Q U O T E S Volume 3, Issue 10
“I do think my story is very unique because having a partial disability,Quotes you of teSdsdas are deemed by society as Insertsomeone Quotes who Here! is born to fail. This alone had made me more determined to succeed not just for myself but for the Deaf community D I V E R S I T Y & D I S A B I L I T Y as well. Hence my motto N e w s f r o m t h e D n D D e s k in life is to live a purpose driven life, be Dear Readers, an example to the lost in Welcome to our latest DnD newsletter. In this edition, we are the world and to leave a legacy.” Jenelle Joanne takinng a look at the fashion world and what does diversity really Ramsami means in that environment. Some people with a disability have succeded in being a model and walk the catwalks around the
"Strive to be world, but a question really I’ll be asking is how long is going to outstanding, that way take even in the fashion world to consider disability as part of you stand out from diversity and therefore mainstream. Can it be achieved within our everyone else." lifetime or do we need to leave it to the next generation to deal Alexander Masson with it?
In this edition, we are also talking about issues of discrimination "I am sure we could in public places for people with a disability. Even though the story always do better but I is related to Russia, actually very similar stories are still am pleased that there is a greater diversity in happening here in Australia. the girls that we are I would also like to take the opportunity to provide you with an now seeing from the agencies and who are update about our DnD program. It is with great pleasure to let reaching the top.” you know that DnD will be having an anniversary celebration on Alexandra Shulman, the 20th of November from 10.30am to miudday at Scope Victoria Vogue Editor in St Albans. There will be live performances from our music and theatre groups, videos made by DnD steering committee members
"I think the key to being for the Dangerous Deeds project in remembrance of the disability a good model is movement in Victoria and a light refreshment. An invitation will someone's presence, be sent out next week and we do look forward to your confidence and participation in this celebration. personality. Being disabled should never In our next edition which will be coming out just before xmas,. We hinder any of these will be looking at what DnD will be running in the new year in factors. Everyone terms of support groups and we anticipate really exciting news. should have equal opportunities and be R e g a r d s, able to fulfil their dreams." Lydia Bright Christian Astourian. Call us on 9367 60 44 or email at [email protected]
In this issue of DnD’s Newsletter, we are examining d i v e r s i t y and d i s a b i l i t i e s in the modelling and fashion industry. Fashion has to do much more … if it is serious about c a t w a l k d i v e r s i t y.
Reading certain sections of the media over the past few weeks you might have thought that we were living in a golden age of diversity in fashion. Modelling – so the narrative goes – is finally opening its doors to people who reflect the eclectic beauty of the world’s population, with models with disabilities among those being welcomed to the fold. This month Jillian Mercado, who has muscular dystrophy, was signed to IMG Models, the same agency as Gisele Bu ndchen. The American fashion blogger and editor has also featured in a Diesel campaign and has been photographed by the high priestess of fashion, Carine Roitfeld. Also this month, Madeline Stuart, an 18-year-old Australian who has Down’s syndrome, was announced as the face of cosmetics brand GlossiGirl and cast to walk at New York fashion week in September. Mercado and Stuart are not the first Above: Breaking Bad actor RJ Mitte on the catwalk for models with disabilities to win headlines. Vivienne Westwood. In February the actress Jamie Brewer, Story, and who has Down’s syndrome, appeared on the catwalk for the US designer Carrie Hammer, while Armani collaborator Antonio Urzi’s designs were modelled by models with disabilities. In June the Breaking Bad actor RJ Mitte – who has cerebral palsy and has starred in a Gap campaign – walked for Vivienne Westwood.
This handful of examples is a drop in the ocean of a multibillion-pound global industry, but it does represent “some increase” in the use of models with disabilities, says Cat Smith, a doctoral researcher at London College of Fashion. “In general there is real cultural invisibility when it comes to disabled people – in fashion, on TV, in film, in politics, in writing,” she says. “So it’s certainly important to see disabled models, because seeing people who look like you is important in fostering empowerment and making you feel a little less invisible. Visibility also creates a more realistic representation and understanding of the lives of disabled people.
“But what I find frustrating,” she says, “is that you see the same thing over and over again. Fashion week comes around, a couple of shows include disabled models – and that is a good thing – but the coverage that follows is often quite patronising. It often becomes a fuzzy, inspirational human interest story, aimed at a non-disabled audience, rather than a step towards real inclusivity.” The representation of models with disabilities is particularly paltry in the UK, according to Chelsey Jay, a campaigner and director of the models with a disability division at non-profit organisation Models of Diversity. Jay started using a wheelchair three years ago and argues that models should be representative of the population. (According to the latest government figures, 19% of the British population, more than 11 million people, have a disability.) “I’ve gone from seeing myself represented in fashion to being totally ignored, essentially because I am now sitting down, which is ridiculous.,” says Jay.
“I’ve always loved fashion – it can be so empowering,” she says. “But it also feels like that popular friend who is sometimes so nice to you and other times makes you feel like the worst person alive. It’s a big fat contradiction. [The industry] seems permanently on the cusp of change, but it never quite gets there.” Above: Chelsey Jay, from Models of Diversity.
Often fashion’s arguments for not using models with disabilities are the same as those it cites for not using anyone over a size 10. Designers claim that models are not meant to reflect society but to be walking clothes-hangers – and clothes- hangers do not have breasts or wheelchairs.
Jay believes that argument is long out of date: “You can’t say that models are just mannequins. Things have moved on – models have an identity and a fan base through social media. One modelling agent told me that they are not trying to represent everybody, they are only trying to represent an elite group who buy that clothing, but disability is the one thing in the world that can affect absolutely anyone.”
Jack Eyers, a personal trainer and amputee who also works with Models of Diversity, has had great
Above: Madeline Stuart, 18, walked the catwalk for New York Fashion Week in September, 2015. success as a fitness model (including featuring on the cover of Men’s Health) and more mixed experiences in fashion. He walked in the Antonio Urzi show at New York fashion week and loved it. “He made my leg part of the look, which I think is exactly the best way to go for people to accept [disability].” But in general, he says: “I think people look at the health and fitness side of things as inspirational, but in fashion it’s more of a one-off sob story – ticking a box. I don’t think, in fashion, people are viewing [models with disabilities] as attractive.”
Jay agrees that tokenism is rife. “Brands say, ‘we used a girl with Down’s syndrome three years ago’. But we are fighting for the same treatment, not special treatment.” She cites US catalogue Nordstrom as a rare exception, where models with disabilities are used every season, as a matter of course. In designer fashion, there’s much praise for the 1998 collaboration between Alexander McQueen and athlete Aimee Mullins, who starred on the cover of Dazed & Confused’s famous “Fashion-able” issue and walked the McQueen catwalk wearing a pair of bespoke, intricately carved, wooden prosthetic legs. “I was in my teens when I saw that,” says Smith, “and when you are not used to seeing disabled people at all it was quite extraordinary. I thought – oh! disabled people can look really cool – it doesn’t have to be done in an ‘aren’t we being inclusive?’ way. It genuinely felt like McQueen took the artistic and creative possibilities around designing for bodies that look different rather than trying to fit people into little boxes.” Nearly 20 years later, though, she says , “nothing has really developed beyond that in terms of main- stream or high fashion. You don’t get disabled models on the catwalk for McQueen these days—it tends to be less ‘out there’ designers, which I find interesting. There is a unique creative possibility there and I wonder why it’s not being addressed by artists who push boundaries in other ways.”
“If the high end did it, everyone would follow,” says Jay. “If you saw a Marc Jacobs or a Victoria’s Secret model with a disability – that would be so ground-breaking.”
Though the media tend to report disabled models’ catwalk appearances in a uniform way, there are vast differences in the projects different models have recently appeared in. RJ Mitte, for example, has operated at the top of the industry, via Gap and Vivienne Westwood; it helps that he had a huge pre- modelling following through his acting (“a lot of the time models who have disabilities still fall into the industry’s confines of ‘acceptability’ in other ways,” says Smith). Jillian Mercado is also working with some of fashion’s biggest names – including Diesel creative director Nicola Formichetti (who is famously Lady Gaga’s former stylist) and Roitfeld, the former editor of Vogue Paris. Many other fashion shows that feature people with disabilities are special campaigning or charity shows with names like “Role Models not Runway Models” that feel a long way from the powerhouses of Chanel and Gucci. “There is a case for working outside the mainstream, but when it comes to visibility it’s all too easy to be ignored. Frustratingly, unless the mainstream pays attention, I don’t know how things are going to change,” says Smith.
Rosanne Stuart, mother of Madeline, has a different perspective. Her daughter expressed an interest in modelling after seeing a fashion parade at a fair in Brisbane, and caught the attention of a number of fashion brands after professional photographs she had taken and posted on Facebook went viral.
Rosanne says she was approached by three New York fashion week brands before choosing FTL Moda, because it is being run in collaboration with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. “We don’t do anything that isn’t to do with charity or that isn’t in line with our values,” she says. So Madeline is working with handbag brand EverMaya because it has agreed to donate 5% of sales to the Down’s Syndrome Association, with Manifesta because its clothing is specifically designed for a diverse range of body shapes, and for GlossiGirl, a vegan makeup company with the ethos: “if you ain’t a nice person, makeup won’t help”.
“Modelling means nothing to me,” says Rosanne. “What we are doing is not for money – we don’t usually get paid anyway – it’s an avenue to get the word out about inclusion and disability. I can see that working with big names might mean Madeline had broken boundaries, but I wouldn’t want to work with a big brand that didn’t have the right morals.”
In any case, perhaps the power that used to be in the hands of few has been transferred, a little bit, to the many. “We have had magazine offers that I have turned down, because I don’t like that magazine, and they say ‘but we have 25,000 readers,’ to which I think, ‘well, Madeline has 400,000 followers on Facebook.”
Those who do believe that models with disabilities need to break into the mainstream industry know that the challenges are huge. “It’s a vicious circle,” says Jay. “Modelling agencies say they don’t have disabled models on their books because brands won’t hire them; brands blame the modelling agencies, saying there are no models with disabilities there for them to hire. It’s impossible to point a finger at any one part of the industry.”
It would certainly help if there were more people with disabilities employed behind the scenes in creative positions – and more McQueen-like risk-takers. “It’s funny that fashion constantly talks about what’s new,” says Jay, “but the industry’s principles are painfully out of date.”
This article was written by Hannah Marriot and published by The Guardian on Sunday 30 August 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/aug/29/fashion-industry-diversity-models-disabilities -jillian-mercado-jamie-brewer Meet Winnie Harlow, the model... c h a n g i n g t h e f a c e of fashion.
Every now and then, a model comes along who redefines the industry. The Supermodels did it, Kate Moss did it, and so did Cara Delevingne. Next up may just be Winnie Harlow.
As you have no doubt noticed from the picture above, the 21-year old from Toronto has vitiligo, a chronic skin condition that produces patches of pigmentation when the immune system attacks the body’s melanin. It began when she was four years old and she experienced bullying throughout school - she was frequently called a “cow”, thanks to the patch-like formations of her pigmentation - leading her to drop out at 16. But it was thanks to Tyra Banks that Winnie, real name Chantelle Brown-Young, first found her footing as a model. In a very 21st Century style, Banks spotted Winnie, who stands at 5ft10” tall, on Instagram and approached her to audition for America’s Next Top Model, the show she created, executive produces and acts as a ball-breaking lead judge on. Winnie got through but was eliminated on the fourth episode. She returned in the ninth episode following a change to the rules and eventually placed sixth in the entire competition. Following the show she was tapped by Spanish brand Desigual to become its representative, modelled during Ashish’s spring/summer 2015 London Fashion Week show, and starred in Diesel’s un-retouched spring/summer 2015 campaign. It doesn’t end there though. She’s also had a starring role in Eminem and Sia’s Guts Over Fear video, in which she lip-synchs to the chorus in a platinum Sia wig; has been name-checked in Drake’s Get To Know Yourself; featured in Vogue Italia, Complex, Italian Glamourand Dazed & Confused magazines and flown over to the UK by famed photographer Nick Knight to be the subject of one of his high-profile SHOWstudio project. To top it off she was enlisted to give a TED Talk to tackle the question ‘What is beauty?’
“When I was young I was picked on for something that today I feel is amazing. One thing about me connects millions of people around the world. And it’s my skin condition – vitiligo,” she said in it. She goes by the name Winnie Harlow when modelling, but Chantelle Winnie for other
endeavours. As she explains on herwebsite: “Chantelle Brown-Young is my real name. Winnie is my nick name that I was given as a teenager and it has stuck with me. I’ve combined my real name and my nick name to create “Chantelle Winnie”. My alter ego where I seek confidence when I model is “Winnie Harlow.” She now boasts almost 900,000 Instagram followers and receives well over 20,000 'likes' for most of her posts. She sits at number 47 onmodels.com's social media ranking, which puts her above the likes of far more established models including Georgia May Jagger, Natasha Poly, Lara Stone and even original 'Super' Christy Turlington. In an era where a model's social media following is considered as part of the casting process, Harlow is winning. What's next? A Vogue cover is her ultimate dream, and it looks like she may just get there. Wouldn't that be a nice shake-up for an industry that demands and promotes unachievable perfection?
Written by Bibby Sowray, Fashion News & Features Editor for The Telegraph UK. Published on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/winnie-harlow-model-with-vitiligo/ on Wednesday 19 August 2015. The Bionic Model Who Walked in New York Fashion Week.
Rebekah Marine isn’t entirely bionic, but she still calls herself The Bionic Model. At this year’s New York Fashion Week, she sparked a serious about “disabled” models when walking at the FTL Moda Runway Show. “Growing up, I was just such a ham for the camera,” Marine told TIME. “Modelling was a natural choice for me.”
Born without a right forearm, the 28-year-old wasn’t a natural choice for fashion labels that were hesitant to hire her. But four years ago, she became an ambassador for Touch Bionics and was given the i-limb quantum, an advanced prosthetic arm that moves according to her muscle movements, just as a hand would. She decided not to look at her missing arm as a disability but to embrace it. Her first big break came with Nordstrom in 2015 when she modelled for the store’s anniversary catalogue. Her career hasn’t slowed down since.
Marine is also an ambassador for the Lucky Fin Project, a non-profit organization that raises awareness and supports children born without a limb. As an ambassador, Marine travels around the country giving motivational speeches to children with limb differences. She decided that missing an arm wasn’t a crutch, but a beautiful way to help other people with disabilities embrace their beauty and embrace their aspirations.
Marine walked the runway this past Sunday with confidence in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Station along with other disabled models with prosthetics as well as Madeline Stuart, who made headlines as the first model with down syndrome to walk in NYFW. The show was produced by Ilaria Niccolini Production. This season, Marine walked for the labels Anna’s Loud and Archana Kochhar.
“I think it’s so cool to be at the front of the line of this change, and being able to open the door and inspire others to open their minds to different models,” Marine said.
This article was written by Anne Most for Time, published on Wednesday 16 September 2015, at http://time.com/4035524/bionic-model-fashion-week/ - The models with Down Syndrome we’re seeing... all have one thing in common -
Cora [above left] along with other children, such as Kayla Kosmalski in the US, [above right] with Down syndrome, have been cast in key modelling campaigns
Are child models with Down Syndrome really a great win for diversity? A nine-year-old girl named Kayla Komlaski has just made headlines as Gap’s first ever model with Down syndrome. The news comes hot off the back of another story about Cora Slocum, a four-year-old girl with Down syndrome, who has appeared in an ad campaign for shoe label, Livie & Luca.
Like most people, when I first read these articles and saw the photos of Cora’s beaming face, my initial response was “Aww, what a gorgeous kid! And what a stunning, joy-filled photo. Just lovely.” But before hitting the ‘share’ button, I stopped. And I thought back to a conversation I once had with disability activist, Stella Young.
Stella was talking to me about an emerging trend where a number of children and babies with Down syndrome had been touted as the Next Big Thing in modelling. There was 10-month-old baby, Valentina Guerrero, who was described as the “favourite swimsuit model ever” and Natty Goleniowska, a seven-year-old girl who was selected to star in the Sainsbury’s Back to School campaign. More recently we’ve seen Louis Killick, a six-year-old boy with Down syndrome, Izzy Bradley a two-year-old model with Down syndrome, Seb White, a a seven-year-old boy with Down syndrome, Franceca Griffiths, a two-year-old baby with Down syndrome, and others. Stella explained to me that while on the surface this might look like cause to celebrate, deep down, there was nothing truly progressive or revolutionary about any of it, so long as virtually all the models with disability continued to (1) have Down syndrome, (2) be infants or children. The problem is twofold. Firstly, the emphasis on people with Down syndrome ignores the diversity of the disability community. It also establishes a type of hierarchy within the community where those who have more ‘normal’ bodies which can ‘pass’ as able-bodied are given higher status compared to others. But there is a deeper problem: the heavy focus on children, and the absence of adult models with disability. What Stella taught me is that people with disability are already infantilised within our culture: their bodies are paralleled with the bodies of children, and they are often stereotyped as less worldly, less rational, less logical, and ultimately, less intelligent than those around them. And because people with disability are often depicted through these child-like lenses, they are often ascribed with child-like qualities. Like children, they are depicted as being vulnerable, dependent, innocent, and naï ve. And just like small infants, people with disability are frequently imagined as being highly asexual, and in need of protection from adult forces they are assumed not to understand.
Above: Stella Young
As Stella wrote at the time: I think that we’re OK with disability when it’s cute. In children, in particular, because it’s entirely acceptable and appropriate for them to be dependent. We have much more trouble with disabled adults. Not only are we not as cute, but we also talk back. So putting an adorable child [with Down syndrome] in a set of bathers, and then congratulating the company for “embracing diversity” is bullshit. If that was a 23 year-old-woman with Down syndrome, maybe they’d be doing something interesting. But disability is often paralleled with infancy, just as able-bodiedness [is paralleled] with adulthood and sexiness. In other words, an adult woman with Down syndrome (or another disability) will rarely be featured in a swimwear (or underwear) catalogue because of our cultural tendency to treat people with disability as both infant like and asexual. But the public is quite comfortable seeing and sharing images of cute kids with Down syndrome wearing a swimsuit or pinafore, because this already accords with how society teaches us to see disabled people: as innocent, asexual and inherently childlike. Likewise, no one is going to feel too stretched or challenged by seeing a cute kid with Down syndrome skipping rope, doing jumping jacks, or laughing gleefully, because this already accords with the types of infantilised depictions and associations that currently circulate within the popular consciousness. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate the amazing children in this article, or the fact that children’s advertising is becoming more inclusive. But until advertisers also include more adults with disabilities, we need to recognise that rather than shattering stereotypes surrounding disability, they might be reinforcing them. And rather than challenge the existing associations we make about disability, some advertisers appear to be using those associations to create a kind of Uber-child: one who, being marked by both disability and childhood, is considered especially young, cute, and innocent. So before we applaud too loudly, perhaps we should wait until there are a few more adults with disability in modelling. After all, from the perspective of the modelling world this might look like a great step forward for diversity. But from the perspective of some in the disability community, this trend might further infantilize people with disability. And there’s nothing revolutionary about that.
This article was written by Nina Funnell on Wednesday 26 August 2015, for Mamamia. http://www.mamamia.com.au/lifestyle/models-with-disabilities/ Cruelty to supermodel's sister 'not an isolated case', say Russian campaigners.
Natalia Vodianova’s public stance strikes a chord in country where people with disabilities face ongoing discrimination.
A high-profile incident in which Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova’s sister Oksana, who has autism and cerebral palsy, was told to leave a cafe for “scaring off clients” has elicited outrage on social media and high-level charges against the perpetrators. But people with disabilities and campaigners say the incident is far from isolated, and only illustrates widespread discrimination across the country. “In our country, disabled people are regularly not allowed into expensive establishments or on planes, and are refused all sorts of services,” said Yevgenia Voskoboinikova, a Russian journalist and wheelchair user. “If it wasn’t for Oksana [Vodianova] being the relative of a model known everywhere around the world, no one would have known of the incident.” The episode took place at a cafe in the sisters’ native city of Nizhny Novgorod. Oksana Vodianova, 27, and her carer were asked to leave the premises of the Flamingo cafe for “scaring off their clients”, the supermodel recounted in a Facebook post published Wednesday.
“Go get treatment, and get your kid treated too – and only then show up in a public place,” the owner of the cafe allegedly told the carer, threatening to call a mental hospital and lock Oksana Vodianova in a basement.
“What happened to my sister Oksana ... is not an isolated case,” Vodianova wrote. “This is unfortunately the reality all families raising children with special needs experience. It’s difficult for me to talk about this, but I understand that this is an alarm bell for society that must be heard.” Tip of the iceberg Vodianova, who set up the children’s charity Naked Heart Foundation in 2004, urged the readers “help people with special needs and their families be happy.” Her Foundation has set up nearly 150 disabled-friendly playgrounds and more than 50 support centres around The post solicited outpourings of anger and solidarity, as well as debate about the ways people with disabilities and special needs are treated in Russia today.
“Nobody listens until the stars speak out on the topic. That’s probably normal. But we need to use the chance to bring about change,” Russian playwright Yevgeny Kazachkov wrote on his Facebook page.
The incident also elicited responses at an official level. Russia’s federal Investigative Committee has charged the owner with the public violation of human dignity with the threat of violence, a crime which carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail, with a spokesperson condemning the actions of the cafe as “outrageous”. Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko released a statement on the upper chamber of parliament’s website.
“We need to remember that laws and multiple projects, large and small, such as wheelchair ramps, use of special symbols and other measures helping [people] to use urban infrastructure is only a part of the effort required,” the statement said. “We all need to understand that the psychological and moral readiness of society to accept people with special needs, and to communicate with them as with equals, without stereotypes, is the main indicator of the moral health of society and its development.” Changing attitudes Activists said that the stigma against people with disabilities could only be defeated with a culture shift. “The society should be aware that accessibility relates not only to technical issues, but also to the elimination of barriers in perception and communication,” said Dmitry Polikanov, president of the Coyedininiye support foundation for the deaf.
“One of the striking examples for me was the attitude in supermarkets, which prefer to isolate deaf and blind people and not let them in, rather than try to assist them with their shopping,” said Polikanov. “Shops are not equipped with Braille signs, and security personnel and shop assistants are not trained.”
Above: Natalia Vodianova Anna Mikhailenko, a coordinator of inclusive education programs at the NGO Perspektiva, said it was important to raise awareness about disability. “I was personally diagnosed with autism, so I am familiar with the situation,” she said. “Many problems derive from a lack of knowledge, not from the evil nature of some people.” Soviet legacy Part of the problem, experts say, is a hangover from Soviet times when people with disabilities often lived segregated lives. “Overall, the Soviet state’s policy toward people with disabilities was to hide them from view, often warehousing them in special boarding schools and nursing homes, and provide them with the minimum needed to exist – a small pension and a few services, but not much else,” Sarah Phillips, a professor at Indiana University said.
Phillips, a specialist in disability in the Soviet Union, said the situation has improved in recent years, with people with disabilities receiving improved living conditions, as well as educational and employment opportunities. But cases of neglect and abuse are still widespread. A report published by Human Rights Watch in 2014 showed that 30% of children with disabilities in Russia live in state orphanages.
Right Direction During the past few years, however, Russia has seen improvement in the lot of its disabled. Ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 (for which Vodianova was Paralympic ambassador), the International Paralympic Committeepraised Russia for its efforts in creating a city-wide barrier-free environment. Last March, the government introduced new housing rules making it obligatory for all new Russian real estate to have disability access.
Denise Roza, director of Perspektiva, said her organisation had taken to court two cases in which people with disabilities – one in a wheelchair and one who was blind – were not allowed on a plane unaccompanied. The organisation won both cases and subsequently, discrimination legislation was amended, she said.
Roza said she believes that incidents like that involving Vodianova happen often, but go unreported. “It was a good thing, because it’s going to raise awareness,” she said. “It’s an alarm going off that there’s a lot of changes to be [made].”
This article was originally written by Ilaria Parogini for The Moscow Times and appeared in The Guardian on Friday 58 August 6459. http://www.theguardian.com/world/6459/aug/58/ natalia-vodianova-supermodel-sister-russia-disability