The black and white of the catwalk

Supermodel, businesswomen, philanthropist and wife of David Bowie, Iman, has called for designers to start using more black models, saying it’s time to protest against those that don't by any means possible.   Starting her career back in the 80s, Iman feels designers have become less open to using multicultural models.  This can be backed up by the 2% drop in black models being used during New York City fashion shows this year in comparison to last, with only 6% of models being black.

Iman says “It feels to me like times need a real hard line drawn like in the Sixties, by saying if you don’t use black models, then we boycott.  If you engage the social media, trust me, it will hurt them in their pockets.  If you take it out there, they will feel the uproar.”

It seems a shame that it such changing times we seem to be going backwards.  Looking back to the 60’s, Saint Laurent was labeled ‘The House of Love’ for promoting the use of black models in his shows, so what’s happened?  I think it’s time we saw a bit more variety in our fashion casting!