Fashion designer Aurora James is on a mission to put your Christmas shopping dollar into Black businesses.
Inside a former newsstand in SoHo, NYC, a stylish new shop has popped up for the holiday season, and it has a message: gift Black. It houses a curated selection of products from Black-owned businesses: from party-ready heels to sculptural vases that look like they belong in a museum rather than your living room.
Organized by Fifteen Percent Pledge, the holiday store is a first for the non-profit, but the organization has been working to plug social and financial inequality gaps since 2020. Aurora James founded the organization which encourages major retailers to stock 15% Black-owned brands, based on the statistic that Black people make up 15% of the U.S. population. Starting as an Instagram post by James, it grew into a movement. Since its inception, brands such as Sephora, Nordstrom, and Ulta Beauty have come on board. According to their website, their work has been able to shift almost $10B of revenue to Black-owned businesses. In 2021, James won the CFDA Founder’s Award for her work with the Fifteen Percent Pledge and was recently appointed Vice Chair.
The pop-up is part of the Fifteen Percent Pledge’s holiday campaign and has been affectionately-named the ‘Gifteen’ Holiday Shop. James has been vocal about the campaign’s purpose. With the most consumeristic time of the year upon us, brands are vying for people’s attention. The holiday season can be a vital time for business growth, and the winners are generally big corporations with the heftiest marketing budgets. The organization asserts that consumers historically allocate only 0.4% to Black-owned businesses when spending on gifts. That’s why the Fifteen Percent Pledge has partnered with investment bank Citi to platform smaller, Black-owned businesses through the physical store and online gift guide, allowing consumers to invest in the community while buying something beautiful.
Hailing from Toronto, New York-based James is no stranger to the fashion industry. In 2013, she founded the label Brother Vellies. It was created to sustain traditional African design techniques and artisanal jobs. The brand’s offering of luxury accessories is produced worldwide in South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mexico, Haiti, Italy, and NYC. It’s her experience as a Black business owner that informs her work with Fifteen Percent Pledge and the holiday store, knowing the impact that one successful season can have.
Based at 63 Spring Street, the pop-up store will be open to shoppers until mid-January. With its elegant decor, it’s certainly easy on the eyes, but its cause is what makes it a worthwhile stop on the holiday shopping circuit for fashionable New Yorkers, last-minute shoppers, and those who want to invest their dollars in Black businesses.
