This Season's Color

Menswear designer Carlos Campos will debut his first women's collection during fashion week with ONLY black models. The New York Observer received a press release about the show, which stated that Iman was the casting directors inspiration. The collection is described as "Jet set rockstar — think David Bowie and Iman on holiday in the South of France." The Observer asks, "We're all for seeing more diversity in fashion, but should we interpret Mr. Campos's show as having diversity for the sake of diversity, or just a publicity stunt?"




So is Black really Back! There are 2,500 runway looks shown during Fashion Week, each show typically lasts 17 Minutes, 70 Bryant Park shows, 1,584 openings for models at last season's Fashion Week, 94 of those that went to black models, 1% Percentage of Latina models on the runway last season, 6% Percentage of Asian models on the runway last season. [Source: Daily News survey, February 2008 ]




You might remember the July issue of Italian Vogue which featured ONLY black models shot by photographer Steven Meisel. Iman has been very open about Italian Vogue's all-black issue because she didn't want it to reduce black models to a "caricature." I'm sure Vogue is thinking dayumed if we do, dayumed if we don't. But Campos is not the first designer to take a stand for more black on the catwalks. Diane von Furstenberg, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), sent a letter (also signed by the council's executive director, Steven Kolb), to designers, agencies and casting directors, reminding them to seek diversity in terms of race and the models' body types. Sean John and Dsquared2 both selected numerous models of color for last seasons runway shows. Heatherette's Spring '08 collection began the runway show by sending out black models in frilly white frocks before bringing out white models in brightly colored garments. While none of these shows got quite as much notice as the "black" issue of Italian Vogue, throwing an black model in front of cameras is now the in thing to do and has become the perfect way to get the media's attention. Ahha!