After a year-and-a-half as creative director of streetwear company Supreme, Tremaine Emory is bowing out. On Thursday (August 31), the 42-year-old announced his departure from Supreme, claiming that “systematic racism was at play within the structure,” per BoF.
Emory’s rant began with an image of Robin DiAngelo’s 2018 book White Fragility, drawing parallels between The New York Times bestseller and the environment at Supreme. “I’m recommending y’all read this book for a better understanding of what systemic racism is and how is affects people of all Color’s [sic] who live in this white male patriarchal system that was built to only benefit white heterosexual males since the inception of America and even further back into European colonialism,” he wrote.
In a letter of resignation, Emory alleged that Supreme senior management showed an “inability to communicate” about deciding not to collaborate with artist Arthur Jafa, which led to Emory experiencing “a great amount of distress.”
Sharing a message from Complex Style, Emory went on to detail that Supreme allegedly works with “less than 10% minorities.” The Denim Tears founder also tagged Supreme executives like Julien Cahn and Kyle Demers, seemingly having issues with them behind the scenes.
Another update was given by Emory in a separate post, saying that Supreme founder James Jebbia immediately met with him after the news broke to talk about the resignation. According to Emory, Jebbia “admitted” that he should have notified Emory about canceling images from the Jafa collab, although it depicted “Black men being hung” and the formerly enslaved Gordon, also known as “Whipped Peter.”
Emory was named Supreme creative director in February 2022, but the Fall/Winter 2023 collection will be the designer’s final season for the company. During his time with Supreme, Emory led collaborations with YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Coogi, Cactus Plant Flea Market’s Cynthia Lu and more.
In an official statement shared to BoF from Supreme, the company responded to Emory’s allegations. “While we take these concerns seriously, we strongly disagree with Tremaine’s characterisation of our company and the handling of the Arthur Jafa project, which has not been cancelled,” Supreme stated. “This was the first time in 30 years where 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.”