THE MINORITY REPORT #1

A monthly deep dive into how the beauty, fashion and wellness industries are (under)serving minority groups....

I sign up to stacks of industry newsletters that tell me what is happening out in the fashion, beauty and wellness world from a business perspective. But what I find tricky is that increasingly - particularly with domination of fast-paced online journalism - we’re being told information and news without enough deeper cultural analysis. So, instead of griping about it, I thought I’d do my own version, focussing on D&I, and overlooked groups and minorities - because, as you probably know by now, that’s my jam.

What makes this a little bit different is that there’s advice for consumers and the industry about how to navigate this to protect ourselves, and to protect others. It’s something I’m playing with, so your feedback is crucial - let me know what you think!

Introducing….

Did it take me 3 minutes to make this on Canva - absolutely.

Why has the beauty and fashion industries just discovered Diwali?

When features about inclusivity come from mainstream publications and sources they’re often imbued with the narrative that change is finally happening, yay for change! I’ve written those pieces myself; here’s one for 2010 that went viral, signalling the beauty industry’s move towards a more inclusive approach to make up.

In the piece I congratulate the beauty industry for finally recognising that not just white people buy beauty products - but reading it back now, I do cringe a bit. Now I’m older, wiser and freelance, I realise that what I, and so many who write pieces like this gloss over, are the true intentions behind these changes. The biggest question I ask myself when I see these shifts happening is why now?

Sometimes shifts in inclusivity come as part of a societal demand for example when Nike started to use mid size mannequins back in 2019 as a direct result of pressure from the body positivity movement, or when Fenty’s 40-shade foundation range launched in 2017, following social media pressure for beauty brands to do better and finally consider women of colour.

But often there’s money at the heart of these sudden brand u-turns on who a desired customer is. Being an inclusive brand means you may appeal to more customers, and it generates headlines praising you for finally doing something you should have done from the start. There’s a collective ‘penny drop’ moment where brands realise they’ve excluded a group they could be making money from; just look at how the aesthetics and cosmetic surgery industry is promoting more and more ‘tweakments’ at men, because there’s only so much a woman do do to her face at any given time. Or how the cosmetics industry has targeted teens, because grown women’s bathrooms were too full up of products to keep the spending up.

Enter the Diwali trend….

It’s curious that over the last few years brands - both fashion and beauty - have embraced Diwali or Deepavali as it’s also known. About three years ago I started to recieve Indian sweets and products as a Diwali press gift from beauty brands. That’s no bad thing and it’s progress in many ways. When I started in the industry there were only two South Asian people working in mainstream beauty and fashion journalism - myself and beauty writer Anjana Gosai. Now there’s enough people from the South Asian diaspora to have entire evenings dedicated to Diwali celebrations held by beauty brands.

At a Diwali dinner, with the founders of Fable & Mane haircare.

Much of that is down to more beauty brands being set up by South Asian founders (I have a list of some of my faves here…) rather than western founders being ‘influenced’ by (ergo, ripping off) South Asian beauty and wellness practices. In fact this week there’s a huge amount of events celebrating Diwali in London, in association with fashion and beauty brands - and it’s genuinely exciting.

But as with so many aspects of D&I there are ways brands could (and do) get this wrong. Firstly, who do you invite to a Diwali celebration? Although it’s traditionally a Hindu festival, it’s often culturally celebrated by other South Asian religious groups, like Muslims, Jains, Sikhs and more. A muslim journalism friend told me she felt left out of some of the celebrations. My thoughts? There’s enough divisive religious BS happening in India right now, and we don’t have to be a part of that - I’d rather see Diwali and a celebration of South Asian culture. We are the UK’s biggest minority group, after all - but it goes to show that there’s plenty of nuance here, that brands don’t always understand.

The UK is a predominantly and historically a Christian country, so Christmas takes precedent when it comes to the industry agenda and that’s totally fine. But beyond that, when gifting influencers and editors there seems to be a bit of a hierarchy. A beauty brand once sent me a few of their products as a Diwali gift which was fine, but then I saw on social media they’d sent all the Jewish editors expensive gift hampers and foods, so a few beauty products (which are in fact work to beauty journalists) felt a bit like an afterthought. In reality, all it takes is a blitz around to ask who celebrates what and who wants to be included in what mailers and events, whether that’s Passover or Kwanzaa, Diwali or more - and treating everyone equally.

I’m all for this shift when it’s done inclusively. The way that brands can do that is to ask themselves ‘why are we doing this?’ And then to weave that through your entire business from your social media offerings to your marketing emails, teamed alongside charity donations to South Asian charities, Diwali discounts and the inclusion of South Asian press, influencers, models in your campaigns and strategy. I’m not against progress, but it’s love to see it done more consistently and with integrity.

A final note to brands; remember that South Asians are for life, not just Diwali.

In other news…

Thin is in again - are you playing in it?

A point I labour over and over again in my book UGLY, is how cyclical and predictable beauty standards are. We shouldn’t be surprised that there’s a backlash against body positivity happening, because now (some) fashion brands have selectively increased their size ranges, they need to look at how else they can make money from women.

Enter the Ozempic-fuelled thinness that hit this season’s SS25 runways. Now ‘thin’ is in said to be in again, big pharma is rubbing its hands with glee, the diet and wellness industries - which, FYI are the same beasts - are fully on board, and fashion is happy that the fatties have become uncool and they can save costs on fabric.

Who else is pleased? Well, the cosmetic surgery industry has coined the term ‘ballet body’ - so if you needed anymore proof that this is a industry and not a medical field, that my friends, is it. The aesthetic industry is also adapting to create ways to plump up faces without filler to re-inflate those that have been deflated by weight loss. Beauty brands will naturally follow suit; expect plumping and filling skincare to reign and conversely sculpting and contouring to make a return.

This isn’t a new cycle; every time there’s a move towards female empowerment (like body positivity, #metoo, BLM) capitalism and patriarchy find new ways to exert control via our shopping habits, and appearance.

So this is where it’s up to brands to follow the trends and keep perpetuating this cycle that keeps women weight, age and image obsessed or to do something truly remarkable, ethical and laudable and resist this. And as for consumers, journalists, commentators, etc we also need to be vigilant about where these trends are seeping into our lives. We’ve come too far to go backwards again.

FURTHER READING: The Guardian: Body positivity is over - “The American Society of Plastic Surgeons put their Botoxed heads together and decreed this the ‘ballet body’ era”

Final thoughts…

READ THIS: National Geographic: Illegal to be Ugly - “For nearly a century, so-called “ugly laws” banned  people with visible disabilities and diseases from public spaces, revealing society’s harsh standards of beauty and the impact on those who didn’t meet them…” 

TRY THIS: Tir Tir, the viral Korean cushion foundation brand, had three shades in 2023 which is fairly typical of a Korean brand, catering to the predominant skintone of the country and preference for lighter foundation shades. When the foundation started to take off globally, people started to question the shade range, and the brand came up with 6 more, and gradually kept adding to the range. Now, a year or so later, it has around 40 - which just goes to show how quickly these things can be done when you prioritise them. It’s also a brilliant foundation and with medium coverage that’s almost undetectable. I’m the walnut shade, if that helps with your colour matching….

WATCH THIS: I’m just playing about with Tik Tok with no real agenda, but here’s some ADHD bathroom beauty hacks you might enjoy… https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdd6kwnL/