The industry known for “breaking barriers and taking risks” has barely taken a risk on diversity and it shows.
The world of fashion has experienced a lack of diversity for quite some time. More specifically, dating back to 2015 in relation to the percentage of runway diversity. The Fashion Spot reported in “spring (of) 2015 that number was only 17 percent” of how many people of color were strutting on the runways.
With previous years’ abundance of thin models, New York Fashion Week (NYFW) acknowledged shows have decided to include models of all sizes, yet that still doesn’t resolve the entire issue at hand.
According to the Fashion Spot, New York Fashion Week catwalks for A/W of all the models that walked during the week, “78.69 percent were white,” and “out of 4,621 looks, only 985 were worn by models of color”.
Ultimately, it is safe to say that there’s not a lot of people of color sashaying the runways. This may be shocking for some, but according to The Business of Fashion, “fashion shows in four of the major fashion capitals consist of 80 percent Caucasian models”.
Along with the fashion shows, high profiled magazines such as Glamour and Marie Claire also show a higher liking toward Caucasian models. However, there’s a selected few that try to focus on a particular race and actually address that.
Magazines such as Essence, Latina and Ebony prefer to have models who are African American or Latino. Of the few African American models, Naomi Campbell, Iman and Grace Jones have paved the way for many aspiring models of color.
African American model Nykhor Paul recently voiced her opinion in an Instagram post. “I’m tired of complaining about not getting booked as a black model and I’m definitely super tired of apologizing for my blackness”.
There are a few African American models in the industry, but it’s clear the industry is more accepting of African Americans with lighter skin tones as opposed to ones with darker skin tones.
Paul and other models such as Jourdaan Dunn, were even refused service because of it.
"I'm normally told I'm cancelled because I'm colored, they say if you have a black face on a magazine cover it won't sell, but there's no real evidence for that. It's lazy. You always hear, there aren't enough black models,' which is BS. It's all about these dead excuses," said Dunn in a recent interview.
These issues are not only apparent on the runaways, but they’re also occurring in other places of work. As of 2012, Catalyst.org reported statistics that displayed a low rate of 34.3 percent of non-Caucasian people in the workforce. Including the fashion industry, some of these places may not solely focus on your work ethic or qualifications, but on your skin color.
Courtesy of Jezebel
