WhenAurora Jameswanted to drop out of high school, her mother was not having it.
“She was like, ‘You can take a road less traveled, but I still need you to get there,'” the Brooklyn-based fashion designer, who has made a name for herself for making bold moves in business and beyond, tells PEOPLE.
In May 2020, in the wake ofGeorge Floyd’s murderand the ensuing protests, the 37-year-oldtook to Instagramwith a public challenge for brands she felt were making hollow statements of solidarity: Dedicate 15 percent of your shelf space — roughly the percentage of the population that is Black in the U.S. — to Black-owned businesses.
“As soon as I posted on Instagram, everyone was just clutching their pearls like, ‘what’s going to happen?'” she tells PEOPLE. “It was out of character for me, but it was an opportunity for retailers to step up in a way that would healing.”
Phylicia J.L. Munn
Her risk paid off when just 10 days later, Sephora signed on as the first major retailer to take the pledge. And less than two years later,The 15 Percent Pledgehas received the support of 28 businesses and counting —including Nordstrom, Indigo, J.Crew, West Elm and Macy’s — resulting in more than 400 Black-owned brands added to the inventory of retailers across the country.
“People think, ‘fifteen perfect? That’s not hard,'” she says. “But most retailers are [still] below one percent.”
As for the companies who are reluctant sign the pledge, James believes they’re going to “age themselves out of relevancy” because the “world is changing.”
In the short term she’s hoping to help drive economic equality with the pledge and her latest venture,Something Special, a monthly subscription home goods service that champions the work of international artisan communities of color. But the true victory, she says, will be when corporate diversity is innate to retailers.
“My goal is to have to explain to my future daughter what The 15 Percent Pledge was and have her completely eye roll at me and be like, ‘That doesn’t make any sense, mom,'” says James. “I want to succeed in a way that makes it irrelevant.”
For more from Aurora James and other Women Changing the World, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere now.
source: people.com
