Fashion and Its Evolved from a Typical White Model to a Diverse Runway Show

1141 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Thesis on fashion in african american culture

Throughout time, bright designers, world-known magazines and famous models, where few are only African-Americans, had represented fashion. The fashion industry is one of the most demanding industries ever created. On one hand, designers have to be unique, professionals, consistent and most important, famous, to keep up with the industry. On the other hand, models have to be beautiful, with unique personalities, and most important, skinny. Before the Civil Right Movement, white Americans models and designers represented the fashion industry until famous models such as Naomi Campbell, and Iman Abdulmajid entered the industry. They were the most influential models in the 1980’s and 1990’s with their personal contribution on the industry. Beauty did not only brought goods and happiness; it also brought controversy and discrimination.
Female white models represented the majority of the population on this year Mercedes-Benz fashion week. According to Grace Austin, designers used models that won’t upstage their clothes, in other words, using models that will “blend seamlessly into a garment, pretty but blank-featured.” Famous designers such as Mark Jacobs, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, and Salvatore Ferragamo are some of the famous designers of the 21st century. Each of them were able to present their collection on the Mercedes-Benz fashion week 2013, New York on both, spring and fall. According to statistics, white models featured an 87.6% of the population. Considering that nonwhite models were being added to the fashion industry since the Civil Right Movements on the late 60’s early 70’s, the average seems pretty low. In addition to that, the number of models that participated on the fashion show supports the theory of Aus...

... middle of paper ...

...he Biography Channel website. Dec 01 2013, 07:06 .
Noveck, Jocelyn, Evatt Nicole, and Samantha Critchell. "Black Model Campaign Brings More Diversity To New York Fashion Week Runways." 16 09 2013: 1-5. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .
Prabu, David, Glenda Morrison, Melissa Johnson, and Felicia Ross. "Body Image, Race, and
Fashion Models Social Distance and Social Identification in Third-Person Effects." Communication Research. vol. 29 .no. 3 (2002): p. 270-294. Print. .
"White on Black: Grappling with Race in Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, and South Africa." Films on Demand. Films Media Group, 2004. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. .

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Fashion Industry: Free To Be An Individual

    1411 Words  | 3 Pages

    Berry, Hannah. “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual.” The Norton Field Guide to

    Read More

  • Model Minority

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    Seoh, Hannah. "The Model Minority." The Model Minority.13 Feb. 2002. n.p. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Diana Vreeland's Life and Accomplishments

    2042 Words  | 5 Pages

    Werle, Simone. Fashionista A Century of Style Icons. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1977. Print.

    Read More

  • Beauty And Racism In Western Society

    1952 Words  | 4 Pages

    The concept of beauty and racism in modern western society is held to the highest of standards for all of it’s members; including celebrities. The perfect woman is described by Odette (2013), as solely for men’s pleasure and domination. If we look on the cover of any popular magazine, the women are usually: light skinned, slender, and tall. Men on the other hand must be tall and powerfully built. Our culture is valued on the basis of how men and women are perceived by their image, making it impossible for the average man or women to achieve the high beauty standard expected in society. Celebrities play an influential role in the way people view themselves, making the need to look like our favourite celebrities all the more desired. A person's

    Read More

  • Racism: An Unseen Thread in Fashion and Work

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    The problem with this is that these unique designs are often inspired by different cultures. “There is still an issue of ignorance in our fashion world… I don’t even like to use the word racism — [they’re] ignorant. They just don’t want to budge. They just don’t want to change their ideas or be more open-minded, to just [book] a beautiful girl regardless of creed or color” (Campbell). Most of the time the new designs that are incorporated as the new trend of the year, are influenced by different cultures. Bryce Covert in the article, The Fashion Industry’s Race Problem: Models of Color Rarely Get Hired claims that it is rare when models of different races get hired. Covert supports his claim by telling how, many big fashion industries did not hire women of color at all. Furthermore, he said that 82.7 percent of the models were white. Black models were hired for just 6 percent of the “looks” presented to the audience. Latina models made up just 2 percent. The author’s purpose is to point out how even though fashion influenced by different ethnicities it is still modeled by people who do not belong to that certain culture. The author writes in formal tone for everyone involved or interested in fashion. This type of scenario shows how racial

    Read More

  • The Dangers for Models of Being Overly Skinny

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    “My lips and fingers were blue because I was so thin that my heart was struggling to pump blood around my body”, said teen model fashion Georgina (Carroll 1). The new skinny has become excessively scrawny. Is it definitely not normal for today’s society models to walk around with blue fingers starving themselves until their organs start failing! As for the model agencies, they couldn’t care less of the pressure and dangerous practices they put the models through in order for them to stay thin for the runway. Even fashion Designers continue to produce the smallest couture sample sizes and scout for the slimiest bodies to wear the designs not aware of the consequences of the pressure they not only put on models, but on the society girls to look like these starving models. And when the models continue to get offers from the most important fashion industries like Prada, it motivates them to keep doing what they are doing to stay in the shape they are in (Carroll 1). But little did the outside world know what this pressure had on the models and what they were doing to their bodies to peruse their modeling careers.

    Read More

  • Haute Couture Influences Ready-to-wear

    1898 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fashion in the 21th century is a big business, as its production employs millions of people and generates billions of dollars in revenue. Fashion has for the past century been, and is still today, used as an indicator of social change and progress, as it changes with the social norms of the society and the political changes of the world (Finkelstein 3).

    Read More

  • Satire Essay About Fashion

    696 Words  | 2 Pages

    It’s no secret that some women believe fashion portrays who they are. Therefore follow every season’s new trend. This leads to spending money that they don’t have. Waller Lea, a journalist, suggest that “for some communities, purchasing knockoffs or generic products are frowned upon, forcing minorities to spend more money. Now businesses and companies are targeting minorities, causing more debt problems.” Addicted to retail or brainwashed? Opponents claim that fashion is simply a creative way to express themselves. There are others ways to express ourselves that are no based on our appearance. Through drawing, painting or through our thoughts and ideas. What happens when someone can’t afford expensive clothing or doesn’t have access to fashionable clothes? They are singled out and excluded from society for being different.

    Read More

  • Female Chauvinist Pigs By Ariel Levy Summary

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    While some woman like Sheila Nevins, an HBO executive, feel liberated and empowered by characteristics of raunch culture, other woman like Tyra Banks, co-producer of America’s Next Top Model, discussed in “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas” by Jennifer Pozner, promotes racist stereotypes in order to achieve power. While Tyra and the other judges “ claims America’s Next Top Model aims to expand beauty standards”, Pozner argues that “through selective casting and heavy editing, America’s Next Top Model perpetuates damaging racist stereotypes, while superficially claiming to promote all types of individual beauty and to empower women”, (Pozner). Clearly, women nowadays are willing to take part in practices that oppress them because they crave

    Read More

  • The Need for Diversity in the Fashion Industry

    1415 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fashion models don’t need to be thin, they need to be diverse and healthy at whatever weight that is. Not everyone is supposed to be thin, some women are big boned and curvy, others are naturally slim and small boned, some are tall, others are short, some are light skinned and others are darker. So many diverse looks exist in the world today and the fashion industry need to change their perception of perfect. Body image in our society is out of control. We have young men and women comparing themselves to unrealistic models and images in the media and feeling bad about the way their own bodies look because they somehow don’t measure up. (Dunham, 2011) The struggle for models to be thin has led to models becoming anorexic or bulimic, untimely deaths, and inferiority complexes. Even worse is the fact that they influence a whole generation of young women who look up to these models and think “thin” is how they are supposed to be. They influence what we buy, how we eat and what we wear. Why has this specific group captured our attention so much? Why do we seem to be so fascinated in their lives, to the point where we try to look and act just like them? The media is largely to be blamed for this, many people believe the media has forced the notion that everything supermodels do is ideal. Others believe that the society is to be blamed because we have created a fascination with their lives. There are many opinions, and I agree with both of these specific opinions. We allow ourselves to be captivated by these people's lives, and the media portrayal of their lives seem to also enthrall us. (Customessaymeister, 2013) Despite the severe risks of forcing models to become too thin, designers, fashion editors, fashion brands and agencies still ...

    Read More

  • Prejudice And Racism In The Fashion Industry

    1616 Words  | 4 Pages

    Not only are African American people discriminated against in their everyday lives, but some fashion agencies choose not to employ black models to walk in their runway shows. According to Jezebel.com, “Agencies in the past have admitted to not taking on women of color because they claim it is not what the fashion designers want”. Bethann Hardison, former model and activist, penned an angry letter from her activist group Balance Diversity Coalition to fashion designers who did not have models of color walking in their 2013 runway shows. Although most of the members of Balance Diversity remain anonymous, black supermodels Iman and Naomi Campbell often speak out to raise awareness about the racism in fashion (Schneier). Hardison wants the world of fashion to become more diverse, and not so whitewashed. She not only wants more models of color to walk on fashion’s runways, but also in its magazine advertisements, and campaigns too. Fashion designers such as Giorgio Armani, Moschino, The Row, Prada, BCBG MAX Azria, and Calvin Klein were just a few of the many that committed the racist act of not having any models of color walk their runways. This caused a lot of commotion in the fashion industry. When the next 2014 rolled

    Read More

  • Naomi Campbell Research Paper

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Models of color aren't represented as much as white models sadly, Naomi came into the industry ready to address and change that. “At New York Fashion week in February, only 6% of designs were shown on black models. The vast majority of runway spots (82.7%) went to white models, with a growing proportion of Asian girls (9.1%). Carole White says designers here also tend towards white models for their shows. "I think clients have this perception that black girls do not sell products”” (Davey-Attlee 1) These percentages of models of color are sickening.

    Read More

  • Racism In Fashion Essay

    1635 Words  | 4 Pages

    Different sources of articles have written about the underlying issue of racism on the runway. Each serves the same purpose and that to inform about the numbers and to persuade the audience that there is a problem in the diversity of supermodels. Racism is an ugly part of our society, and it certainly has no place in the beautiful world of fashion. We all should be open minded to models of color, especially the designers and casting directors because this issue affects how we see things globally and how we are seen as an

    Read More

  • White Women In The Media Analysis

    1557 Words  | 4 Pages

    The media does not do a good job at diversifying or expanding their representatives, models, actors, employees etc. for women of colour. “Black women’s body esteem and appearance satisfaction is negatively influenced by internalizing idealized media images when these images depict black women with lighter skin and long, straight hair” (Capodilupo 274). When there is some representation of black women is seems as if the women are white washed to fit societies standards. These socially constructed beauty standards can be

    Read More

  • Fashion as Fashion Photography

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...r became more creative person in the fashion shoot, after the designer. The overall photograph would sell your garment to the best ability that the photographer could achieve. It was not just about being a beautiful model in the photograph, there had to be other ways of making the photograph appealing than the simple lacklustre way of being beautiful. Although, every woman wants to be beautiful, the photographer wanted to challenge the appearance of beauty. And also challenge the way we looked at people that were not beautiful, but had a unique quality to them. The fashion photographer had a lot of power in Fashion; they could make a normal street person become the key icon for desire and envy. The photograph had the power to sell the clothes using anyone the photographer pleased, and the designer didn’t mind as long as their clothes were being recognized, and sold.

    Read More

More about Fashion and Its Evolved from a Typical White Model to a Diverse Runway Show

Open Document