A few weeks ago I did a story that appeared on this very site about Obama's--the President, not the First Lady's--impact on the fashion world. I noted that since "Yes We Can" fever began sweeping the nation in 2008 (and Vogue editrix Anna Wintour began hosting fundraisers for him), more black women have begun to appear on the covers of Vogue magazine, including his lovely wife Michelle, who was followed by Beyonce...and just this year Halle Berry snagged the coveted cover of the September issue, the first black woman to do so in more than two decades.
But apparently I popped the champagne too soon. According to an analysis just published by the news site TheLoop21.com (for which I am a political blogger) most of the runways at New York Fashion Week this year were about as diverse as a Tea Party rally. Meaning they weren't.
Out of 4699 looks, 405 or 8.6 percent models were African-American, 345 or 7.3 percent were Asian, 114 or 2.4 percent were Latino, 149 or 3.2 percent were considered other (we couldn't decipher their ethnicity but they weren't Caucasian) and a considerable 3686 or 78.4 percent were Caucasian.
Out of 144 shows, 25 shows featured no models of African-American descent. Nineteen shows featured no models of Asian descent, Latinos only appeared in 63 shows and of those only 31 shows had more than one model. Caucasian models dominated every single show, and there wasn't one show in which they did not appear. You can view analysis of every single show and corresponding spreadsheet here.
The good news is there were some designers who made sure that their runways reflected the diversity of the consumers who wear their clothes. Betsey Johnson, Gwen Stefani, Diane Von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Tam and First Lady favorite Jason Wu all had multiple black models and models of all colors in their shows.
I know what labels I'll be buying this weekend.
Follow Keli Goff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/keligoff
Alex Geana: The End of American Fashion Week
Mihal Freinquel: A New York Fashion Week Post... About Clothing
Should there be a fair representation of races in fashion? Yes, I really believe so. But there are other considerations, noted above along with many other reasons. And shame on the author for singling out African American women only. If we're going to break it down like that, am I supposed to be mad if are more Eastern European models than white American models? Or models with blue eyes instead of green? Sorry, I totally don't care (and I don't know if either of those are true).
In fact here are the top black models on the runway right now: Jourdan Dunn - BRITISH, Sesilee Lopez - DOMINICAN, Alek Wek - SUDANESE, Liya Kebede - ETHIOPIAN, Rose Cordero- DOMINCAN, Arlenis Sosa- DOMINICAN, Joan Smalls- PUERTO RICAN. I'm sure I don't need to continue pointing out the fact that most black models are African lots of Senegalese and Nigerians. And lots of Dominicans and a few Americans like Chanel Iman and Lyndsey Scott so STOP with the African American foolishness.
This article very much just seemed like an attempt to control the thoughts and decisions of black women. Word choice and deliberate omissions belittled Goff’s credibility and made you question the real purpose behind the article, assuming there was one.
((And for the record, because it always comes up when discussing race, I am black))
I think that fashion is subjective, and I’ve seen many shows where “the look” is completely paled features, for example. In a show like this, it wouldn’t make sense to cast an African-American face, is it racist, or is it fashion? I think that some of Goff’s facts were presented in a way to imply racism, but plainly, the statistics proved the exact opposite. For example, at one point she says “Out of 144 shows, 25 shows featured no models of African-American descent.” By framing the stat this way, she is trying to highlight there were so many shows that had no African-American women walking the runways. However, this same statistic backwards (119 shows did have black women, 85%), reflects a totally different idea.
When I first saw the title of this post on the Huffington Post, I was intrigued. I was familiar with both the designers, but didn’t really understand the correlation between their name in the title, and why BLACK women in particular were being encouraged to wear their clothing. Why Betsey Johnson? Why Vivienne Tam? Why black women?
In her article, Keli Goff analyzes the number of appearances by black women and gave figures to show that black women only made up 8.6% of the models who walked this years runway, 7.3% Asian, and 2.4% Latina. Taking at a face value, I think that these numbers do appear stark, however by the time I finished the article, I felt that instead of Goff’s presenting the facts in a logical, non-bias manner, she instead utilized imposing language in an attempt to futilely to defend her opinion.
The models are merely walking hangers.
I, like the writer, an African American woman, notice that there are divisions. I think it's more likely that you, a white woman, don't notice because the media is flooded with images that look like you. The Caucasian look is seemingly the status qua. Mostly every industry is catered to you. I'd like to see more images of ethnic beauty (not just AA ones) in the main stream as a whole.
At the end of the day, it's all about consumerism. If a brand catered to a broader clientele, it would make said brand more money. Because certain brands never use ethnic models, I would never patronize those businesses.
I appreciate your well written post. I am a documentary photographer, one who has traveled extensively and lived for over a decade in another country. I was the minority, one of a few white faces and female! I still never felt any separation. I felt human. I grew up in a "melting pot" environment and can honestly say I am colorblind to a degree. I played/socialized with all children and never realized they were different than me. I know this is just my story and I honor everyone's individual experience and perception.
My comment (which might have lacked a certain clarity as I wrote it just before I closed my eyes) meant to relay that I wish we could all just see the beauty in all beings. I know ( from my own industry, which flows into fashion, consumerism) that many companies have a preconceived notion of their targeted demographic. I see it as being directed towards ages rather race but that is obviously not the norm, according to Keli's blog.
I am a humanist and I suppose that makes me a dreamer. One world, one beautiful vision. One day, one Love. Thank you for helping me see another aspect. With every respect, alllow me to be your #32 fan. Thank you for responding.