Lights, camera, beats, t-shaped floor, figures, attitudes, poses…Runways have always been the center of attention. Every single thing that happens on a fashion runway is analyzed by those flashing cameras. Including the setting, the clothes, the makeup, the walk, and of course, the models. Some compared models to clothes hangers, though it is obvious that models adds certain character to the clothes than just merely presenting them.
Since the early 1900s, women have been hired to showcase apparels first in salons and later, on the runway. While modeling is a competitive, well-respected career, it is also sometimes limiting and in line with outdated and false understanding of beauty.
Although the famous, bi-annual New York Fashion Week (NYFW) takes pride in being the most diverse fashion week yet, women of color are not being adequately represented. Discriminatory treatment towards models unquestionably reveals the supposedly creative high-fashion industry as a myopic and narrow-minded world.
Browsing through the near history of female models on the runway, some disagreeable facts have been found, indicating that this glamorous world of fashion, is racist. In August 1968, Glamour magazine published the first ever issue featuring an African-American women on its cover in American fashion magazine history. That had finally opened a door for none-white models to have their place on the runway. Starting from the 1970s, black models experienced their brightest days. High fashion brands like Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy and Chanel all started using black models. Black models Veronica Webb, Iman and Beverly Johnson quickly became supermodels. However, that did not last long. Black models started to disappear from the runway in the late 1980s. The reason being that a new model trend led by Kate Moss has hit the runway. And that, was the end of diversity on the runway.
“They all have the look of the moment, and it is white.” White models were everywhere on the runway in New York, London, Milan and Paris, and African, Asian or Hispanic models were nowhere to be found. Almost every model on the runway was white, skinny and blonde, it was hard to even find a model with brown hair. Naming her fragrance “Blonde”, Donatella Versace told Allure Magazine, “Because I think every woman is blonde.”
To avoid getting into trouble for being selective when it comes to race, other designers and editors made some slight efforts. Calvin Klein arranged one black model in every odd season during the 1990s shows; Jourdan Dunn walked for Prada (fall 2008) as the first black model in 14 years since Naomi Campbell had last walked for the brand in 1993; Furthermore, when people started complaining about magazines not being inclusive, Vogue Italia responded with an all black issue in 2008. However, these were not intended to help make the runway a more diverse place, they were only doing it to stay out of trouble.
Just a few months ago, Fall 2017 New York Fashion Week became the most diverse show in recent history—It was the first season where every runway included at least one model of color. The most diverse show at NYFW was Chromat featuring 77% models of color while the average percentage being 31.5%. Sadly, New York Fashion Week was the only Fashion Week of the four that hired more than 30% models of color. The number floats around 22% for the others (London, Milan and Paris). Other than race, this season’s New York Fashion Week was also the most inclusive one when it comes to gender, size and age. There seem to be hope for the fashion runway to become more diverse.
It is hard to imaging that just a few years 2017, diversity rate on the runway was a disaster. According to theFashionSpot, in 2011, 81.8% of job opportunities during fashion week went to white models. Only 8.4% were black models, 7.1% Asian and only 2.3% Latina models. It was not even mentioned that Middle-eastern models have been super underrepresented at a remaining rate of 0.4% all along, and Asian models only appeared on the runway after huge market has been expanded in Asia. Though this was a lot better comparing to 2008’s 87% white models, brands like Erdem, Nina Ricci, Junya Watanabe, and Erin Fetherston still hired an all-white cast.
What’s the population distribution in the U.S.? You may ask. According to Census Report, 77% of U.S. citizens are white. It seems to be fair since last season’s white model percentage was 68.5%, right? Unfortunately, that is not compatible because almost half of the white models who walked in New York Fashion Week were from European countries.
Lacking diversity had led to distressing incidents——models were treated unfairly. At casting for shows, it is not news that models of color would get rejected not because they are not good models, but because the casting director have hired “enough of those”. As another unspoken rule, if castings is on a tight budget, agencies would send models of color who are eager to book work instead of a white model. Even at the backstage of a show, models of color are wronged in so many aspects. Many times, make up artists simple do not prepare deeper foundation shades. Jourdan Dunn said that she would put her own foundation on because “the artist only had two foundations for her skin tone and she ended up looking grey”. Make up artist Pat McGrath was the only one who would ensure her stylists know how to do every single model’s hair and makeup. Unbelievably, many artists don’t even bother to learn how to style black hair because “there’s no demand to”. Models then walk with no confidence because their hair wasn’t properly styled and they looked bad. This shows how every step of a fashion show disregard models of color.
Eventually, it all comes down to designers’ visions. Some designers don’t naturally think of a collection presented by models of colors. The issue is: they are only educated about themselves. Not being educated about cultures other than themselves, it is no surprised when a collection were made to be worn by whom they want to look like.
Nonetheless, the purpose of a runway show is to sell more goods. There is a great imbalance when it comes to consumers who is actually buying. According to Mckinsey&Company’s recent report on the luxury goods segment, by 2020, 75 percent of all sales will be from Chinese consumers, with more than half of that being spent outside of China. In the U.S, black consumers spend 28% more on luxury goods than white consumers. On average, black consumers will outspend white consumers by $1,900. However, out of $75 billion dollars that was spent on television, magazine, internet, and radio advertising last year, only $2.24 billion was spent on media focused on black audiences.
Bibliography
Givhan, Robin. “THE WHITE STUFF: On the Runway, Subtle Racism Puts Models of Color Out of Fashion.” The Washington Post, June 5, 1996.
Andrews, Jessica. “How Black Models Are Fighting Discrimination Backstage at Fashion Shows.” Teen Vogue, March 2, 2016.
Lin, Victoria. “Race and the Runway.” University Wire Sep 18 2014 ProQuest. 4 May 2017 .
Hobdy, Dominique. “Less Than 10 Percent of Models That Walked 2015 Fashion Week Runways Were Black.” Essence.com. October 19, 2015. Accessed May 04, 2017. http://www.essence.com/2015/10/19/less-10-percent-models-walked-2015-fashion-week-runways-were-black.
Teeman, Tim. “Chanel Iman: modelling, racism and me.” The Times & The Sunday Times. Accessed May 04, 2017. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chanel-iman-modelling-racism-and-me-l59gd79pz98.
