Vogue’s iconic September issue featured nine models known for their expert use of social media. The amount of diversity on the cover is refreshing. The models ranged from Puerto Rican Joan Smalls to Chinese Fei Fei Sun.
Smalls and Sun are some of the top models in fashion right now, a milestone for an industry criticized for unrealistic representations of women. In recent years, fashion has strived to be more inclusive. We’ve seen more models in different sizes and races appear in ad campaigns and on the runway.
But the industry still has room for improvement. At New York Fashion Week’s 2013 fall-winter shows, 82.7 percent of white models presented the new collections, according to Jezebel. Despite awareness campaigns backed by runway veterans like Iman on the lack of minorities in modeling, fashion hasn’t fully recognized that beauty comes in different shades of skin.
So, who’s to blame here? No single element really. In the past, agencies and designers have bashed one another about lack of minorities in shows. We also have to consider the marginalized ideas of beauty brought to us by the media.
Steps are being made by powerhouse designers to reflect diversity in the industry. Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing and Givenchy’s Ricardo Tisci use ad campaigns that constantly feature models of many races. Tisci was even instrumental in making Smalls a household name.
Outside of high fashion, more companies, like Banana Republic, make it a priority to cast diverse models in their recent ads. These fashion retailers serve to a larger audience, but high fashion should take a cue from these other companies. Haute couture and the like play a large part in influencing young women and their perceptions of beauty.
Thankfully, the faces of fashion have changed for the better over the last five years. There is still room for progress. Magazine editors are authorities in influencing and critiquing the industry. They can spark conversation by placing more non-white models on their covers. Let’s just hope that diverse covers don’t cause scrutiny. Earlier this year, Mindy Kaling’s Elle issue was met with backlash from the blogosphere. They accused the magazine of “whitewashing” Kaling because her cover was in black and white, but that was a creative decision. Kaling looked beautiful; I’m impatiently waiting for her other covers – (looking at you, Glamour).
Diversity isn’t just limited to skin color. We need to see less of models who only fit only the sample sizes. Transgender women should be able to walk the runways without making headlines. Hopefully the industry will continue to weave in people of all different colors and sizes. Maybe one day we’ll see runways that are similar to the melting pot of beautiful women that we live among.
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