Zimmermann has responded to fashion industry watchdog Diet Prada's post regarding an internal retail employee grooming guide.
Diet Prada claimed the document contains Euro-centric guidelines for retail employee grooming, such as the way hair and makeup should be done on the shop floor.
Representatives for Zimmermann confirmed that the guide is an old internal document that has been out of circulation for over 12 months.
However, the brand has vowed to build diversity and equality in its business.
The document allegedly included hair guidelines to be “worn in soft, textured loose waves, or blow dried straight with a centre part or side part. If worn up there are to be no high buns, top knots, plaits, braids or ponytails worn high on top of the head.”
Diet Prada said this meant that Black employees would not be able to wear their hair naturally.
"The makeup portion features an exhaustive list of beauty products aimed at achieving a glow like Romee Strijd or Candace Swanepoel, but the hair section is where things get really problematic.
"By specifying that hair must be “soft, textured loose waves, or blow-dried straight”, while prohibiting “high buns, top knots, plaits, braids”, the language seems worded in a way to make it incredibly difficult for any Black employees to wear their hair natural or in accordance to their cultural identity," Diet Prada said.
Diet Prada's post also included explosive claims from a former intern.
In response to the post, Zimmermann has stated that it will work to confront issues of racism in its workplace.
"We acknowledge that we must confront instances of unacceptable behaviour in our company and any business practices that contribute to the broader problem of systemic racism in society.
"We have a responsibility to actively do better and make changes without delay, not just in America but here at home in Australia and in our teams globally.
"As a brand and as a company, we condemn racism of all kinds and we need to consistently demonstrate this in our actions.
"We have reflected on how we can do more to educate our teams, build on our diversity and advance equality in our organisation.
"We have listened to the feedback from people both inside and outside the business and are determined to be part of meaningful and positive change in the global fashion industry," Zimmermann said.
The business added that it will be taking the following actions to address the issue:
- Reinforcing zero tolerance for racism or discrimination in our workplace
- Ensure diversity in recruitment across our business and create a Diversity and Inclusion leadership group at our company to lead and drive our actions
- Implement additional training for all our teams – corporate and retail – to build the culture of diversity and inclusion we strive for
- Ensure we have constant diverse representation in our campaigns and shows - both behind the scenes and on the runway
- Donate to the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund in America and the Aboriginal Legal Service here in Australia
- Encourage our partners to make similar commitments and be active in the conversation about how brands can be a force for change
"Consistent with these commitments, we have already identified several individuals from both inside and outside our company that can join the leadership group to help us with this key initiative.
"We are also implementing a corporate training program to address, amongst others, issues of unconscious bias and will create an anonymous reporting tool to report incidents.
"In Australia we have a paid Graduate training program which we will use as a template in our US business to create a better work environment, in particular for interns.
"We will continue to listen to our teams, clients and community to learn from them and their experiences, and promise to do more," Zimmermann said.