Racism in fashion, black isn't the new black...

I was lucky enough to be in the presence of Naomi Campbell at her press conference for 'The Face', due to my internship at Star magazine this September. During the promotion of the show she also spoke out against racism in fashion. She inspired me, and I'm sure many others, to be critical of the general uniform aesthetic presented by the industry. It has been 26 years since Naomi Campbell became the first black model ever to grace the cover of Vogue. This should have marked a stepping stone in the industry, helping to reconstruct the western perspective of beauty. However, the most recent major fashion weeks in New York, London, Paris and Milan this September lacked a balanced diversity of different ethnic models.  

Naomi Campbell's first UK vogue cover

Black supermodels Naomi Campbell and Iman Somali teamed up to launch 'Diversity Coalition' to raise awareness of the lack of ethnic diversity within the industry and to stop racial discrimination. Both spokeswomen state having only one, or no models from different ethnic backgrounds in a catwalk show is a racist act. They named dozens of labels considered to be most at fault of this including Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs. Last season, 82.7% of models were white at New York Fashion Week, with only 9.1% Asian, 6% black and 2% Latina. Obviously, this should be alarming to many of us, an industry followed by millions, responsible in determining trends of beauty and clothing. This relentless over-representation of the Caucasian look in the mass media as the ultimate beauty has the power to make other ethnicitys look secondary and inferior. 

Spokeswomen Iman Somali states "The absence of people of colour on the runways and photography reinforces to our young girls that they're not beautiful enough, that they're not acceptable enough," to CNN. "The diversity that we live in, the world that we live in, is not what is shown on the runway. That to me is the concern. It's a bigger issue at large than just about runway and models." 

Naomi Campbell explains, "When I started modeling in '86 there was Asians, blacks, whites, Indians, Chinese. It was very diverse," Campbell told CNN. "It's not like that today. It's heart-breaking to me that we're in 2013 and we're sitting here talking about this. But it has to be done and people need to know."

Naomi Campbell and Iman Somali should be praised for recognising this flaw in the fashion industry, as well as being courageous as to speaking against designers who are in a position of influence in the industry. Racism isn't over. The fashion industry hold a huge fragment within the mass media, both being a powerful tool in our youths socialisation. A Korean teenage girl growing up in modern day Britain should not be made to feel ugly just because her look isn't as celebrated in the media as a white persons. The flow of images created by the industry isn't restricted to the western world either, it reaches even the remotest of areas. This is why it is a good cause that these supermodels are speaking out and pointing fingers, recognising the lack of non-white models used in campaigns and catwalks. Potentially this has a platform to change the way we view ourselves. We should celebrate all ethnicity's equally. Also we should not underestimate the fashion industry's role in culture imperialism, effecting how some individuals perceive themselves and others around them. 

Naomi Campbell on racism to Channel 4: