The Guardian UK: Young, white and super skinny? We don't buy it, women tell advertisers

According to a global survey of women's buying habits, women are more likely to respond favorably to a brand if they models used to advertise it reflect their own identities.

Not surprisingly, the fashion industry's reliance on using "aspirational" imagery has been slow to change. Below are a few quotes from the article which you can read in it's entirety here.

Another key finding was that while women preferred to see attainable images of beauty, this did not mean they were against glamour. "The women wanted models who looked like they were part of the fashion industry but also looked like them," Barry says.

"It made them feel that they, too, were included in the industry and were considered beautiful.

"If you're a big fashion retailer and you're going to hire 10 models, you should make sure that each one of them represents a different aspect of your consumers."

CNN asks "Will fashion 'Black Issue' make a difference?"

There's not much new in this article, written by Lola Ogunnaike, but here is the link if you're interested. The best quote comes from Carlos Ojeda, an agent at New York Models. He basically gets into print what all of us have been thinking when he says:

"[This will tell people that] It's OK to have more than just one [black model], and she doesn't have to always be Naomi." 

and

"I hate to sound cynical, but by January, I feel like it will be back to business as usual...I want to be hopeful and positive, but a part of me does not want to get my hopes up."

Another "prominent" yet unnamed stylist quoted in the piece added, "You can't have an issue with all black girls, pat yourself on the back and say 'that's it for the year.' "

We'll all have to wait and see. Like I said earlier Jourdan Dunn seems to be getting a lot of work since the issue hit stands and of course Naomi is always busy. What I'd like to come out of this is for another Suede (or Colures) type magazine to get some serious financial backing in this country.

photo source: simplylovely

Times Online: Jourdan Dunn is the colour of money

Source: Jonas Bresnan

This rambling piece about Jourdan Dunn and the problem of racial discrimination in the fashion industry doesn't really add anything new to the discussion. There is still the same three lines about black models not selling well, their various looks not being "in" at the moment and the usual finger pointing. It paints Ms. Dunn as the great black hope of fashion and notes that all the ink about racism in fashion has added up to more work for the young model. Here are some select quotes from what is presented.

The fashion industry is racist:

These days, ethnic beauty is pretty much invisible.

The fashion world, on this evidence, has been screening out ethnic beauty.

Black faces don't sell magazines:

Editors and managers say that, however much they want to use ethnic girls, putting one on the cover of a glossy magazine will depress sales. If ethnic women brought in big profits, nobody in the industry would be in the slightest bit interested in their skin tones or their racial type. Rightly or wrongly, though women from ethnic minorities are considered a bad commercial bet.

It wasn't always like this:

In the 1960s and 1970s, ethnic women were much more visible in fashion. That was a time of exuberance and change; the time of the Black Power movement, the mantra “black is beautiful”, Roberta Flack singing Be Real Black for Me. This mood continued into the 1980s, with models such as Iman, Pat Cleveland and the young Campbell splashed everywhere.

The gay white puppet masters of the runway like women who look like smooth boys:

One suggestion is that the absence, particularly of black girls with African features, has to do with the tiny minority of people who make the fashion weather: the arbiters of fashion. These are the top casting agents and designers who decide whom to send on photoshoots and the catwalks, and many of them are gay white men. I’m told they really don’t like black women. Again, the question is, why? Or, rather, why not? As ever, if it’s not something to do with money, it is probably something to do with sex.

The sexually immature look is hot right now:

The ideal of female beauty in the fashion industry today is childlike, almost bordering on paedophilia. With few exceptions, the most sought-after faces have small, childish features, with little noses, little chins, small mouths and big, little-girl foreheads and eyes. They are childishly asexual. The same goes for fashionable bodies. The hottest bodies are almost always immature, lacking in secondary sexual characteristics – no curves, no breasts, no body hair.

Black models have the wrong type of body for fashion:

Asian girls, with their uncurvy, boyish figures and neat features often fit easily into this mould, but models with pronounced African features – large, full lips, wide noses and different facial proportions, as well as more curves, bigger bottoms and fuller breasts – do not.

Black women are too naturally sexual for fashion:

Several people have suggested to me that the gay arbiters of fashion find full-on female sexuality distasteful, which is why they don’t favour this kind of womanly beauty among white girls, either.

The new class of super-rich people also hate to look at black people:

...marketing aimed at the new mega-rich consumers in China and Russia cannot afford to ignore the fact that those countries are more racist than the west.

Black people don't like looking at black people either:

There is also evidence that ethnic women have been ambivalent about their own kind of look for many years. For decades, women with dark skin the world over have tried to make their skin paler or their hair straighter, sometimes with dangerous chemicals...

There are, of course, issues of status and power tied up in all this. Most dark-skinned people have been colonised or overrun by pale-skinned people. Pale, in folk memory, means power and wealth, and this has been deeply internalised. Perhaps this is partly why there is some resistance among black and other ethnic women themselves to dark-skinned beauty, even now; perhaps they themselves find something else more aspirational.

*****

Nice diagnosis at the end huh? I've got to stop reading this stuff. These articles all say the same thing and there's never any solution presented. It really does surprise me that there seems to be zero interest among influential black folk in the media to really invest in publishing a high quality fashion magazine aimed at Black women. I'd rather see that that yet another rapper or r&b diva's tacky ass clothing line. My eyes...they hurt from the non-stop rolling.

The Independent: Black is finally in fashion at Vogue

...Mr Knight blames business people at the top of the industry. A common attitude among them, he says, is that black models are "not aspirational" or "don't sell in Asia"...

Franca Sozzani, editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, told The Independent on Sunday: "We are using a lot of black models, like Iman, not only the models of today – a lot of different girls." Asked why she had decided to do this, she said: "Because nobody is using black girls. I see so many beautiful girls and they were complaining that they are not used enough."

Ms Sozzani admitted the issue could yet prove to be unpopular among some in Italy, where the xenophobic Northern League is part of the new coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi: "Maybe in our country it is not the best idea. But I don't care. I think it is not my problem if they don't like it – it's their problem."

Read the rest of the article here

First, I'm going to have to start a rock band called The Not Aspirational Black Girls.

Second, for as much as I am looking forward to gobbling up this issue as soon as it hits the stands a few things continue to vex me. Like:

--Why does this issue have to come out in July? July is the weakest month for newsstands magazine sales across the board. When I first heard the rumor about this issue and there was no date or details attached I wondered with optimism if it would actually be the big ass September issue but I guess that's just too big of a risk to take.

--Is it just me or is anyone else tired of these grand gestures? Be real, they always seem to let people down. Vivienne Westwood is probably still patting herself on the back over her grande dame gesture of using Ajuma for her Spring ads and you already know how I felt about that campaign.

I also wonder what the next step is for Franca Sozzani. After this issue will there be a return to business as usual at Italian Vogue? Are there any plans in place at the magazine to include more models of color across the board? Why this grand segregation gesture instead of say, just using more Black and other non-white models in editorials overall?

Whatever. I guess we'll all have to wait and see.

Jourdan Dunn - Observer Magazine

Scan uploaded by decadent_chains/ONTD

From the article:

...Dunn is a fashion star, but first and foremost she's a teenager, and a very smart one. She's articulate and observant not only about her own history but about the fashion industry. At London Fashion Week in February, her comments about race made the news. 'London is not a white city,' she told the press, 'So why should our catwalks be so white?'

Race replaced weight as the story of Fashion Week and anonymous 'fashion insiders' opined that the industry had to bow to customers who apparently demand white, thin, blonde, models. "The way people said I was stupid...saying that fashion is just a business so they need to use models who sell things....I don't see change. It needs to be said because I think about these things and other girls do too."

It warms my cold cold heart to read quotes like this from such a young woman, especially one caught up in an industry like this one. It's commendable that she thought enough about the current state of race and the fashion industry to speak on her thoughts and then not shy away once it became media fodder. She and Chanel Iman are probably working more than any of the other new Black faces in the industry and I think I would have been a lot easier for her to cash her checks and say nothing.

London Telegraph: Model Waris Dirie Says She Was Abducted

Waris Dirie, the former supermodel and James Bond girl turned United Nations women's rights ambassador, has claimed she was abducted and assaulted during a three day period she went missing in Brussels last week.

Miss Dirie was admitted to hospital, in her hometown of Vienna, with an arm injury and abrasions to her legs. Gerald Ganzger, her lawyer, alleged the injuries had been inflicted by a Belgian taxi driver who abducted and attempted to rape her while holding her hostage in his flat for two days.

Miss Dirie, a 43-year-old naturalised Austrian, went missing in the early hours of last Wednesday morning just hours before she was due to speak alongside Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, at a top level European Union conference on women's rights.

Her disappearance sparked a national manhunt. Following her initial reappearance on Friday afternoon, Miss Dirie apologised for a "misunderstanding" and said she was "lost".

Walter Lutschinger, her manager, has tried to explain why Miss Dirie did not tell police of the attack. "I think that she was simply in extreme shock," he said.

Jos Colpin, the Brussels prosecutor, expressed police bafflement. "It was made clear by her that she was the victim of nothing. Naturally we will open a new dossier if a new charge is made."

The mystery over Mis Dirie's missing days also deepened after a 45-year old Belgian man, known only as William D, came forward to say that he picked up Miss Dirie in a bar.

The window cleaner first spotted the former model on Thursday in a scruffy Brussels bar, Chez Henri, before approaching her over a glass of red wine the next day. After inviting her back to his home to eat, William D. and Miss Dirie were stopped by police officers, who had recognised her.

"If only I had taken another way home or a taxi, I could have had a good time with a splendid woman," he told La Dernière La Dernière Heure newspaper.

Source

Model Katoucha Reported Missing

French police and authorities are still searching for a former Guinean model who disappeared between late Friday night and early Saturday from her home on the river.
Former couture muse of Yves Saint Laurent, Katoucha, 47, was reported missing Monday after her relatives hadn't heard or seen from her.

The mother-of-three was last dropped off Friday night near a houseboat docked next to hers on a central stretch of the River Seine in Paris near the picturesque Alexandre III bridge. The French media reported that Katoucha, who is near-sighted and cannot swim, was drunk and not wearing her contact lenses on the night of her disappearance. Her handbag containing her cell phone, credit card and glasses was found the next morning by her landlord's son near the entrance to the boat.

Divers searched for the model's body on Wednesday as authorities are not ruling out a fatal accident or suicide.

Katoucha, nicknamed the "black princess," prowled the runways of the world's greatest designers.
In 1994, the model left the catwalk for good and made headlines the years following when she launched a foundation against the practise of female circumcision.

She recently published a book, "In My Flesh", sharing the gruesome experience of her circumcision in Guinea when she was nine years old.

Horrible news. My prayers are with her family.

Update:

Her body was found Thursday near the Garigliano bridge in Paris,the autopsy showed no signs of foul play, "pointing to the possibility that the 47-year-old may have fallen accidentally into the river," according to one article.

A former friend and fashion director said of her that [Katoucha was] "one those girls who used her fame to spotlight the misfortunes of others...She always seemed so gracious and very lovely. She was sunny and she was bright, and I liked her a lot."

Rest in peace.

Source

NY Mag: All I Want is a Foundation That Matches

...the lack of cosmetics—particularly the basics, like foundation and concealer—for my skin tone has always bothered me. When I ask companies about extending their lines for women of color, I’m usually told some version of “we’re working on it,” or shown one or two dark shades. Counterside makeovers can be humiliating; I end up in whiteface or am told point-blank they don’t have my color.

When it comes to makeup I am obsessed with three things, my own personal Holy Grail of products. For me, it all comes down to the blackest mascara, the perfect shade of red lipstick, and foundation that matches my skin. The most time consuming of these quests has been the foundation aspect. At last count I had at least ten bottles of the stuff taking up space in various makeup bags, purses, drawers and of course the bathroom cabinet which barely has room for the other essentials, like toothpaste.

I was delighted to see this article on TFS this morning, Finally, someone (a beauty editor no less) telling how it really goes down at those chic cosmetics counters. Even though Black women have magazines like Essence that will tell readers about what's new on the market, the realities of the magazine business and its relationship with advertisers means that no one is going to write a critical article about how these promises in a bottle really look on a range of brown skin.

Without identifying myself as an editor. I spent a few days in the stores, scanning the offerings and telling the counter people that I was looking for a foundation, some concealer, and a few new spring colors. I also asked for makeovers.

Makeovers? Never again. There is something about a black woman will clear skin that makes the makeup counter ladies go insane, especially at Nordstrom where if one isn't careful she'll get blasted against her will with a makeup gun and believe me, it is always set to 'whore' or 'Kabuki'.

I decide to try a smaller, boutique line. At Macy’s, I check the Too Faced counter, where the gentleman tells me I am absolutely Caribbean Cocoa. That is the darkest shade they have—but it’s sold out, so he makes an aggressive case for a bronzer-only look. I leave looking like a disco ball.

... I call the companies to see what’s being done. Some are on the defensive.

Years ago I was intrigued by the pretty packaging of a smaller makeup line that had three of four compacts of makeup, each designed for different moods or looks. The spokemodel they used was former Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, a redhead with very fair skin. For whatever reason I decided to email the company and ask if they had considered expanding the range to include makeup that would make "moods" for women without alabaster skin. The response was a curt, "our makeup is for everyone!" even though the color scheme spoke otherwise. Oh well...

So my personal makeup search continues. I've had luck in the past with MAC and a few shades of Armani's Luminous Silk Foundation and a handful of drugstore brands including Revlon's new Custom Color Foundation liquid, but something tells me, this will be a life long pursuit. It's just nice get a little validation in print so I can take heart knowing that I'm not alone in the struggle.

Everyone was lovely, everyone tried, everyone has good intentions. YSL, Chanel, and Nars are launching darker shades later this year. Bobbi Brown can’t put a timetable on their latest. Still. Makeup shopping is supposed to be fun, but getting rejected time after time made this the most emotionally draining story I’ve ever done.

Amen sister.

Trio of Articles from The Independent on Discrimination Against Non-White Models

Up and coming model Jourdan Dunn has been called the "New Naomi"

'Fashion is racist: insider lifts lid on 'ethnic exclusion'

..."Sadly we are in the business where you stock your shelves with what sells," she said.

"According to the magazines, black models don't sell," White continued. "People don't tend to talk about it, but black models have to be so beautiful and perfect because we can't have a lot of diversity with black models; it's harder work for the agency because there's not so much on offer. White models can have more diversity."

Ms White pointed the finger at those organising model castings, adding: "We have had casting briefs which say 'no ethnics'. But we are better in London than Paris and Milan; there if you offer a black girl they will drop the book like it's hot; it's such hard work for the bookers."


'Why should catwalks be so white?'

"London is not a white city, so why should our catwalks be so white?" said the teenager. "I go to castings and see several black and Asian girls, then I get to the show and look around and there is just me and maybe one other coloured face. They just don't get picked. I hope it's because the designer just did not think they were good enough as a model, but I don't know."


'Models often too afraid to launch a claim'

An industry so skewed towards non-ethnic minority workers is highly vulnerable to race discrimination claims. It may only take one high-profile case to trigger a torrent of race claims. The employment tribunals will then be able to set new parameters and fairer rules of employment.

The question is who will be brave enough to go first.

Thanks to Scriptgirl for the articles!

WSJ: "Crossing Fashion's Thin White Line"

Fashion Week is up and running again and after all the criticism last Fall about the lack of models of color on the runway there does seem to be some improvement this go round with the leggy likes of Jourdan Dunn, Mimi Roche, and Yordanos on the catwalk doing what models do best walk.

Did the world stop spinning? Did buyers stop buying? I don't think so. Nordstrom and Neiman's will still buy the clothes that they think will sell regardless of who is wearing them on the runway. Is anyone asking for quotas? No. Many just want models of color to be sent on the same go-sees that unknown European models are sent to everyday.

The Wall Street Journal shed some more light on the issue recently:

Just who is responsible for diversity on the runway depends on whom you ask. Casting directors say they work for the designers, so if the designers decide ethnic models don't fit their aesthetic, they don't hire them. Designers gripe that they would use more minority models, but the agencies don't send any "good" ones. And the modeling agencies say they aren't scouting and developing many minority models because the market hasn't been demanding their services.

A designer's goal with an expensive fashion show is to keep attention on his or her clothes, not the models. That's why, many designers privately explain, they don't like to hire distinctive-looking models, either ethnically or otherwise. But the public concern has put so much pressure on the industry that some say they have to change.

"The tricky thing about this business is that [designers and casting directors] can always say it's a matter of personal and aesthetic freedom," says Roman Young, an agent at Elite Model Management. "You wonder, 'Are they racist or are they just dumb?'" Mr. Young says he hasn't been aggressively scouting models of color because, until now, designers haven't demanded them. Very young, newly scouted models are highly in demand every season since the market likes fresh, unknown faces.

...As for whether the industry will ever change, Ms. Venditti says it's all about whether racial diversity becomes the latest fashion trend. "In general, [the industry] is a bunch of followers," she says. But "the conversation has started."

Glamour Magazine Chats w/ Bethann Hardison

In the 1960s, Bethann Hardison was the first black girl working the showroom in the garment district.

A chance encounter with designer Willie Smith launched her modeling career and a few short years later she became one of the pioneering Black models walking the runways of New York and Paris.

Her career in fashion didn't end when she stepped off the runway. Hardison founded Bethann Management in 1984 and was a charter member of The Black Girls Coalition, an organization determined to change the status quo in the fashion industry. In the article below, she talks briefly with Glamour Magazine about modeling agency biases.

The Independent: Agencies to Blame for Discrimination in Modelling

Fashion industry insiders have criticised modelling agencies for encouraging a culture of "blatant racism" in the business and announced an emergency summit with race campaigners and politicians to try to tackle the issue.

The meeting, scheduled to take place in London next year, has been organised by Dee Doocey (pictured), a Liberal Democrat spokesperson from the London Assembly. Ms Doocey, a former managing director of an international fashion company, believes the fashion world desperately needs to face underlying racism in the trade.

"I can't remember being sent a model who wasn't white," said the former fashion manager. "I don't know if it's racism, or just the fashion industry languishing in the doldrums, but it needs to change. Agencies only seem interested in leggy white blonde girls."

Designers, model agencies, race campaigners and politicians are among those who will be invited to the event, which has been announced ahead of a national contest in November to find the next British supermodel "of colour".

Sola Oyebade, managing director of Mahogany, the model agency behind next month's Top Model of Colour competition, said: "This event will start the debate. We've been trying to get more ethnic minority models into the industry but if you don't hold the purse strings or the power then no change can happen. Everyone looks at Naomi Campbell as the black model who's made it, but ...isn't it worrying that no-one else has come along?

"There are so many good quality black and mixed race-models that would be great, but the agencies and the clients are not willing to take a gamble.

"Non-white people make up about 30 per cent of the population of London but we don't even make up 1 per cent of the models."

Cassandra Lee, 18, a finalist in the Top Model of Colour competition, said her skin colour had been a problem for her in getting work. "You have to try much harder if you're not white," she said. "You have to be perfect to be looked at the same way as a white model. Sometimes you hear straight up that they're not looking for black models. It's quite blatant. " Another finalist, Stacey McKnight, 21, said it was ridiculous that black models were overlooked. "We're British too, why aren't we represented?"

One third of all Londoners are non-white, according to Greater London Assembly statistics, yet the websites of London's leading agencies show there are hundreds of white faces for every handful of models from other ethnic groups.

Maya Schulz, managing director at Acclaim models, an agency that specialises in choosing models from an ethnically diverse range of backgrounds, said: "I always find it more difficult putting black faces out there. The racism you come across is not underlying, it's blatant. People will say things like 'Don't send any more black models', and one designer even said black people didn't suit his clothes. And we're not talking about small designers here; it's all the big ones."

"The colour debate is far more important than the size-zero debate, but it's hardly had any coverage. The Black Girls Coalition was formed in the Eighties to combat it, but no progress has been made."

Source

Little Diversity in Fashion: African-Americans Bemoan Their Absence in Industry

Excerpts from WWD

...By not including more blacks in their shows and ads, Ivan Bart, senior vice president of IMG Models, said designers and other fashion companies are missing out on black women's spending power. "By not having black women represented, those luxury brands are saying they can't afford it," he said.

...[Bethann] Hardison, who has modeled, run her own modeling agency and handled casting over the years, said, "In the United States of America, this is the one industry that still has the freedom to refer to people by their color and reject them in their work."

...Daniel Wolf, a Washington-based attorney who specializes in civil and human rights, said the assumption being made in the fashion industry is that it is legal to discriminate — however false. Wolf recommended that modeling agencies hire the same percentage of black models that are in the entire modeling industry.

...The lack of blacks in all aspects of fashion — from the runway to the executive suite — comes as there is a noticeable increase in the number of Asian models, designers and executives in the industry. Among designers, for example, Thakoon Panichgul, Peter Som, Doo-Ri Chung, Derek Lam, Phillip Lim, and Benjamin Cho have all sprung onto the scene. Of course, designers like Vera Wang, Yeohlee Teng, Anna Sui and Vivienne Tam had already helped pave the way.

...Of the 101 shows and presentations posted on Style.com, 31 appear to have no black models. Most of those who did use black models opted for one or two. However, Heatherette, Diane von Furstenberg, Charles Nolan, Tracy Reese, Yigal Azrouël, Philip Lim, Marc Jacobs, Jenni Kayne and Sue Stemp were among the designers who used more than two.

...[Naomi] Campbell, who flew in from London for the occasion, recalled how Christy Turlington once told Dolce & Gabbana, "If you don't use Naomi, you don't get us," referring also to Linda Evangelista. Campbell said that's how she also got into Helmut Lang, Prada and Versace. She used a different route with French Vogue, appealing to Yves Saint Laurent, whose campaigns she had worked on for three years running. The magazine relented after the designer threatened to pull his advertising, which at the time was reportedly the publication's largest advertiser.


...Bill Blass' former designer, Michael Vollbracht, recalled the days when booking Sheila Johnson, Pat Cleveland and other leading African-American beauties was a given. After returning to the industry after a 15-year hiatus, he was surprised to learn that was no longer the case. Age is also an issue, Vollbracht said. Cleveland's return to the Blass runway in 2004 was not well-received, Vollbracht said. "I was told, 'Don't ever put that girl back on the runway.'"

...On occasion [Tracy] Reese's booker has to request specific girls or the modeling agencies will not send them, Reese said.


Most of this, we've all read before so I won't bother to rehash my thought on the subject. The most striking thing about this article to me is that someone would actually complain about watching Pat Cleveland on the runway. Talk about a jaw dropping comment. To be fair, I know that everyone has their favorites in the modeling industry but... damn. That would be like me writing a pissy letter to Anna Wintour every time I saw Kate Moss or Gisele appearing in an advertisement. Personally, I'd pay money to watch Cleveland walk across the street.

The Other Great White Way

Kenya Hunt, writing for Metro New York is the latest to voice criticism about the step backwards that many fashion houses have taken diversity-wise when it comes to casting models for shows.

"...the odds of an ethnic model making inroads into the runway realm growing increasingly dismal with time. “The runway doesn’t reflect the world. It makes fashion feel very backward,” notes Guy Trebay, a fashion reporter for The New York Times, who has written extensively about the subject. The dearth of minorities on the catwalk is a decades-long quandary. But many who work behind-the-scenes say the problem has worsened rather than improved, with groups of minority women unable to get jobs based on the whims that dictate what’s out and what’s in."

Of course, designers and agencies have a million and one excuses for the lack of color on the runway this season with some claiming erroneously that black and brown models don't "fit" their clothes or that they stand out too much, while others cite the imaginary lack of models of color. In my opinion both of these excuses are ridiculous. What it brings to my mind is an episode of Janice Dickinson's modeling industry "reality" show in which she chided a male agent for not championing models that he personally didn't find f*ckable (meaning blond and white.) It seems kind of ridiculous in this day and age to compare models of color to Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" but honestly, what other conclusion is the casual observer of fashion supposed to come to? Fashion designers and agencies don't "see" ethnic models because they don't have to. It really saddens me that that there were more ethnic models working when I was in junior high than there are visible today.

What is the ultimate effect of all this anyway? For me personally, it means that I don't buy a quarter of the fashion magazines that I regularly purchased ten years ago. While I still love clothes, my excitement about the industry as a whole has dampened considerably.