Ariel Meredith struts in the Barbie show during NY Fashion Week
Jezebel lists the figures on how many models of color were represented on the runway during New York Fashion Week:
There were 116 labels that held shows at the recently ended New York fashion week; that's 3,697 spots in runway and presentation lineups. Of those, 668 were given to models of color — which, at just over 18%, is 6% better than one year ago. (And certainly better than in the fall of 2007, when WWD reported that one-third of the New York shows used no models of color at all.)
...
There were 7 shows that had no models of color at all. Those designers were: Altuzarra, Davidelfin, Jenni Kayne, Julian Louie, Koi Suwannagate, Temperley London, Vera Wang Lavender Label.
And there were 19 shows that had some models of color, but no black models. They were: Alexandre Herchcovitz, Behnaz Sarafpour, Costello Tagliapietra, Erin Fetherston, Halston, Marchesa, Max Azria, Milly, Miss Sixty, Monique Lhuillier, Nicole Miller, Philosophy, Reem Acra, Tibi, TSE, United Bamboo, Vena Cava, VPL, Vivienne Tam.
Legend: Yellow = Black models/ Red = Asian models/ Blue = Latina models / Green= Other ethnicities
The biggest winners (in terms of numbers of shows booked) contain the expected names: Sessilee Lopez and Jourdan Dunn*. Each appeared in 20+ shows while Arlenis Sosa's number was in the teens. Also spotted on multiple runways were Chanel Iman, Wakeema Hollis, Sessilee Lopez, Gracie Carvalho, Kinee Diouf, Georgie Baddiel, Mia Aminata Niaria, Ubah Hassan, Shelby Coleman, and Ataui Deng. One notable, 17 year old Lyndsey Scott (represented by Click) made a splash when she became the first woman of color to score an exclusive for Calvin Klein.
*Edited to correct bad numbers on my part. It was Sessilee Lopez (and not Chanel Iman as I originally printed) who scored 20+ shows. Thanks to a careful reader for pointing out my mistake.
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."
Chanel Iman, who has worked an astonishing 40 shows this catwalk season between New York, Paris, and Milan, made headlines when she showed two looks for Gucci Spring 2009.
Fashionologie, reported that she became the first black model in a Gucci show since Tom Ford left and was replaced by Frida Giannini in 2005. Iman was the sole non-white model on the stage that was populated almost exclusively by models with nearly identical blonde shoulder length hairstyles.
Using all black models has now become to lazy way to get attention in the fashion industry. Menswear designer Carlos Campos will unveil his first women's collection on September 7th in New York.
He has shared that his inspiration for the show is the jet set glamourous lifestyle of iconic model Iman and her rocker husband David Bowie.
Sigh. Why not just use black, or other non-white models, because they are beautiful and look great in the clothes?
It's sad that those in the industry have interpreted the success of Vogue Italia as merely a publicity stunt and not the desire of fashion consumers to see more racial diversity in this once groundbreaking industry.
Even Campos' muse Iman expressed concern that black models would be seen as a gimmick after the publication of the July Vogue Italia.
Photo: DailyLife
ETA: Scriptgirl sent me a link to this article on issues of race and Fashion Week. It has a few good quotes from designers like Tracy Reese who remarked:
"I was pleasantly surprised this year. We're always calling up the agencies to say, 'We want to see black girls, Latinas, Asians, everything. ... There were a lot of new faces...For me, it's fun to see how different personalities enhance the clothes."
Designer Pamella Roland added, "Model casting has actually been easier this season. We're impressed by the sheer number and beauty of all ethnicities this time around. The only difficulty will be in choosing which girls we will ultimately cast."
According to top model booker Daniel Peddle, two "looks" will rule the runway during Fashion Week -- the tomboy look and ethnically ambiguous models.
I guess that's the industry's way of getting around casting models who actually look unmistakably Black, Asian, or Hispanic. He mentioned Dominican newcomer Arlenis Sosa (pictured) as one of his new favorites.
"...Another thing this season is trying to discern from all the girls out there the ones that are ethnically ambiguous. Girls and boys that have faces that you can’t just put in a certain place or race or geography. I think it’s very helpful to see those types of faces in our conflicted world because you can see that we’re still evolving as humans and they are the results of people willing to go beyond the socially constructed notions around race. I think that’s really important and were going to see even more of those as the population changes."
Umm, okay. While I personally am for models of all background being represented on the catwalk there is something in his statement that rubs me the wrong way. Yep, we're still evolving as human beings but guess what? In spite of race mixing there are still plenty of "mono"-racial people on the planet and only casting models who appear to be mixed race isn't my idea of modernism. He continues,
With the Internet and the way that everyone is so connected now it’s not something you can overlook anymore. I don’t think its possible to do a modern show and have it be all blondes. I understand that sometimes a designer has an aesthetic that dictates something like that and of course we’re going to work with them to achieve their goals but personally I don’t find that to be a very modern statement.
So that's what we can expect next season. The new "aspirational model" is a woman who is vaguely ethnic but not enough to offend or stand out too much. Forgive me if I'm not doing cartwheels.
Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman walk for JPG in Paris (Style.com)
It's been a good month for some black models in magazines but so far that upswing hasn't carried over onto the runway yet.
All eyes are on Paris now where designers are presenting their Fall 2008 collections but once again very few of those elegantly tailored pantsuits and cage dresses are resting on the bodies of black models. According to designers Jean-Paul Gaultier and Mario Lefranc, agencies just don’t have any black models at the moment."I asked the modeling agency for black girls for our next show but there simply aren't any," said Lefranc.
Is it just me? Or do you wonder where these people are looking when they claim that they can’t find any black models? I subscribe to a thread @ TheFashionSpot devoted to new black faces and could honestly name a few dozen off the top of my head that have the look but don't seem to get the work. And honestly, what kind of an agency tells a client they can’t find any and leaves it at that?An agency can find black models the same way they find white ones, by leafing through comp cards; scouting or at open calls. Seriously, look for the tall slouching girl with the good skin, and high cheekbones and introduce yourself. It’s not rocket science.
And let me add this, as much as I really like to see black women on the runway I am hoping that designers don’t go the P. Diddy and D-Squared route and host a one off segregated show featuring only black models. To me responses like this miss the whole point, it’s never been about segregation.
Within limits, Americans are exceedingly tolerant. We pride ourselves on our "live and let live" ethic, and it's probably safe to say that we show more respect for racial diversity than any other country in the West. The kinds of hideous public insults that Jackie Robinson endured 50 years ago are now virtually unknown in the United States, although they can still be heard on Saturday afternoons at rowdy soccer matches in Great Britain. While there continue to be unrepentant racists in the States, of course, they do not have the necessary mainstream support to mount major political parties that capture significant portions of the vote - as they do in France and Germany. That said, American is a country of people with varied backgrounds, many of whom are not above exposing their racial biases. In terms of fashion magazines, for example, it is a fact of life that the color of a model's skin (or hair, for that matter) dramatically affects newsstand sales. Although it is rare for an issue of Vogue to go to the printer without one or more black models featured prominently inside, black models appear less often than I, and many of you, would like on Vogue's covers - which, no one will be shocked to hear, are designed to appeal to as large a group of potential readers as possible. This month, we feature a young, fresh-faced black model named Kiara Kabukuru on our cover, and I am crossing my fingers that Kiara will be embraced by magazine buyers everywhere - not because she's black but because she's beautiful.
Anna Wintour
Eleven years ago, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, featured Ugandan model Kiara Kabukuru (photographed by Steven Meisel) on the cover of the traditionally low selling July issue of American Vogue. I excerpted her letter here because it’s something that I find myself referring to often on this blog and I wanted everyone to be able to read Ms. Wintour’s words as she wrote them. What is interesting to me is that in spite of the fact that Wintour believes Europe is so much more intolerant that the United States, Kiara appeared on several fashion magazine covers there, including the French and Spanish editions of Vogue. To the best of my knowledge, neither of the editors of those magazines, printed letters begging their readers to “embrace” Kiara in spite of her blackness. Also, as a magazine editor with control of which models appear inside the issue as well as outside, Ms. Wintour puts the onus for change and acceptance directly onto the reader and not herself.
In the July 2008 issue of Vogue, which features an article called “Is Fashion Racist,” Ms. Wintour doesn’t refer to the piece, or this 1997 cover at all which surprised me. For all the criticism heaped on Vogue magazine lately, and Vogue Italia’s decision to dedicate their July issue to black models, I thought for sure she would use this issue as an opportunity to stand on her studded Balenciaga soap box and pat herself on the back for being so inclusive.
But there was nothing, which is probably just as well since really, after 10+ years what could she possibly say?
"Are we still talking about this in 2008?" asks Iman in an irate voice kicking off the "Is Fashion Racist?" article in the July issue of Vogue. I've certainly pondered that question myself over the past few years and I am sure that many other fashion enthusiasts have as well.
Really, why is it that an industry such as this one known for embracing a variety of outlandish personalities and ideas is so blind when it comes to putting new faces in its clothes, on its runways or in its magazines. For example, I’ve lost count of how many times I've seen designer Philip Lim glorified on the pages of fashion tomes but I struggle to remember when I last saw and Asian model featured in a multi-page editorial. In spite of the fact that Pat McGrath, Andre Leon Talley, photographer Mark Baptist and designers like Tracey Reese are influential enough to sit at the proverbial table, that diversity hasn't tricked down to model employment office. This seems to suggest that people of other races are welcome to provide the glitz for a shoot but must never be the one to wear the accessories.
I think about this topic often and it's become the main focus of my blog because it wasn't like this when I was growing up and first became enamored with fashion. I still remember the day my English teacher brought in a stack of old ELLE magazines to give away and I got my first taste of it. I spent hours pouring over those images back then. It was superficial and I knew but I didn’t care. It still meant something to me. Seeing the Beverly Peele on the cover of Seventeen when I was in high school back then made me feel good. It made me feel included in that fabulous something even though my bi-level two toned jheri curl was decidedly not happening. Side note: I still haven’t forgiven my mother for making get a jheri curl. I honestly think of it as child abuse.
My fashion jones followed me to college where I always had the latest pictures of Naomi Campbell tacked to my mirror for fierce make up inspiration. But then it seemed, things started to reverse themselves. Instead of marching forward and including larger cross section of ethnicities, fashion started marching backwards. The change was slow but deliberate. Black models became less visible as lighter skinned, more racially ambiguous Brazilian beauties hit the scene. They started dropping off too, save Gisele, in favor of Eastern European models, each new batch even more nondescript than the previous seasons.
Nowadays, when I talk about how it used to be I feel like an old woman rocking on my porch talking about the good ole' days when they let us colored folk take pretty pictures.
In the article the author, Vicki Woods, writes that "[Vogue] magazine exists to inspire women," but I wonder is she's actually been looking at the same magazine that I have. Except for the odd issue that gets is right, most of what I see in Vogue is far from inspiring. While I will admit to coveting certain pricey items but I don't think I've looked at a model in Vogue and wanted to trade places with her since the Summer’s Bare Necessities shoot and that was in 1992.
I agree with Woods where she suggests that one simply cannot compare the supermodels of the 90's who "looked equal but different as they thundered down the runway" to the unhappy mass of similarly styled European models "who look pretty much alike." Even Sarah Doukes of Storm Models remarked "It's a naughty thing to say, because I've got some beautiful Eastern European girls, but to be honest, when I go in cars with them in Paris, I do get snow blinded."
Bethann Hardison was so angered by the situation that she emailed Iman writing "Did you realize that over the last decade black models have been reduced to a category?" The two called a series of town-hall style meeting titled "Out of Fashion: The Absence of Color" held at the New York Public Library. Countless models told stories about being rejected for jobs, not because their particular "look" or walk was a problem, but solely based on the fact that they were black. Liya Kebede shared that she has had "experience with people who did not want to work with me because I was black..really, truly." In any other industry, that would be a racist remark, and you would be taken to court for it!" After those meetings the wheels started to turn and the issue garnered more attention.
Models, especially the ones lucky enough to be earning a living as models, are reluctant to name names. So when Jourdan Dunn famously asked, "why are our catwalks so white?" it made international fashion news. Except that she didn't actually say it, professional celebrity offspring Kelly Osbourne did. Jourdan shares "She was at the Topshop show, and she said it to a journalist, who ran out and did a telephone interview with me. She said, 'Do you agree?' And I said, 'Yes, it's true."
Even as models of the moment like Jourdan Dunn, Chanel Iman, and blazing Dominican newcomer Arlenis Sosa, are making inroads, they still face opposition but from where? This is where the article falls short, unable to point the finger at anyone in particular. Certainly not at Anna Wintour, who isn't even mentioned in the piece and presumably prefers to let her covers do the talking. Wintour doesn’t even bother to mention the article in her editorial.
So back to the blame game... Is it the photographers? No, according to Mario Testino. He says that photographers just "react to the supply." Is it the designers then? Some of whom seem to think black bodies are all wrong for the clothes. Alber Elbaz of Lanvin says no no, not him. "I try all different dresses and when I see only the face of the girl-and the dress disappears-I know it's the best dress for her." Huh? He goes on to say that he was "trained" to use black models. "I loved them from the time I worked at [YSL]; he always used black models." Because I'm thinking something is lost in translation there so I'm not going to go on too much about why someone has to be trained to see black people as a viable option. It's getting a little too Haley Joel Osment in here for my taste.
Well, that leaves the casting agents (the gays are spared the finger pointing in this article.) Russell Marsh, who does casting for Prada and is very influential in the industry isn't asked why there was a ten-year gap in between Naomi's last walk for the design house and Jordan Dunn's. He's asked why he chose her. His unsatisfying answer pays lip service to her elegance and confidence being right for that particular show and then goes on to talk about how important it is that the clothes are not overshadowed as they were during the age of the supermodels.
Seriously, people talk about the AGE OF THE SUPERMODELS like it's prehistoric or something. Last time I look around, most of those big names were still making money and to the best of my knowledge no one has successfully performed carbon dating on Naomi Campbell. Iman rightfully called bullsh*t on that saying, "You don't want to look like these [current] models, you don't want to emulate them." Models exist to be muses and to make women want to buy the overpriced clothes they wear.
James Scully, who casts for Tom Ford blames celebrity culture. "When it's tough for models, it's really tough for black models." While it is true that it's rare to find a model and not an actress on a fashion magazine cover these days, Hollywood has it's own problems when it comes to diversity.
Anyway, it seems the bottom line is that dour faced robotic beauties are in and models with unique looks and personalities are out. My question is that if designers really believe that their clothes are best represented on blank canvas models. Why is the canvas always white? Why not runway shows populated by say, Asian models of similar builds, styled the exact same way or black models grouped together for the similarity in their features? They are certainly not above exploiting a model's race to grab attention. How can a group of professionals famed for thinking outside the box be so narrowly focused at the same time?
So where does that leave someone like me? While I am pleased to see models like Arlenis getting a break my enthusiasm for these things has dampened considerably. Often I will read comments from people who are puzzled as to why people like me bother getting upset about these things in the first place. "Why should I care about that white magazine and whether or not they put black people in it?" is a common refrain. I admit that there are some days that I feel the same way. Especially nowadays when I'm more informed and entertained by fashion blogs than I am by print magazines.
On the flip side, another part of me still longs for a time when I can pick up a magazine on the stands, read about fashion and see an array of images representing all types of beauty not just black or white. I don’t feel that any kind of change like this will occur if people stop complaining and give up. These old habits die hard. So while I am still hotly anticipating getting my hands on a copy of Italian Vogue, I still reserve the right to complain about it once I've seen it for myself. I can’t help it. I'm old and cranky and I’m a decade away from yelling at kids to get off my lawn. At the very least, I know there are people who feel the same way that I do and I know how comforting it is to read bitching online that could have come from ones own mouth. So this is for the two dozen of you who read this site and feel like I do. Cranky is the new black.
The irony in fashion is that it loves change but it can’t actually change anything. It can only reflect a change in the air. But what changes fashion? What would finally move American designers to include more black models on their runways? That 30 percent of the country is nonwhite? That black women spend $20 billion a year on clothes? That an African-American is the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party? The answer is the individual eye. NYT
Naomi Campbell, according to the article, was set to appear in just four photographs for the highly anticipated July Vogue Italia issue. That number magically turned into twenty. Mr. Meisel was allotted 100 pages for his project.
While I'm sure that all of the photographs of Ms. Campbell are beautiful but I'm bothered that in an issue that is supposed to celebrate diversity, the go-to model is still the one black model that ruins the curve for the rest of them. Naomi is a pop icon and a bonofide celebrity. Although she is incredibly beautiful and an amazing model, she has also been the only bonofide superstar of her hue in this industry for a very long time. While designers routinely give six figure contracts to no name European models, Naomi is the only dark skinned girl that has that kind of earning power. Because she is a household name and an instantly recognizable face she is safe. People may snicker about her run-ins with the law and personal problems but, like Kate Moss, she is an undsiputed fashion champion. Her inclusion and prominence in this issue is representative of the "tokenism", "laziness" and "paranoia" that this industry has been soaking in for years like a manicurist's bowl of Parmolive.
Other models featured in the issue include Iman, Naomi Campbell, Alek Wek, Liya Kebede, Pat Cleveland, Jourdan Dunn, Sessilee Lopez, Chanel Iman, Veronica Webb, Tocarra Jones, and Karen Alexander.
When asked about the inclusion of Sessilee Lopez, Meisel remarked that he used her because "Because nobody gives her a chance.” I couldn't help but wonder after reading that if other relatively unknown models would be given that chance in this issue. It comes out on Thursday in Europe and soon after in the US. I'm anxiously awaiting the issue, of course, but I wonder if any of the faces represented will also appear in the phone book sized September issues of Vogue.
Okay so this morning I talked to a guy at a magazine distributor in my area who assured me that the July issue of Italian Vogue wouldn't be in stores of for another week so there was no reason for me to make a special trip yadayadayada...he lied.
The first pics from the highly anticipated "black" issue have hit the internets so here is a peek. I've decided to withold judgement until I've seen the entire issue for myself. The usual suspects (namely Naomi, Jourdan, Tyra and Liya) are present but so far there is no sign of the rumored shot of everyone's favorite plus sized cheesecake model Tocarra of ANTM fame.
In response to Steven Meisel's challenge, American Vogue has run an article and editorial called "Is Fashion Racist?" in this month's issue (exceedingly plastic Nicole Kidman on the cover.)
The editorial features "white" hot Jourdan Dunn again with Chanel Iman. The answer to this question of course is yes. Everybody knows it and I hate that Anna Wintour always feels the need to explain why she is using black models instead of just, you know, using them in normal everyday unimaginative spreads that US Vogue is known for. I'm still mad about her editorial apology the year the Kiara Kabukuru was on the July cover several years back.
Will this change anything? The pessimist in me says no but we'll have to wait and see if fashion editors willingness to feature black models and models of other non-white ethnicities (in the lowest selling month for magazines across the board) will carry over.
BET News examines the issue in a segment called "Fashion Blackout." I missed the first airing but it will air again tonight at 7:30 (Eastern and Pacific times) and again on Sunday at 11 a.m.
From the website: So is the fashion industry racist? Or are Blacks simply “not in” this season? And why should we care? We will explore the issue and how the exclusion of an entire race has a negative effect on Black women and their sense of self-worth. We go behind the scenes at New York’s Fashion Week to find the answers.
Since this is BET we're talking about, I don't think the segment will be sharing any information we have't already heard but I think it is good that more people are talking about the issue.
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.
...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.
Honestly, there isn't a single thing in this collection that I would wear but I've got to give Kimora Lee credit because hers is probably the most racially diverse fashion show to ever take the stage during NY Fashion Week.
