Sasha....I Mean Beyonce in Armani Prive S/S 08

I am in full support of Beyonce wearing clothing not designed by her mother. She's been mixing it up lately sporting a few looks by more avant-garde designers like Gareth Pugh. She doesn't always pull it off but it's still fun to watch her try. Here she is in a more accessible Armani Prive top. What do you think?

S: Style.com and ONTD

In Other Blogs...Not Much Diversity in Milan

Milan Fashion Week is notorious for its lack of diversity on the runway and this season has brought out more of the same in spite of the universal love for Vogue Italia's "Black" Issue. 

The Shophound is a great fashion blog that has been tracking the presence of Black and Asian models during Fashion Week.

 Bottega Veneta featured the most diversity. Out of the 28 models on their runway, four were black and one was Asian. In second place was Dolce & Gabbana, who had three black models, 1 Asian and 1 South Asian model. A few shows had one token non-white models and many more had none. Read more of the numbers at The Shophound.

Photo: ONTD_fashinfags

Ethnically Ambiguous is the New Black

According to top model booker Daniel Peddle, two "looks" will rule the runway during Fashion Week -- the tomboy look and ethnically ambiguous models. 

I guess that's the industry's way of getting around casting models who actually look unmistakably Black, Asian, or Hispanic. He mentioned Dominican newcomer Arlenis Sosa (pictured) as one of his new favorites.

"...Another thing this season is trying to discern from all the girls out there the ones that are ethnically ambiguous. Girls and boys that have faces that you can’t just put in a certain place or race or geography. I think it’s very helpful to see those types of faces in our conflicted world because you can see that we’re still evolving as humans and they are the results of people willing to go beyond the socially constructed notions around race. I think that’s really important and were going to see even more of those as the population changes."

Umm, okay. While I personally am for models of all background being represented on the catwalk there is something in his statement that rubs me the wrong way. Yep, we're still evolving as human beings but guess what? In spite of race mixing there are still plenty of "mono"-racial people on the planet and only casting models who appear to be mixed race isn't my idea of modernism. He continues,

With the Internet and the way that everyone is so connected now it’s not something you can overlook anymore. I don’t think its possible to do a modern show and have it be all blondes. I understand that sometimes a designer has an aesthetic that dictates something like that and of course we’re going to work with them to achieve their goals but personally I don’t find that to be a very modern statement.

So that's what we can expect next season. The new "aspirational model" is a woman who is vaguely ethnic but not enough to offend or stand out too much. Forgive me if I'm not doing cartwheels.

Photo: Bianca/TFS

Kelly Rowland & Jennifer Hudson @ the Keep A Child Alive Black Ball

Kelly is wearing Ralph Lauren Spring '08 and JHud is wearing a slightly modified version of this Escada Fall/Winter '08 dress. I don't think the dresses look bad on either runway model but that bright yellow really pops against Kelly's skintone and thanks to her newly enhanced figure, she fills it out more. I like the print of Jennifer's dress and I think that halter neckline compliments her vast boobage. 

Source: Style.com, LSA and Photobucket

Few Black Models at Paris Fashion Week

Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman walk for JPG in Paris (Style.com)

It's been a good month for some black models in magazines but so far that upswing  hasn't carried over onto the runway yet. 

All eyes are on Paris now where designers are presenting their Fall 2008 collections but once again very few of those elegantly tailored pantsuits and cage dresses are resting on the bodies of black models. According to designers Jean-Paul Gaultier and Mario Lefranc, agencies just don’t have any black models at the moment.  "I asked the modeling agency for black girls for our next show but there simply aren't any," said Lefranc.

Is it just me? Or do you wonder where these people are looking when they claim that they can’t find any black models? I subscribe to a thread @ TheFashionSpot devoted to  new black faces and could honestly name a few dozen off the top of my head that have the look but don't seem to get the work.  And honestly, what kind of an agency tells a client they can’t find any and leaves it at that?  An agency can find black models the same way they find white ones, by leafing through comp cards; scouting or at open calls. Seriously, look for the tall slouching girl with the good skin, and high cheekbones and introduce yourself. It’s not rocket science. 

And let me add this,  as much as I really like to see black women on the runway I am hoping that designers don’t go the P. Diddy and D-Squared route and host a one off segregated show featuring only black models. To me responses like this miss the whole point, it’s never been about segregation. 

 Source: Style.com and EUR

WSJ: "Crossing Fashion's Thin White Line"

Fashion Week is up and running again and after all the criticism last Fall about the lack of models of color on the runway there does seem to be some improvement this go round with the leggy likes of Jourdan Dunn, Mimi Roche, and Yordanos on the catwalk doing what models do best walk.

Did the world stop spinning? Did buyers stop buying? I don't think so. Nordstrom and Neiman's will still buy the clothes that they think will sell regardless of who is wearing them on the runway. Is anyone asking for quotas? No. Many just want models of color to be sent on the same go-sees that unknown European models are sent to everyday.

The Wall Street Journal shed some more light on the issue recently:

Just who is responsible for diversity on the runway depends on whom you ask. Casting directors say they work for the designers, so if the designers decide ethnic models don't fit their aesthetic, they don't hire them. Designers gripe that they would use more minority models, but the agencies don't send any "good" ones. And the modeling agencies say they aren't scouting and developing many minority models because the market hasn't been demanding their services.

A designer's goal with an expensive fashion show is to keep attention on his or her clothes, not the models. That's why, many designers privately explain, they don't like to hire distinctive-looking models, either ethnically or otherwise. But the public concern has put so much pressure on the industry that some say they have to change.

"The tricky thing about this business is that [designers and casting directors] can always say it's a matter of personal and aesthetic freedom," says Roman Young, an agent at Elite Model Management. "You wonder, 'Are they racist or are they just dumb?'" Mr. Young says he hasn't been aggressively scouting models of color because, until now, designers haven't demanded them. Very young, newly scouted models are highly in demand every season since the market likes fresh, unknown faces.

...As for whether the industry will ever change, Ms. Venditti says it's all about whether racial diversity becomes the latest fashion trend. "In general, [the industry] is a bunch of followers," she says. But "the conversation has started."

Project Runway Canada

I have nothing but love for Heidi Klum but I need to see this show. Episodes are available on the Slice website but US viewers are blocked. I'm hoping that I can watch it tonight on my husband's work PC (if he's able to log onto a Canadian server.) If not, I'll have to wait for some Good Samaritan to upload it onto Youtube. Isn't it funny how the Canadian version of this show has more people of color than any season of the US and UK versions?

The Other Great White Way

Kenya Hunt, writing for Metro New York is the latest to voice criticism about the step backwards that many fashion houses have taken diversity-wise when it comes to casting models for shows.

"...the odds of an ethnic model making inroads into the runway realm growing increasingly dismal with time. “The runway doesn’t reflect the world. It makes fashion feel very backward,” notes Guy Trebay, a fashion reporter for The New York Times, who has written extensively about the subject. The dearth of minorities on the catwalk is a decades-long quandary. But many who work behind-the-scenes say the problem has worsened rather than improved, with groups of minority women unable to get jobs based on the whims that dictate what’s out and what’s in."

Of course, designers and agencies have a million and one excuses for the lack of color on the runway this season with some claiming erroneously that black and brown models don't "fit" their clothes or that they stand out too much, while others cite the imaginary lack of models of color. In my opinion both of these excuses are ridiculous. What it brings to my mind is an episode of Janice Dickinson's modeling industry "reality" show in which she chided a male agent for not championing models that he personally didn't find f*ckable (meaning blond and white.) It seems kind of ridiculous in this day and age to compare models of color to Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" but honestly, what other conclusion is the casual observer of fashion supposed to come to? Fashion designers and agencies don't "see" ethnic models because they don't have to. It really saddens me that that there were more ethnic models working when I was in junior high than there are visible today.

What is the ultimate effect of all this anyway? For me personally, it means that I don't buy a quarter of the fashion magazines that I regularly purchased ten years ago. While I still love clothes, my excitement about the industry as a whole has dampened considerably.

Project Runway's Nina Garcia on Style

My family and I just moved back to the US from a two year stint in Luxembourg. Because of that, I am not current on the goings-ons on most television shows.

One show that I really missed watching when I was away was Project Runway. The UK counterpart (called Project Catwalk was a bit dull by comparison and when they replaced Elizabeth Hurley with Kelly Osbourne in the second season, it became even less watchable, if you can imagine that.)

All this to say that I really don't know how people feel in general about ELLE magazine fashion director Nina Garcia. I vaguely remember her being a bit of a cold fish on the show but not nearly as bitchy as Michael Kors.

Well like most everyone with a pulse on a hit reality show, Nina has a book on style hitting the shelves soon. Now, I have a not-so-secret addiction to these books so I'm already poised to add this one to my holds list at the public library. I ran across this excerpt at Gawker that I thought I'd share. There's no new information here but it looks to be a fun read, I just hope that it has loads of photographs.

Anything that sounds like it won't make sense usually looks amazing. The uptown with the downtown. The soft with the hard. The casual with the elegant. Trust me, it works. Unpredictable is far more interesting than predictable. It is what is going to make you look different and interesting, which is the hallmark of a stylish woman. Mixing it up is not about looking staged. It is supposed to be personal. Keep those items that are uniquely you....Style is about these imperfect mixes and these unusual juxtapositions, it takes time and trial to perfect the mix. It can't look staged, it has to look effortless.

Tim Gunn's Guide to Style

Tim Gunn teams with Veronica Webb to give style advice. This is what Tivo was made for.