Black Models Get No Luv…

It’ll be on Oprah and Tyra any day now. Tyra…*spaced out drooling*

Er…*shakes head clear*

Black is finally in fashion at Vogue

By Ian Johnston and Photini Philippidou
Sunday, 27 April 2008

It’s an open secret in the fashion industry: black models rarely get jobs on catwalks, in magazines and on billboards. According to executives, they do not inspire women to spend money.

Apart from Naomi Campbell in one Louis Vuitton advertisement this season, it would be difficult to find a single black model in a prominent position in a magazine. Carole White of the Premier Model Agency says she has received casting briefs requesting “no ethnics” and adds: “According to magazines, black models don’t sell.” (More)

I personally couldn’t give a flying…duck what the fashion world thought of me. I’d like to think I have more to me than something as vapid as ‘fashion consciousness’ but that’s just me. It seems odd that almost no one is stressing any kind of intellectual stimulation to girls (of all backgrounds) but are, in place of this, pushing forward an idiotic idealization that one must fit into this standardized casting in order to be accepted in society. Bullshit.

Now that I’ve got my personal views out of the way. This is about as old as the hills. For what it’s worth, it’s nice to see someone (aside from Yves Saint-Laurent and the few others like him) take any note of it and specifically address the issue. I still think it’s a shame they’re not modeling academic caps and gowns or…dare I say it? Doctorates in the fields of Mathematics and the various Sciences?

I doubt anyone will take the challenge of not cutting darker skinned models out of their promotions (damn and blast you Covergirl for cutting that commercial with the very beautiful Alek Wek!) as seriously, but my hat goes off to this Nick Knight fellow.

Heh, cool name too. :p