That's Racist//Fashion's Dirty Laundry
Racism is a part of my everyday life. As a young black fashion professional, there is not a day that goes by where Iām not plagued by it. Iāve flipped through major fashion publications and marked the number of WOC on the pages, (not including the cover girl ads). Sometimes I manage to finish with several corners folded (my way of marking), but too often I have finished with every single page unmarked.
Iām a bit of a mag hag. Iāve collected fashion magazines since I was a child. Imagine being 12 years old in the backseat of your family car excited to open the magazine you practically begged your mom the entire grocery trip for and never seeing anyone who remotely looks like you (although the industry was strangely more diverse in the 90ās). Itās a bit of a mind fuck, especially during the weird pre-teen stages of life. My family always made me feel beautiful, but theyāre family. Clearly the rest of the world didnāt share their sentiments, and by the rest of the world I mean the world I so desperately wanted to become a part of; the fashion world.
Whatās a girl to think?
I started my Sunday morning by catching up on the latest fashion news when I ran across an article by Jason Campbell. His piece touched on theĀ blatant racism that continues to haunt this industry as well as the little spoken about separate but equal problem. The latter resonated with me so much because quite frankly itās never really been addressed.Ā
I discovered Vogue Black about 4 years ago. Vogue.com has never been a main fashion source for me, as I prefer the modern layout of Style.com. I didnāt really know how to feel about a separate section of the website dedicated to stylish black people. It was refreshing to see, but I wondered why we couldnāt be included on the main pages. Why do we require a separate section? I felt the same way about the Italian Vogue all black print issue. I loved the fact that so many black models were getting recognition, but would this mean the rest of the issues would neglect to feature any models of color since we had our āmoment of gloryā so to speak? Have we settled for the days of Jim Crow Laws?
It is important for everyone (black and non black people alike) to see positive representations of black people in all media. Failure to include models of color in regular magazine publications, on runways, and on the main pages of websites sends the message that we do not belong at the proverbial main table, but the table in the corner is just fine. That is unacceptable.
Last September just a day before NYFW, Naomi Campbell, Iman, and Bethann Hardison launched the Diversity Coalition,Ā a campaign to end racism on the runway. The coalition publicly āouted" designers who had little to no diversity in their model castings the seasons prior. Although it seemed the designers got the message with a noticeable increase of black models on the catwalk in Spring 13, there is still much work to be done. We need more black designers, creative directors, art directors, fashion execs, et ceteraĀ to really make an impact in the industry. Ā It simply does not reflect the diverse world in which we live.
"No matter the intention, the result is racism" -The Diversity Coalition.
