lifestyle THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014

Fashion

Models present autumn/win- ter 2014-2015 collection cre- ations by Lady Cacahuete on the last day of Madrid Fashion Week in Madrid. AP/AFP photos Madrid Week Fashion

says little progress Jezebel in model diversity

n the wake of a fresh diversity push among models and models. That said, the site estimated 9.75 percent of the mod- under the headline “New York Fashion Week: Diversity Talks els counted were black, 7.67 percent were Asian, 2.12 percent IBut White Faces Walk,” the culture and style website Jezebel were Latina and .45 percent were “other.” has already crunched the numbers on the number of models As is often the case, some models of color walked for more of color who walked this time around, declaring the math designers than others. For example, Jezebel said, black models shows little progress. The site looked at 148 shows during Grace Mahary and Herieth Paul walked in 17 and 13 shows, eight days of previews concluding Thursday and found 985 respectively. For comparison’s sake, newer face Leila Nda looks were worn by models of color out of 4,621. That, Jezebel walked eight. Cindy Bruna, who closed Cushnie et Ochs, said on its website Friday night, means about 79 percent of walked in nine shows. Asian model Tian Yi was in 13 shows, those models were white. and Xiao Wen Ju, Sung Hee Kim and Chen Lin were all in 14. That number is slightly smaller than last season, the site Jezebel said only a few designers used entirely white casts, said, but has changed little from roughly 80 percent of looks while others regressed. Calvin Klein, for instance, used five worn during New York Fashion Weeks over the past six sea- models of color last season but featured two black models this sons. Last September, black models Iman and Naomi time around, according to the site. Last September, Balance Campbell, along with veteran modeling agent Bethann Diversity called out by name some industry heavyweights in Hardison, launched the Balance Diversity campaign, which an open letter to the Council of Fashion Designers of America included open letters to organizers of fashion weeks in New challenging them to work for more diversity. The designers York, London, and Milan that called out designers whose included Donna Karan, Proenza Schouler, The Row, Victoria catwalks were almost entirely white. They have a new recruit Beckham and Klein as among those who used almost no black in British model , who told The Guardian recent- models in the February shows a year ago. This time, Jezebel ly it’s “lazy” for fashion editors to ignore black models based named as designers with diverse casts Diane von Furstenberg, on the argument that they don’t sell, according to Jezebel. Desigual, Bibhu Mohapatra, Ohne Titel, Pamella Roland, Jezebel acknowledged that for a few shows it was difficult Naeem Khan, Zac Posen and Tracy Reese. Anna Sui and to break down models by race because it could not obtain the Creatures of the Wind used models of color to open and close names of the models who walked. The site scoured photos on their shows, the site said.—AP Style.com and excluded menswear, breaking the count into black, Asian, Latina and “other,” where Middle Eastern women would fall. It counted non-European Latina models as Latina and called its system flawed when considering mixed-race