Women make up 74% of fashion courses, but 12% of creative directors

Industry insiders discuss the reasons behind this vast disparity.

“It’s a boys' club. It always has been. It’s so boring to me that nothing has changed. You wonder why fashion feels so irrelevant at the moment – you have all of these womenswear brands with so much potential, but no women are invited in to shape them.”

12%.

That’s how many women* we calculated are currently creative directors at leading luxury fashion houses.

There’s absolutely no shortage of female designers in the industry or education. In fact, we enquired about the gender split at a handful of design schools worldwide, such as Antwerp, FIT, and Ravensbourne, and found a rough average of 74% of fashion programme students identifying as female. So, what gives? The following article contains excerpts of conversations with a dozen industry figures – Lucien Pages, Lauren Sherman, Katie Grand and many more – who give their thoughts on the current state of the divide.