Blackouts on European runways?

yngjock20

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Since we all love to talk about race relations here in the LPSG, I figured I'd bring up an interesting article from the NYTimes hipster blog "The Moment."

The Moment Men’s Fashion | The New Black - T Magazine - New York Times Blog

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with world events, but Italian Vogue recently released an issue featuring all black models. The entire magazine was filled with beautiful women of color...and somehow it was a collector's edition?

Yes, the industry is fickle and shallow, but I at least would have imagined that it was not as much of a struggle for a model of color (man or woman) to get work on runways or print in 2008. We have Iman, Tyson, Chanel, Guerren, Liya...there's a full list of beautiful people who are more than qualified to do the job, yet they still are having to fight against the next non-minority or extremely exotic anamoly just for some space.

Whatever, I ranted a little bit...what do you think about this?
 

Bbucko

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Whatever, I ranted a little bit...what do you think about this?

If the question is whether or not "exotic" beauties can become supermodels, the answer is that Grace Jones was a supermodel in the mid-1970s.

If the question is whether or not most couturiers have a "look" to which they want their runway to conform, the answer is certainly they do. Designers are by definition micromanagers and control freaks with extremely specific points of view.

If the question is how important is it that runways have as diverse a look as possible, I'd say it's up to the individual designer and his/her goals. If a potential client is alienated by the designer's choice of runway models, s/he can always look elsewhere.
 

Mem

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I thought this thread was about the airline industry. :confused:
 

Lex

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yngjock20--I think the issue becomes a collector's item because there was a deliberate effort to use models of color in all the photos, which has not been done previously. I think this is a very interesting and shrewd move. We will see if it pays off with magazine and clothing sales if the magazine does it again (annually maybe?) and/or if more designers attempt to embed more models of color into their point of view.

If the question is whether or not "exotic" beauties can become supermodels, the answer is that Grace Jones was a supermodel in the mid-1970s.

If the question is whether or not most couturiers have a "look" to which they want their runway to conform, the answer is certainly they do. Designers are by definition micromanagers and control freaks with extremely specific points of view.

If the question is how important is it that runways have as diverse a look as possible, I'd say it's up to the individual designer and his/her goals. If a potential client is alienated by the designer's choice of runway models, s/he can always look elsewhere.

As ususal, I agree with Bbucko's statements.
 

cockoloco

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Well I read an article not long ago on how still nowadays some designers while looking for the models for the fashion shows say

"we yet have to find the asian girl" or "we already got our black model"

I mean, this is sick! if you find 20 beautiful black/asian/hispanic, etc girls why cant they be the ones you hire? instead of keep searching for or only hiring eastern european blondes (which has to be noted that blondes are not representative of the majority of the world population, not even the caucasian)