Fashion's blind spot

Nothing has changed: There remains a startling lack of ethnic diversity among models on major designer runways in the fashion industry in the United States and Europe. – AFP filepic

Despite a history of thoughtful discussions within the industry, there are still designers and casting agents who remain curiously blind to black models.

FIVE years ago, the fashion industry (in the United States and Europe) faced a reckoning over the startling lack of diversity among the models on major designer runways. Reacting to complaints that many shows and magazines included nothing but white models, Vogue, in its July 2008 issue, featured a substantial article that asked, in its headline, “Is fashion racist?”