It seems incredible to hear that in a year in which we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the EBONY Fashion Fair fashion show, been buzzing about the first transgender contestant on America's Next Top Model and had a long list of African-American women who broke ground as models that we'd even be talking in the early 21st century about how racism still impacts the fashion world.Even if Isis manages to win the upcoming cycle of the show, she may find it hard getting work when African-American biofemale models aren't rocking the runways like they used to.
The blackout in the modelling world has gotten so bad that if you want to see an African-American model strutting her stuff on stage in a fashion show, you'd better buy a ticket to the Ebony Fashion Fair when it hits your town.
The September 2008 issue of EBONY magazine contains a fascinating Constance CR White article entitled 'Black Out-What Has Happened To The Black Fashion Models?' The February New York fashion shows were melanin-free, and in the European fashion capitals of London, Milan and Paris the situation was far worse. The article even reported that the situation is so bad that Miuccia Prada has gone ten years without using a Black model.
It's not like they can't find them. The modeling agencies have plenty of beautiful sisters that they're willing, able and ready to book, they just aren't getting called.
It's nothing like the 90's when sisters such as Iman, Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell, Georgianna Robertson, Veronica Webb, Roshumba, Gail O'Neill, Cynthia Bailey and Phina were getting called and getting paid as well.
They were the heirs to a legacy of doors broken down by models such as Pat Cleveland, actor Kadeem Hardison's mother Bethann Hardison, Beverly Johnson, Mounia, Wanakee, Katoucha, Lana Ogilvy, Alva Chinn, and Peggy Dillard. Today, you can count the number of superstar Black models on one hand. Liya Kebede, Jaunel McKenzie, Chanel Iman and up and comer Jourdan Dunn.
The article delves into some causes for the blackout. Bethann Hardison points out that this problem isn't a recent phenomenon, it has been a decade in the making.
In addition to the racism in the industry, it cited the flood of Eastern European models that mirror the blond hair blue eyes beauty standard into the mix. It also touched on Asian designers preference to feature Asian models in their shows, the rising power of casting directors for fashion shows and the lack of African-Americans in decision making capacities in the fashion industry.
Whatever is causing the blackout, it needs to be fixed. The people buying those high end clothes aren't exclusively of European or Asian ancestry. The models strutting those catwalks need to reflect not only that reality, but the reality that this is a diverse, multicultural world as well.
