For decades, the music industry has been plagued by the gender gap. Time and again, there has been some initiation to address this issue. But it is still a far cry from equality. Now, fashion house Furla is challenging the standard – taking this observation to the runway.
A recent study by Dr. Stacey L. Smith on female representation in the music industry shows a lacklustre result. The key findings state that in 2021, only 23.3% of artists on the Hot 100 Year-End Chart were women. This number has been stagnant for a decade, with women representing 21.8% of artists across ten years and 1,000 songs on this chart.
Given the population of women around the world, the representation is very disappointing. But Italian label Furla is coming forward with a concrete and innovative idea. During Milan fashion week, it came up with a new bag – “Metropolis Remix”. Given the very limited production run, it aims to put the sales into She Is The Music, a non-profit founded by Alicia Keys in 2018.
It is an interesting move by Furla. Because not only in the music industry, but even in the fashion industry – women tend to fall behind. A fascinating report by Pamela Brown, Stacey Haas, Sophie Marchessou, and Cyrielle Villepelet says that,
“Fewer than 50 percent of well-known womenswear brands are designed by women, and only 14 percent of major brands have a female executive in charge”.
Let’s hope that we are on the precipice of change in 2023.
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