Columnist Courtney Mihocik points out that models sporting African or Asian-inspired fashion on the runway are usually white, which doesn’t make sense.
Misrepresentation and cultural appropriation runs rampant in society. Although slowly improving, media outlets still struggle to satisfy the outcries for diversity across the board. It’s no secret that a concentration of those social sins rests in the fashion industry.
According to Jezebel, this past fall and winter 2014 fashion season saw 78.69 percent white models on the runway. Only 9.75 percent were black, 7.67 percent Asian and 2.12 percent Latina.
One recent example of the lack of diversity, coupled with appropriation, is Valentino’s Spring 2016 Collection. Supposedly inspired by “wild” and “tribal” Africa, out of the 87 models featured during the show, only eight of them were black. Viewers took to Twitter and other forms of social media and began rightfully accusing the house of cultural appropriation.
Karlie Kloss walked down the runway in a feather headdress and turquoise jewelry for Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. A headdress, a symbol of the highest respect only given to males, was placed on an underwear model strictly for aesthetic purposes.
A Hindu symbol encased in the bindi constantly gets violated by white 20-something girls who attend Coachella every summer. Even celebrities such as Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez and members of the Jenner-Kardashian family sported this “fashion” at the music festival.
As celebrities and models steal pieces of different cultures and begin to appropriate them into mainstream media, it begins to be cool to be white and have a bindi, headdress, etc. Those examples feed into a white-washed fashion industry where the white models receive the most work and models of color receive less.
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According to The Guardian, black models like Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman have experienced racism in the form of being turned down for work. “We already found one black girl. We don’t need you anymore,” designers cited.
But more recently, designer brands are being berated for their lack of diversity in their shows. Even if they did have non-white models for the collection’s looks, The Guardian reports that it could only be because of letters sent by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the British Fashion Council specifically asking designers to reflect diversity on the runway.
So why do we need so much urging from councils and Twitter users to include models of color? It isn’t the 1960s, I’m sure that the accessibility of black, Asian, Latino, etc. talent can be easily reached in the pools of prospective models that crop up every day. But alas, the white models will wear the fashions inspired by Oriental, or maybe African fashion.
Courtney Mihocik is a junior studying journalism. Do you think there is a diversity problem in the fashion industry? Tweet her @CourtneyMiho or email her at cm674912@ohio.edu.
