Recently, there have been tons of articles about the lack of diversity in the fashion industry, including one from the New York Times, dated Sunday, October 14. The article, called Ignoring Diversity, Runways Fade to White, discusses the lack of non-white models on the runways (what I found very interesting is that they spend two paragraphs discussing diversity/non-whites in general, and then spend the rest of the article on the lack of black models when there is a lack of non-white models, period, not just black, but anyway...), especially on the runways in Europe. There have been many discussions as to why, ranging from the middle America thinking that a certain product is "ethnic" when a non-white person (who isn't a celebrity...Oprah, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, JLo and Queen Latifah are fine, because, well, they're famous. Zhang Ziyi is fine too, but she's pretty much regulated to magazines like Town and Country (a lifestyle publication with a very upper-crust, old money reputation, an image they're trying to get rid of.), because Middle America doesn't really watch foreign films (another reason for not using Ziyi: For some reason, it's difficult to make her look "urban" which mainstream mags like to do with non-whites. Interesting, considering Ziyi's Britney/Lindsay rep in Asia. I guess people in the west don't know too much about it, unless one follows the gossip rags from Asia.) Makes you wonder if the media are trying to dumb people down, huh? Chicken and egg situation here, I guess.) to going on and on about non-whites not being major spenders in the luxury market (whoever said this has never been to Hong Kong, Shanghai or Tokyo!) to non-whites not having the "right shape" in the eyes of the designer. You know the spiel. Most Asians are too height-challenged and too short-legged, even if the right height. Blacks and Hispanics are too "curvy."
Not having the right shape. Who really dictates that? I'm pretty sure it's the designers, the same people who dictate that they use very young, tall, skinny blondes. Not the public (who don't all want tall, skinny blondes who are still high school aged), and not really the media (they only respond to what the designers want. Ads don't always use the skinny girls and often opt for a diverse selection of celebrities instead.) But wait. Aren't designers supposed to be creative? Aren't they supposed to think outside of the box? I guess not. Otherwise, they'd be able to make clothes look great on a variety of shapes. As regular readers of this blog know, I participate in discussions on fashion-related message boards and groups on social networking sites. I've brought up the issue of non-standard sized designers and models, but time and time again, those who follow the "old guard" tell me "models have to be young, tall and thin." (hey, you left out white and BLONDE!) I've even written, in BLOCK LETTERS that there are people who specialize in petite, plus and petite-plus clothes, but these posters don't seem to understand, and repeat over and over, "models have to be tall and thin." No, people, models have to be tall and thin because we're LED TO BELIEVE THIS. Of course, media are partly to blame too. They're the ones not promoting designers who specialize, unless the particular designer is a celebrity. Even then, these "specialized" brands skew urban (pretty much the only time one sees non-white models is with these celeb-"designed" lines.) It seems like the media don't want to give these designers a chance because it's not what's generally accepted, in addition to the designers not having the cash to buy promo spaces. Even if big media companies offered prize money for newbies, there's little chance petite-only brands would win (in the eyes of the media, "specialty" means plus) even though we make up a very sizable minority (43%!) unless change is made NOW.
I'd like to think we're not as dumb as the media want us to be. I'd like to think that we're open to seeing non-foreign celeb minorities pictured as non-urban (Since when were Asian (specifically Hong Kong Chinese) Canadians "urban"? Suburban, yes, but URBAN? Yeah, if you want to get in trouble with the parents!) I'd like to see (non-foreign) minority woman looking Grace Kelly-esque and not have people criticize it as being "not believable." I'd like to believe that it's okay to put a non-celeb short and/or larger model on a mainstream cover, especially if the clothes she's wearing is from a non-standard sized designer and still have the publication be successful. But maybe it's not the world that is stupid. Maybe I'm the one who is.
