A fashion that needs to change

Bianca Lopez criticises London Fashion Week for its lack of diversity and calls for change.

London Fashion Week has just passed and, yet again, there was a disturbing lack of diversity gracing the worshipped catwalks. Though this year, unlike last year, none of the shows were all white, there has still not been enough significant change. Shows are failing to represent real people and instead trying to sell us an unrealistic image of beauty that discards diversity in favour of one false, racist image.

Jourdan Dunn, a British black catwalk model, who in 2008 was the first black model to model for Prada since Naomi Campbell in 1993, spoke out against the racism in the fashion industry in an interview with The Guardian last year, stating: “People in the industry say if you have a black face on the cover of a magazine it won’t sell”. Despite there being no truth to such statements, the world of fashion still attempts to overcome the lack of racial diversity through tokenism. Dunn spoke of previous experiences of being cancelled for shows because of her race or because “they already had a black model” and Anais Mali, a model hailing from the South of France, recently told website Into the Gloss that in the past she had heard things like: “We already have Jourdan [Dunn], one black girl is enough.”

Dolce & Gabbana, the Italian luxury fashion house adored by fashionistas everywhere,has been plagued by its unrealistic and offensive lack of racial diversity in its shows. Just last year at Milan Fashion Week, the Dolce & Gabbana spring/summer show was an absolute white-wash, with a cast of 86 white girls. The models also modelled earrings which featured a black woman’s face, leading to accusations of racism which are quite justified. Yes, London Fashion Week may have improved this year with more racially diverse models (Burberry in particular are driving the effort for more inclusive shows) but London Fashion Week as a whole has sadly failed to give a true portrayal of women and men from around the world and continues to wrongfully distort our image, and in particular young girls’ image, of beauty. It sends the message that there is just one perception of beauty worth trying to attain and that diversity is not something to celebrate. Of course, the irony of such a horrendously false image is laughable; the fashion industry strives to showcase beauty in its choice of glamorous clothing and models, yet the industry is missing the real beauty – the beauty of diversity.