pyer Moss calls out BoF for its
1. Black People Are Not One- Dimensional
While we are a family. We are a colorful family, made up of different narratives, ideologies, religions and upbringings. Like all cultures, we have a commonality of experiences that unite us no matter where we are. But as Kerby points out in his statement, we are not one- dimensional.
“So many of these group panels just lump us all in, ‘Black in Fashion’ or ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ when the reality is my family is vastly different, making strides in every category– sustainability, politics, VC… but instead they make us speak all together in commonality of our blackness.”

2. You Do Not Own the Rights to Black Culture
I’ve written on this recently, “A Brief History of Black Inclusion in Fashion, Inclusivity is Important, But Ownership is Indispensable.“. Black Culture as Kerby put it, is not “up for sale.” White America through history has claimed ownership of people, land, language, music, art for centuries. And while we’ve progressed, the entitlement has shown up in several other ways. One

I’ve had my own experiences of larger white platforms exploiting my ideas and work for their own brand. Not only is it obvious,
3. We Need Allies, Not Opportunists
Allies are those with privilege who will go into the fight with us. Who
4. Diversity and Inclusion is Not a Trend
Do not use the terminology as a subcategory. The marginalize:, black and Latinx, transgender and non-binary people and People with disabilities should be making big decisions and leading the way in your companies–not just on the covers. And while they’re at it, you should take no credit for the content and success thereafter.
5. We Can Smell the B.S.
We can tell when you’re not really for us. As Kerby put it, our 4th eyes are open. We can smell a culture- vulture, an opportunist a mile away. We know when we’re being used.
Kerby BoF
Photo via vogue.com