How Antoine Phillips Went From Working Retail to Leading Gucci's Mission to Diversify the Fashion Industry

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As Gucci's vice president of brand and culture engagement, Phillips helps the company authentically invest in the Black community.

How did you first get your foot in the door in the industry? What were your first jobs?

I got transferred to Dior. This was during Galliano days, which was also amazing, and I got to do the same studio services, and then I landed an internship at YSL. Tom Ford had just left. Stefano Pilati had just came in, and it was an exciting time. I believe it was 2004, 2005. This was the birth of [the nightclub] Lotus and bottle service, and Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows were still happening in New York.

I credit Gucci for honestly being ahead of all of this before the murder of George Floyd. Very early 2019 was when I was having conversations, and I got hired March of 2019. I commend Marco Bizzarri, our CEO, Susan, and Robert for saying, 'We see something, how we play in the culture. Let's really build out a strategy and a team that can make this bigger and impactful, and show up in an authentic way.' And that was born: brand and culture engagement.

We took those mission statements and we had to build out rubrics, the playbook, what is all of this going to look like? What was the need for scholarships? Everybody gives out money, but we were like, let's do a last-dollar scholarship. Most Black and brown individuals usually don't graduate. It's not because of grades or attendance, it's because they don't have the funds to finish school.

You mentioned there were some challenges getting Changemakers off the ground; can you share what some of them have been?

 

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my favorite

gucci Antoine is one of the most sincere, genuine, and TALENTED executives in the business. Dope + Humble and deserves (and earned/earns) all his flowers!

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