Aurora James

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Aurora James

Aurora James is the founder of the luxury accessories company, Brother Vellies. As a brand, Brother Vellies is committed to making notes on culture, creating symbols, collaborating for personal freedoms and capturing moments, instead of merely making products. [1].

As the founder, Aurora James highly feels that brands need to do more than paying lip service, to act on racial justice. It takes more than posting support of Black Lives Matter on social media, in which James, as a black business owner as well as a black female, doesn’t feel like the brands fully understand what it takes to “stand with someone”.

Fifteen Percent Pledge

As an action of her concern, James initiated a grassroots movement, named Fifteen Percent Pledge. In this movement, James is calling out major retailers to commit a minimum of 15% of their shelf to Black-owned businesses. Since Black people in the United States make up nearly 15% of the population, this pledge is an invitation to retailers to give their valued community what they are asking for, which are product variation and economic equality. [2]

15 Percent Pledge

Fifteen Percent Pledge is driven by the occurrence of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, which caused about 40% of Black-owned business to be closed down. About 21% of Black-owned businesses claim that they don’t think that they are able to survive the pandemic. By the pledge that James initiated, she calculated that around $ 14.5 billion could be directed back for the black communities. This is exactly what she meant by supporting the black community; it should be more than just words.


James believes that this pledge does not only bring good to the black communities, but also to the retailers. Aurora James has arranged three-part plan to drive businesses to get to 15%, which involves auditing the existing suppliers, publishing findings internally and externally, and developing a strategy to invite more black suppliers into the business. By this plan, James hopes that the retailers obtain firm knowledge regarding their current system, which complicates the possibility of black people to thrive in their company. [3]

Transformation in Fashion Industry

James acknowledges that in her own industry, fashion retailers like Shopbop and Rent the Runway are essential to boost a certain designer label, just by carrying the label on their channels. Rent the Runway has taken part in the pledge and they committed to keeping black designers’ products on their platform, at least 15% of the featured products.

James hopes this exact thing to happen, that in the future, more retailers can join the bandwagon into taking similar commitment. To support black designers and businesses is the first step, which will therefore lead to more comprehensive change.

References