Words by Shayni Solanki
A resurfaced clip of runway icon Iman talking about the exclusion of Black models has sparked a conversation about racism in fashion. Let’s get into it.
As a supermodel and the wife of late legend David Bowie, Iman knows a thing or two about fashion. This Somali-born beauty became the muse of Saint Laurent and has worked with big names like Versace, Mugler, and Calvin Klein throughout her career.
We all know high fashion hasn’t always been the most open space. It’s notorious for being an exclusive club, often excluding Black and brown people. It really wasn’t until the 2000s that even designers of colour began to earn mainstream success in the fashion community.
Iman has always been vocal about racism in the industry, sharing that throughout her career she’s had to refuse jobs where white models were unfairly getting paid more than her. Modelling in the 70s was a big feat for Iman, especially as a Black woman.
It wasn’t really until Naomi Campbell hit the scene that Black models were allowed to be seen as big names. But even then, Naomi Campbell experienced her own share of racism. In her Apple TV+ documentary, Campbell opened up about racism in her early modelling years – sharing that she had to work twice as hard as white models to get jobs.
In a resurfaced clip from an interview on Sway in The Morning, Iman talks about her boycott of the high fashion brand Celine. She shares that Celine designer Phoebe Philo, with extreme disappointment in her voice, once asked her, “Am I going to be forced to use Black models?”. Since that day, Iman has never touched Celine.
Back in 2013, the Evening Standard spoke to Black Girls Coalition co-founder and former model Bethann Hardison about the lack of diversity in the fashion industry. She highlighted that Celine has never, in their entire history, had a person of colour modelling their collection. It’s only been over the past few years that that’s started to change.
There’s little surprise in the fact that there are countless fashion houses that have avoided using Black models for decades. Other than the rare anomaly like Yves Saint Laurent, a variety of skin tones on the runway was once simply unseen in the modelling industry.
In 2018, Anok Yai became the first Black model to open a Prada show since Naomi Campbell in 1997. It shouldn’t take two decades to find a beautiful Black woman to lead a show. It still seems modelling has a long way to go.
Rather than opening doors for endless nepo kids, maybe the fashion industry should be looking for a wider range of models. That way, runways wouldn’t be littered with stiff posture and miserable walks. Something to think about.
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