Dunn Does It

Recently in a magazine, new It model 17 year old Jourdan Dunn, boldy touches an issue that many are scared to talk about.

The article titles 'Why are the catwalks so white?' sees Dunn speak openly about the lack of black models on the runway. This comes at a time where recently, supermodel diva Naomi Campbell spoke out about the lack of opportunities for black models in the fashion industry. Many people in the industry have avoided the recent controversy choosing not to comment on it so this is a brave move for Dunn, who is still relatively new to the model world. But like many argue, it's about time someone made a stand and who better than the designers present favourite clothes horse.

Early this month black designers like Duro Oluwu openly spoke out about the hard time even black designers are given trying to break out in the industry, crediting the help of American Vogue for seeing the quality of his clothes rather than the colour of his skin. He goes on to say that it was the help of both American and British Vogue that helped prevent further prejudice in his career and made buyers stand up and take notice of his designs.

In a society governed by tolerance and acceptance, why is it that the fashion industry has followed suit? Is the industry really suffering from racisim.

Fashion designer and former editor of style magazine Super, Super Kesh argues that "Being black in the business people instantly class you as 'urban', whereas a white person will be classed as high fashion'.

Why is this?

When I looked into this for research for this blog, I suddenly realised that there isn't many black people in authoratitive figures in the industry. Naomi Campbell, American Vogue's Editor at Lage Andre Leon Tally and now Duro Oluwu. Is that all there is out of the thousands of fashion positions globally. If that is not evidence that something needs to change, I don't know what is.