By | Amaya Franklin
Only a year and a half into his role as Supreme’s first creative director, Tremaine Emory has left the company, citing systemic racism as the reason for his departure. Tremaine Emory is the designer, and founder of the streetwear brand Denim Tears, and creative consultant/co-founder of No Vacancy Inn. He was born in Georgia but grew up in Queens, New York before moving to Los Angeles. Emory gained his footing in the fashion industry by working as a J. Crew sales associate before climbing the ranks at Marc Jacobs. From there he moved to London, where he launched the “multidisciplinary creative practice No Vacancy Inn with close collaborator Acyde (Ade Odunlami), working across fashion, art, music and nightlife,” (Business of Fashion, 2023). After forming No Vacancy Inn, he began to collaborate with the brand Stüssy as their art director before founding Denim Tears in 2019. In addition, Emory has collaborated with brands and other visionaries including Levi’s, Dior, Frank Ocean, Virgil Abloh, Ugg, Offset, and most recently Dr. Martens.
Emory’s work largely deals with centering Black American culture, a constant theme
throughout his designs and is well-known to the brands he’s worked with including Supreme. In a resignation letter obtained by Business of Fashion, Emory’s choice to leave Supreme was motivated by senior management’s “inability to communicate” with him about the “cancellation” of a long-planned fashion collaboration with major Black American artist Arthur Jafa and offer “full visibility for the reasons behind it…. this caused me a great amount of distress as well as the belief that systematic racism was at play within the structure of Supreme,” (Kansara, para.3, 2023). In response to the confirmation of Emory’s departure and the leaked resignation letter, Supreme responded with this statement:
"While we take these concerns seriously, we strongly disagree with Tremaine’s
characterization of our company and the handling of the Arthur Jafa project, which has not been canceled. This was the first time in 30 years that the company brought in a creative director. We are disappointed it did not work out with Tremaine and wish him the best of luck going forward,” (HighSnobiety, para.4, 2023).
On Instagram, Emory expressed his personal feelings by posting two lengthy captions and text screenshots further detailing the dispute. “I left Supreme because of systemic racial issues the company has from the Arthur Jafa collab to the make-up of less than 10% minorities when working when the brand is largely based on black culture…” (Tremaine Emory on Instagram, August 31) He continues on to say the founder of Supreme (James Jebbia) spoke with him about his resignation admitting “he should have talked to me about canceling images from the Jafa collab” and that the collaboration was canceled due to a black employee’s concerns over depicting violent imagery of slavery. “James agreed there should have been discourse about the project with me being that I was the creative director, and I'm black. Supreme’s statement in the @bof article is a lie to hide the systemic racism that lies deep within Supreme and almost all white-owned corporations..” (Tremaine Emory on Instagram, August 31) Emory concludes his statement citing James' plans to change the inner workings of Supreme and that he will continue to use his platform to speak about racism in the fashion industry.
After reviewing Emory’s statements, while Supreme’s actions may have not been lead
with racist intentions, without a doubt, the company mishandled the treatment of Emory, the collaboration, and the black employee who came forward with their concerns. As a brand composed of white CEOS, upper management, and designers, but has largely profited off of black culture, there should be several black creatives partaking in the brand’s production. It’s interesting how Supreme would choose to deliberately avoid communicating with its creative director who is a part of black culture and lives the black experience and immediately right off a collab promoting a black artist due to concerns, whatever they may be. This is why it is necessary to uplift black designers and place them in creative direction and higher management roles to ensure black culture is being accurately represented and appreciated.
With this experience, hopefully, Jebbia and the Supreme team will actually do the work to make changes within the company to create a brand that respects and celebrates the culture it profits from.
Sources
Highsnobiety, Words By, and Highsnobiety. “Tremaine Emory Departs Supreme Due to ‘Systematic Racism.’” Highsnobiety, 3 Sept. 2023, www.highsnobiety.com/p/tremaine-emory-supreme-exit/.
“Tremaine Emory.” Tremaine Emory | BoF 500 | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry, www.businessoffashion.com/amp/community/people/tremaine-emory. Accessed 24 Oct. 2023.
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