Fashion’s lack of diversity has real costs.

© Jamie Stoker

Several European fashion brands have taken a reputational hit after releasing products that offended their customers. But there is also significant creative and financial upside to be had for companies that put diversity at the forefront.

Key takeaways:

• Companies with above-average diversity in management produced “innovation revenue” that was 19 percentage points higher than that of companies with below-average leadership diversity, according to the Boston Consulting Group.
• Ralph Lauren has diversity councils embedded at every level of the company to offer feedback on everything from product design to recruitment, while Kering has made significant progress in promoting women.

Shortly after his 50th anniversary show last fall, Ralph Lauren told me tearfully that he had accomplished everything he wanted in the show with its sweeping display of American diversity. The casting included a Fenty-esque array of skin tones and models of all ages. They were all beautiful but not impossibly so, and their world seemed inviting rather than exclusive.

By Christina Binkley.

Full story at Business Vogue.