Modeling Agencies Blamed For Fashion Racism

[JimNeusom]

Greetings Family,
(Contact Information At Bottom Of Page)

It's your friendly neighborhood "Digital Drummer" again (smile)

As many of my regular readers know, we're promoting a new concept in online modeling...Fresh Faces2u.com

With the thousands of modeling sites on the Internet, you may ask, why do we need another one. I think the news article below (from InTheNews.co.uk) and Naomi Campbell's comments , illustrates the need for us to begin to change the modeling game and uplift the image of women in the media. At Fresh Faces2u it is not so much about how you look...But Who You Are!

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This came from a good Yahoogroup I belong to...OpenYourThirdEye. They are doing great work to keep us informed with timely, relevant and empowering information. Please take the time to check out their Yahoogroup and let them know that Jim Neusom sent you...smile

Peace and Gods Blessings,

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----- Original Message ----
From: "openyourthirdeye@yahoogroups.com"
To: Jim Neusom (jneusom@yahoo.com)
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:18:44 AM
Subject: [Open-Your-Third-Eye] Digest Number 2549


10. Modeling agencies blamed for fashion racism
Posted by: "L M" opnyr3rdi@yahoo.com
Wed Oct 10, 2007 4:43 pm (PST)

PEACE:

FYI

Lm
-
fwrd

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/money/business/news/buisness/modelling-agencies-blamed-fashion-racism-$1147309.htm

Modeling agencies blamed for fashion racism
Wednesday, 10 Oct 2007 09:38

UK modeling agencies have been slammed for spreading a message
of "blatant" racism in the industry

Dee Doocey, a former managing director of an international fashion
company and now a Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the London
Assembly, has announced an emergency summit to examine the lack of
ethnic diversity in the fashion world.

She told the Independent that tackling the seemingly-inherent
prejudice within the industry was utterly essential.

"I can't remember being sent a model who wasn't white," Ms Doocey
commented. "I don't know if it's racism, or just the fashion
industry languishing in the doldrums, but it needs to change.
Agencies only seem interested in leggy white blonde girls."

However other insiders have gone a step further, stressing that many
industry bodies are entirely unashamed of their discriminatory
policies.

Maya Schulz, managing director at Acclaim models, told the
newspaper: "I always find it more difficult putting black faces out
there. The racism you come across is not underlying, it's blatant."

Ms Schultz, who runs an agency dedicated to employing ethnically
diverse models, continued: "People will say things like 'don't send
any more black models', and one designer even said black people
didn't suit his clothes. And we're not talking about small designers
here; it's all the big ones."

The announcement of the summit followed claims last month from Naomi
Campbell, who alleged that her skin color was the reason for never
having featured on the cover of British Vogue magazine.

However, she has actually been a cover star on eight different
occasions.

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Executive Director/Publisher
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[Ronke]

Hi guys – 2 articles – same principle question – what can be done? Join the debate...
Ronke

Subject: please forward to as many people as possiblehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=486551&in_page_id=1879
Hey
We would appreciate it if you could forward this article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=486551&in_page_id=1879 to as many people as possible and can
you ask them to comment on it at the bottom of the online article - the more
people that comment and raise it as an issue the more opportunities of wellpaid modelling work will arise for models "of colour".

Basically if we don't make an issue of this nothing will ever change. Too
often we just sit back and say nothing - this is a good opportunity to raise
the issue at the highest levels so please make the effort and give some
feedback.

Regards
Sola Oyebade
Mahogany Models
Also read below...
Modelling agencies blamed for racist culture
By Emily Dugan
Published: 10 October 2007
Fashion industry insiders have criticised modelling agencies for encouraging a culture of "blatant racism" in the business and announced an emergency summit with race campaigners and politicians to try to tackle the issue.
The meeting, scheduled to take place in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" />London next year, has been organised by Dee Doocey, a Liberal Democrat spokesperson from the London Assembly. Ms Doocey, a former managing director of an international fashion company, believes the fashion world desperately needs to face underlying racism in the trade.
"I can't remember being sent a model who wasn't white," said the former fashion manager. "I don't know if it's racism, or just the fashion industry languishing in the doldrums, but it needs to change. Agencies only seem interested in leggy white blonde girls."
Designers, model agencies, race campaigners and politicians are among those who will be invited to the event, which has been announced ahead of a national contest in November to find the next British supermodel "of colour".
Sola Oyebade, managing director of Mahogany, the model agency behind next month's Top Model of Colour competition, said: "This event will start the debate. We've been trying to get more ethnic minority models into the industry but if you don't hold the purse strings or the power then no change can happen. Everyone looks at Naomi Campbell as the black model who's made it, but ...isn't it worrying that no-one else has come along?
"There are so many good quality black and mixed race-models that would be great, but the agencies and the clients are not willing to take a gamble.
"Non-white people make up about 30 per cent of the population of London but we don't even make up 1 per cent of the models."
Cassandra Lee, 18, a finalist in the Top Model of Colour competition, said her skin colour had been a problem for her in getting work. "You have to try much harder if you're not white," she said. "You have to be perfect to be looked at the same way as a white model. Sometimes you hear straight up that they're not looking for black models. It's quite blatant. " Another finalist, Stacey McKnight, 21, said it was ridiculous that black models were overlooked. "We're British too, why aren't we represented?"
One third of all Londoners are non-white, according to Greater London Assembly statistics, yet the websites of London's leading agencies show there are hundreds of white faces for every handful of models from other ethnic groups.
Maya Schulz, managing director at Acclaim models, an agency that specialises in choosing models from an ethnically diverse range of backgrounds, said: "I always find it more difficult putting black faces out there. The racism you come across is not underlying, it's blatant. People will say things like 'Don't send any more black models', and one designer even said black people didn't suit his clothes. And we're not talking about small designers here; it's all the big ones."
"The colour debate is far more important than the size-zero debate, but it's hardly had any coverage. The Black Girls Coalition was formed in the Eighties to combat it, but no progress has been made."
Maya Schulz
Director
Acclaim Model Management Ltd
www.acclaimmodels.com

[JimNeusom]

Hi Ronke'


Sent a message out today to my full list requeting they show solidarity with UK models of color (see Blog)


Thanks for beating on this Digital Drum and making me aware.


Peace and Gods blessings,

Jim Neusom
Executive Director/Publisher
InterServe Networks/City Lights Software, Inc.
www.citylightssoftware.com
www.freshfaces2u.com
www.myspace.com/jimneusom

http://blog.myspace.com/jimneusom
www.myspace.com/freshfaces2u