Culture

The Influence of Jim Crow on Black Women's Luxury Fashion Shopping Experiences: A Position Paper and Call to Action

---

Abstract

This position paper examines how the historical legacy of Jim Crow segregation continues to shape Black women’s experiences in contemporary luxury fashion retail spaces. Drawing on Critical Race Theory and the Community Cultural Wealth Model, the paper situates present-day retail discrimination within a broader historical framework of exclusion, surveillance, and racialized assumptions regarding belonging and purchasing power. Black women occupy a unique intersection of race and gender, making their luxury shopping experiences both particularly vulnerable to bias and deeply tied to identity affirmation, resistance, and self-protection. Despite Black consumers’ significant and growing economic influence, luxury retail environments often remain sites of marginalization. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework for action that includes industry accountability mechanisms, educational interventions, consumer empowerment strategies, targeted research directives, and policy reforms. By centering historical context and lived experience, this work calls on luxury brands, educators, researchers, and policymakers to move beyond symbolic diversity efforts.

Keywords: Jim Crow, Black women, luxury fashion, retail

How to Cite:

Allen, N. & Sanders, E. A., (2025) “The Influence of Jim Crow on Black Women's Luxury Fashion Shopping Experiences: A Position Paper and Call to Action”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 82(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.21920