Not enough black models

Ben Lettman

SUPERMODEL Naomi Campbell's recent attack on the fashion world for failing to employ more black models, has been supported by fashion industry professionals.

While receiving a Special Recognition award at the recent British Fashion Awards ceremony, Campbell said: "We're all aware that we need to introduce more women [of colour].

"But what I've seen recently is that I've seen it go backwards slightly. We need to raise awareness again and need to start using women of colour more. When I look at the shows this season, there weren't as many as a year and a half ago. We've got to keep speaking out, so as boring as it may be, if you hear me saying it over and over again I have to stand up for my fellow comrades."

Sola Oyebade, owner of Europe's largest modelling agency for models of colour, Mahogany Model Management, believes the decline in the use of black models is down to companies believing black models cannot sell as well as their white counterparts.

"They don't really want to use black models anyway because they say 'black does not sell,' so it's now a situation where they've done what they had to do, they've looked good - nobody is making complaints anymore, so we might as well go back to how things used to be," said Oyebade.

He added: "At the end of the day, the people that are in the mainstream run a business and ultimately the way they look at it, it's about how much money can they make," added Oyebade.

"If they feel that using black models in their magazines does not make them money then they're not going to do it. I think there are two things we need to do. One is to let people understand that models of colour do not affect their bottom line in any way, and two, shout 'we're unhappy, things are unfair.' But we don't do anything about it.

"The Americans, when they faced a similar situation, collaborated together and decided to boycott companies that were not ready to use people of colour in their advertising and it had an enormous effect on their bottom line. Since then companies have never looked back."

Winner of the Top Model of Colour 2010 competition, Nana-Afua Antwi, says black Britons should focus on advertising our own crop of models alongside black products.

Push ourselves

"I think black models could start making our own ways of being appreciated," said Antwi.

"Why don't we do our own Vogue? An African Vogue. We're looking too much to get into the mainstream and that's why we've probably been taken for granted so why don't we as black people all come together and push ourselves out there?"

A Voice investigation in 2008 found that discrimination was commonplace in the modelling industry, as more than a third of fashion weeks in London, Paris, Milan and New York did not feature any black models.

Speaking to The Voice two years ago, fashion designer Gavin Douglas' thoughts echoed Campbell's fears.

"The fact that the fashion industry does not have a fair cultural and racial representation on the catwalk, magazines and on billboards, raises serious societal problems that need to be addressed immediately," he said.