The Diversity Divide

Read a rather depressing article on the New York Times this morning about the lack of diversity in the fashion industry that left me basically saying, yup that about sums it. The writer, Guy Trebay, looked at the shows in New York, Milan, London and Paris and found that the models of color were noticeably absent. I wonder if the fashion press noticed the 800 pound gorilla in the room as well or if they simply said, “look an 800 pound gorilla, OHHH floral print!” The attention span might be indeed that short that they simply overlooked an obvious fact. It might also be a situation where their intention to ignore was deliberate. Maybe they knew what was going on and simply said nothing. Maybe it was a conspiracy. I’m going to go in the opposite direction and say that although Trebay makes a valid point in his article when he says,

“Although black women in the United States spend more than $20 billion on apparel each year, according to estimates by TargetMarketNews.com, it was hard to discern an awareness of this fact on the part of designers showing in New York, where black faces were more absent from runways than they have been in years.”

Break it down even more and you find that in the European shows their was nary a black model to be found. Look at the Chloe show for example, it was a cornucopia of non-models of color. I may have more to be upset about as well because I am Hispanic and if the numbers of black models were few the number of Hispanic models were 0.

I’m not sure I would go along the same stream of Trebay and say that there is this blatant racism going on in the industry. This may be me being naive but I think it has more to do with geography than race. Designers are obsessed at this time with Eastern European models. Not the white models from Spain, England, Italy. Not the models with roundish faces. They don’t want the All-American girl. They want Svetlana. They want a blank slate, waifish model whose beauty won’t steal attention in the slightest from the clothes. That is the trend, and maybe the trend works to the detriment of any other type of model.

He does mention the 70s where the runway shows of that time were a kaleidescope of models from all different races particularly featuring black models. He names names when he talks about the shows of the 70s quoting J ALexander who says:

“Years ago, runways were almost dominated by black girls,” said J. Alexander, a judge on “America’s Next Top Model,” referring to the gorgeous mosaic runway shows staged by Hubert de Givenchy or Yves Saint Laurent in the 1970s.

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