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PS: How do you feel about the current coverage of Black founders in the media? What can journalists and media companies do to improve it?
TE: There's progress, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Yes, with the 2020 racial reckoning, now people are trying to include more Black designers. But I think that we as Black creatives need to hold the retailers accountable. We need to demand more. We want all the progress that was made in 2020 not to be lost. We have to keep demanding inclusivity. We have to keep demanding diversity because my goal and my hope is that one day it won't just be, "You are a Black designer. It would just be that you get recognized because you're talented."
PS: What does a world that truly practices "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" look like to you?
TE: In an ideal world, diversity, equality and inclusion matter. Diversity is extremely important to me because it also goes back to representation because if you want to inspire people, mentoring is really big. I didn't have a mentor, but I feel like if you don't see somebody doing things like you do, in as much as you dream it and you're not able to put a picture to it, I think you're more scared to follow your dreams. So companies or retailers and the fashion world need to find diverse creatives and make sure that their product stack represents the country and its purchasing power.
With the Fifteen Percent Pledge, I love what they're doing — holding companies accountable. You can't tell me that you can't find a luxury designer. A lot of people sought me out during 2020, but I've been there. They didn't look, if they looked, they would've found me. So there's a responsibility that should also be on the retailers or the fashion world to make sure that they're doing the work to have a diverse workforce or a diverse product mix.
