Jamie Gill establishes The Outsider's Perspective to encourage more diversity "behind the scenes" in fashion

A new talent incubator, established by fashion industry leader Jamie Gill, aims to tackle the lack of diversity behind the scenes of the fashion industry.

Jamie Gill was driven to establish 'The Outsider's Perspective' platform having noted that while diversity has improved in the public facing side of fashion, such as in ad campaigns and runway shows, behind the scenes just 5% of industry employees are people of colour.

Gill, who comes from a British-Indian background said he had little knowledge of the fashion industry or access to its networks before he entered it, honing his skills in the worlds of architecture, finance, venture capital and consulting.

"We know, the reasons underpinning this statistic, are twofold," said Jamie Gill. "Fashion is not seen as a viable career avenue by many ethnic minority communities due to several cultural and social mobility factors. The world of law, finance and in my case, consultancy, are seen as much ‘safer’ options for candidates who perhaps lack the personal and financial networks needed to enter a more seemingly ‘risky’ arena like fashion.

"What’s more when you look behind the curtain at how the industry operates, there is a severe lack of ethnic representation working on the less creative but no less essential roles – the finance directors, the sales directors and the operations managers. Aside from the macro fashion brands which most of us know, the reality is the fashion industry is made up of small to medium sized brands where there is no clear professional training ground for sourcing talent. I want to help change this."

Gill entered the industry having worked at Deloitte London where his client portfolio spanned luxury goods and real estate – it was during his time at Deloitte that he gained the courage to come out as gay, having witnessed LGBTQ+ Deloitte Partners leading international divisions.

He then left the corporate world and went to India where he co-founded a luxury apparel start-up before returning to the UK in 2016 to join an investment fund focused on luxury fashion. This took him to British based brand ROKSANDA, where he has been CEO since 2018 and in September 2020, Gill joined the Executive Board of the British Fashion Council to support the fight against prejudice and discrimination in the industry, becoming Chair of the BFC’s Diversity Committee in May 2022.

The Outsider's Perspective has the backing of a number of fashion industry bodies and businesses including the British Fashion Council, Burberry, Deloitte, the Mayor of London’s Office, Karla Otto and Zalando who have all pledged to mentor candidates on the scheme.

The Outsider’s Perspective is an incubator specifically for People of Colour to ensure they are proficiently equipped to join the operational side of any fashion brand and has been inspired by Gill's own non-linear career path.

It aims to being more people of colour into roles including sales, merchandising, operations, digital, HR, marketing & PR, legal and finance. The platform is working with industry leaders and partnering with fashion businesses who are looking to address their diversity talent issue to immediately begin to scale the industry’s POC metrics.

Speaking to TheIndustry.fashion, Jamie Gill said the scheme would be targeting experienced people with transferable skills from other sectors to help fast-track talent to the higher echelons of the industry and also to provide the industry with a new pool of talent that could help drives its growth over the coming years.

"We just want to speak to that experienced, professional talent and discover whatever barriers have been there for them, be that historically or from a social and cultural perspective. Then we can match-make them with businesses struggling to source talent and encourage that talent to come through," he explained.

Candidates will be assessed for the programme based on their skills and on past adversity in trying to access the fashion industry. The programme will include workshops, where they will be given "an overview of the nuances of the fashion industry", and networking sessions to facilitate introductions to potential employers.

Gill said the British fashion industry was known globally for its creative talent and strides had been made in a more diverse presentation of fashion, but a wider pool of business talent would support its growth through what are set to be a challenging few years ahead.

"[British Vogue Editor in Chief] Edward Enninful, for instance, has helped move the visual of what the fashion industry looks like, but behind closed doors where I’m at is where 90% of running any fashion business happens.

"The British fashion industry hasn't had that many international success stories, in luxury and advanced premium. The creative talent is here and we've been really good at pushing that boundatry around the merger of arts and fashion. But we've not been that good at the scalabilty of that package," he said. "This [programme] touches on the diversity chord but equally touches on the talent."

Gill added that he hoped that by London Fashion Week in February 2023, he would be able to update on the first cohort of candidates and on more partner businesses.