Blacks Find A Place On New York Runways

Our recent article on Italian Vogue's black issue was one of the most read in our six-year history. In fact, we've been discussing the lack of blacks in the industry since the beginning of JCR and we will not rest until diversity is no longer an issue in editorials, on the runways and in advertising.

We're therefore pleased to report that there's been a stunning turn of events as witnessed this past week at New York Fashion Week. Designers slipped black models into their lineup in numbers not seen since the '70s. Such diversity looked more natural than the sea of uniformed white faces we've been subjected to in recent years. Nary a runway ignored the call for change, sending blacks—and indeed quite a lovely mix of Asians and Latinos—down the catwalk. "They thought about it and figured it out," über stylist Patti Wilson flatly stated as we discussed the issue in London over the weekend. Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler and 3.1 Philip Lim all showed respectable numbers of black models. Jacobs and Schouler showed just hours apart but managed to have four different black models respectively in their lineup—the mix including Kinée Diouf, Ataui Deng, Honorine Uwera, Sonja Wanda, Arlenis Sosa and Georgie Badiel. Meanwhile, American Vogue darling and former Alaïa designer Sophie Theallet made a grand statement by selecting exclusively black models.

We were also particularly struck by Ohne Titel's up-and-coming duo Alexa Adams and Flora Gill, who featured fine boned, doll faced models with tiny round heads to illustrate a collection of edgy translucent layering in body conscious silhouettes. Though they could have chosen all Eastern bloc models that fit this bill, they instead cast a wider net to include no less than eight black models and several Asians. In one fell swoop they dispelled the myth that models with pigment interrupt the story and distract from the clothing—in this case, the models were actually an enhancement by being more representational. "To me the casting of Ohne Titel show did not suffer from any kind of gimmick or token appearance. The aesthetic vision of the designer and the casting director surpassed the race issue, yet, they were responsible and attentive to something that requires sensitivity," says Jason Farrer, fashion director of Tokion magazine.

This diversity isn't going unnoticed. In a New York Times article last week, Guy Trebay noted: "There are now plenty of Asian giantesses like Hye Park and black beauties like Nana Keita and full-lipped Latinas like Arlenis Sosa and South Asians like Lakshmi Menon and Brazilians representing the depth of that country's gene pool (and not just the southern regions where German ancestry dominates)." Wilson credits Italian Vogue "one hundred percent for the turnaround," but also cautions: "I don't want this to be a fashion fling."

—Jason Campbell