Is There Still Racism In Fashion?

You're 5ft 10in, slender and toned, with legs that go on forever and a face that even Kate Moss would envy. You could be forgiven for thinking that you could walk into any fashion house in the world and they would book you for their shows and photoshoots immediately. You might assume that every major model agency would fall over themselves fighting to sign you to their books.

But there's one small problem. And that's the colour of your skin.

It strikes me as shocking and upsetting that in the modern world - where supermodels such as Naomi Campbell, Chanel Iman, Tyra Banks and most recently Jourdan Dunn have stomped the catwalks for designers such as Victoria's Secret, John Paul Gaultier and Alexander McQueen as well as appearing on the cover of major fashion magazines including Vogue and Elle - black models are still struggling to get booked as often as their white counterparts.

A report in the Guardian's G2 magazine recently opened my eyes to the struggle facing a lot of young black models in the industry today. I was quite disturbed at how matter-of-fact the issue is to a lot of agents. White models are more bookable than black models. Simple as that.

Premier Model Management - the agency which launched the career of Naomi Campbell - has a new black model on their books. Leomie Anderson is breath-takingly beautiful and, at just 18 years of age, could have a long and successful career ahead of her. If she gets booked for shows. Carole White, one of Premier's founders, was quoted as saying: "It's a lot harder to start a black girl than a white girl, for a number of reasons. There's not so much work for them and sometimes photographers and makeup artists are scared. They don't know how to light them or make them up properly so it takes a lot longer...It's a slower process."

I find this incredible. Professional photographers and makeup artists - people who make their living by taking pictures of, and putting makeup on, models - claim that they don't know how to 'light them properly'? Isn't that their job? To know how to do it? I don't think it would go down too well if a model was to say to a photographer "well I don't really know how to pose the way you want me to, so I think I'll just not bother shooting with you today..." so why is it acceptable for a photographer not to book a model because he or she can't get the right lighting for them, or find a makeup artist who can make them up properly?

White has been an ambassador for greater diversity in the fashion industry for a few years now but the struggle is still apparent. She says: "In the last couple of years there's been a movement of trying to get more black girls into the business, but it's an attitude. Right now everyone is scared - they think, if I take that risk, will she sell my products? So they go with the tried-and-tested white girls.

"I don't think the industry is any more racist than anywhere else. It's driven by what sells and, in general, white blonde girls sell, that's the mindset. In actual fact, black girls do sell but they're not given as many openings. It is safer to go with a white girl, and in a recession people are very conservative."

It's disheartening to hear and what is even more disturbing is the lengths that some of these young women may feel they have to go to in order to make themselves more bookable. If you take a minute to read this particular post from blue jeans and gondolas you will see what some of them are putting themselves through.

A lot of young white women are encouraged to ditch their bottles of fake-tan and solariums and embrace their naturally pale skin. Because, apparently, natural is much more beautiful. So if this is the case, why isn't the same being done for young black women? Why is no one encouraging them to give up the skin-whitening creams and be proud of their natural skin?

Fashion booker Annie Wilshaw is a lot more blunt about the industry's attitude to black models. She says: "Yes, I'd say the industry is racist. In Milan black girls never work. In Paris it's still the same. It's 2011 and that's quite disgusting, really.

"When the client sends you a brief you know straight away they're not talking about a black girl. They say they want 'a girl with long hair, who looks like a fairy' or something. When they want a black girl, they will say 'looking for mixed-race girl, tribal-prints location, desert scene'.

"It really bores me when photographers shoot black girls the same way, with a tribal print and some bright eye-shadow going on. Come on, that was Alek Wek in the 1990s, do something different."

Despite the success of models such as Campbell, Banks and Dunn, Premier warns its new black girls that it will be a long, hard road for them.

Wilshaw says: "I explained to Leomie when we took her on that she won't get the options as easily as the white girls, because it's true, it's so much harder to develop the black girls. She has to work twice as hard to get picked up on."

So there it remains - a very sad but very true fact that even in 2011, where women are (supposed to be) equal to men, fathers get paternity leave from their workplace, we have a black president in the USA and a female prime minister in Australia, young black women trying to make their mark in the modelling industry are still being presented with an uphill battle.

A massive deal is made of the fact that a black model will grace the cover of Vogue, or GQ, or Time or Sports Illustrated - this shouldn't be the case. It should just be accepted and seen as a normal occurance. These are young women whose ancestors fought slavery to allow them the chance to be where they are today - they should be allowed to embrace that. Racism is a crime in any other walk of life, why does it seem to be brushed under the carpet more in the modelling industry?

Leomie Anderson

Naomi Campbell

Tyra Banks

Chanel Iman

Jourdan Dunn