Have you ever wondered why more women of color aren't represented on the runways? I've certainly thought about it. Guy Trebay of The New York Times talks about it in his article, Ignoring Diversity, Runways Fade to White. Claire of The Fashion Bomb even attended a "Blacks in Fashion" forum that will hopefully get the ball rolling for designers to take action.
Will talking about it actually change the industry? Perhaps - if more designers like Diane Von Furstenberg would take notice, step up and hire more black women for their shows. Would it be such a stretch to even consider Latinas or Asians as well? Unless you've been living on another planet for the past several decades, there are people of different ethnicities in the U.S. and designers from New York of all places should know this. Have designers even attempted to step out of their fashion bubbles to see that there are actually people of color with money out there?
The fashion industry is very influential...
When you think about all the money spent on apparel each year, it makes me think about the potential for a fashion house to make even more money if they represented women of more diverse ethnicities not just on the runway shows, but in fashion ads as well.
Of course, this racial discrimination isn't solely found in the fashion industry. However, this is the industry that has major influences on how we view life. If I had a little girl, I wouldn't want her thinking that she had to go blonde, be light-skinned and be thin in order for her to feel beautiful.
Racial Preference a Trend?
Eva of the Papierblog offers her thoughts:
"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."
Well, trend or not, changes have to be made. Trends are meant for clothing and not people.
A Movement in the Making
We do need a civil rights movement within the fashion industry. It's about time. The blogger at Like Water for Chocolate says:
Can we make the same amount of noise that we did for skinny models so that people in the industry will take notice?
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While the black presence is better than in the 60's However we still have a way to go with many of the minority groups. Hopfully reality based shows like Top Model is the continuing movement to diversity.
Posted by: james | October 21, 2007 8:48 PM | Permalink to Comment