The fashion industry presents a striking contradiction: women make up the majority of workers at entry-level positions, yet this numerical strength evaporates as soon as decisions about power and resources come into play. For Black women and other women of color navigating this landscape, the obstacles become even steeper, creating a disparity that extends far beyond representation and into questions of ownership, leadership, and financial control.
Data illuminates the scope of this imbalance. Research from McKinsey and the Council of Fashion Designers of America found that while women dominate entry-level roles across the industry, only 14 percent of major fashion brands have female executives in top leadership positions. The funding gap tells an equally stark story: in 2024, startups with women chief executives received just under 11 percent of venture capital funding in priced rounds, while male-led companies captured more than 89 percent. For many female founders, this disparity means investing their own money, time, and personal networks before investors will take their visions seriously.
The barriers facing women entrepreneurs in fashion extend beyond simple statistics. Access, visibility, mentorship, and opportunity remain heavily influenced by professional networks that have historically excluded women and proven even less accessible to women of color. Breaking through requires not only talent and innovation but also insider connections—the kind of social capital that has traditionally been more available to men.
These systemic challenges shaped conversations with several Black women building the next generation of fashion brands. Their perspectives reveal both the current realities they navigate and their visions for meaningful change within the industry.
For Nia Thomas, founder of her eponymous brand, equality means women controlling not just the creative work but the companies themselves, the capital, and the most influential positions within them. Thomas has experienced firsthand the bias that comes with being a woman founder. When visiting textile suppliers, she describes being looked up and down and assumed to be an assistant rather than the decision-maker. She has learned to arrive exceptionally prepared, standing tall while clearly stating her role and demonstrating expertise about fabric composition, quantities, and specifications. Only after proving her knowledge does she see perceptions shift. Thomas sees this constant need to establish authority as the real problem. Her hopes for the next generation focus on two essentials: capital and mentorship. Without meaningful access to funding and guidance from those who have already built successful businesses, even the most talented founders struggle to scale their visions.
Kaia Baker, founder of Quintessential, emphasizes the importance of equal opportunity to learn, grow, and exist in an equitable environment. For Baker, merit and accomplishment should determine who enters important rooms, not family connections or social circles. She acknowledges that the industry runs on relationships and informal networks, a dynamic that will not disappear quickly. However, she believes that hard work and building something valuable deserves recognition and celebration. Her message to emerging founders centers on confidence and unlimited potential. She encourages the next generation to dream boldly and execute even more boldly, refusing to place artificial ceilings on their ambitions.
Sade Mims, founder of Edas, has navigated the frustration of spending more time proving her competence than actually advancing her work. She has had to repeatedly explain and convince male peers that her vision holds weight, often requiring her to over-sell herself rather than allowing her career and experience to speak independently. Mims sees equality in the industry as requiring not just more women in creative director roles at major houses and executive positions where they can shape company culture, but also fundamental restructuring of how work itself operates. She points out that American work culture often pressures women to return from motherhood before they feel ready, creating an unnecessary choice between career relevance and family priorities. True equality, according to Mims, requires examining capitalism and work structures themselves, potentially learning from women's experiences about more sustainable and flexible approaches that could benefit everyone.
Danielle Laraque, founder of Laraque, envisions equality as women leading in historically male-dominated spaces with the confidence and authority to belong without constantly proving their right to be there. She points to the lack of female creative directors at major fashion houses as evidence that the industry has not yet reached this goal, though she celebrates recent appointments of women of color to influential creative positions as meaningful progress. Laraque emphasizes that women should not have to build fashion brands alone, noting that emerging male-founded brands often benefit from strong community support while women-led brands lack similar networks. She has tried to create spaces where women come together, genuinely celebrate each other, and offer mutual support.
The voices of these founders reveal a consistent theme: reaching true equality in fashion requires systemic change. It demands increased access to capital and mentorship, creative leadership positions for women of color at major houses, workplace structures that accommodate different life stages, and stronger communities of support among women themselves. These are not modest requests for incremental progress but calls for transformation in how the industry operates at its most fundamental levels. Until these changes materialize, the next generation of Black women in fashion will continue to navigate the same obstacles their predecessors faced, forced to prove themselves repeatedly while watching opportunity remain concentrated in the hands of those with the most established networks and resources.
Source: Essence | Published: Wed, 26 Aug 2026 20:54:56
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