Chanel Iman is a striking American model that is well established at only 22-years-old and yet despite this, she stated this week that she still faces prejudice in the modelling industry due to her darker skin colour.
Chanel stated to The Times that designers excused her from work in the past, 'They told me, "We already found one black girl, we don't need you anymore"...it's really sad.' Chanel goes on to bring to attention the fact that catwalks shows, particularly in Europe and New York show all-white models and if you're lucky, a couple of black models may be selected for shows, which doesn't cut it, according to Chanel and many other black models in the industry.
It's not just black models that need to be equally included but models of a variety of ethnicities on the runway and in editorial magazines and advertising campaigns. Although in recent years there has been improvement in bringing in black models to promote brands, such as Jessica White for Maybelline, Jourdan Dunn and Sesilee Lopez, the balance of white models to non-white models has hardly shifted.
James Scully, a top casting director criticised Calvin Klein for including only one black model in his shows, 'They do it not to get in trouble, nothing more.' Barbara Nicoli casts models for the Gucci shows and says that the designer has a vision of his 'type of beauty' which apparently excludes certain cultural backgrounds of models. Nicoli controversially added that the clothes only fit a particular body shape - they are not tailored for curvier girls which apparently excludes black models and flat girls, excluding Asian models.
This ignorance is what keeps the unbalance in modelling unshaken. Iman also said that it doesn't help having 'all-black issues' in magazines, 'It just puts us in one category.' What do you think Fl@unt readers of the state of modelling in 2013? Do you agree that there needs to be more openness in including a variety of ethnicites in shows?
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