Conspicuous by Their Presence
Today I spotted an article in the NY Times about the dearth of working black models in the Fashion Industry. However, this just wasn’t another piece commenting on the continuing disappearing faces of color from the catwalks crisis crossing the globe. Nope, this article by Cathy Horyn spotlighted world renowned photographer Steven Meisel and his idea, nurtured to fruition by Italian Vogue editor Franca Sozzani, to produce a black edition of the magazine which would feature only black models.
Inspiring!
Horyn’s article, aptly titled Conspicuous by Their Presence, will hopefully put a spotlight on the trend of excluding women of color. Fashion insiders and power players often cite the possibility of lower sales if the models do not reflect the customer. Does that mean then that black women and women of color should not purchase products peddled by models who do not look like them? It’s ridiculous, right?
However, if that is the game to be played then why do these powers that be ignore the move of black women spending upwards of 20 billion dollars to look good? Check mate.
One would hope that that would be reason enough to include diverse faces on the catwalks, billboards and pages of fashion mags.
The all black Italian Vogue will include well known beauties like Naomi Campbell, Liya Kebede, and Alek Wek as well as little known stunners such as Jourdan Dunn and Sessilee Lopez will be on the stands in July.
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