Classic supermodel and wife of David Bowie, Iman has recently spoken
out about the lack of black models on the catwalks. Iman, who first became
successful in the 1980’s claims that we seem to of gone back in time and that
more brands are less open to using multicultural models. And she is right, last
New York Fashion Week saw a 2% drop in the use of black models compared to the
previous year. Meaning that only a ridiculously low 6% of models were black.
Naomi Campbell, who is also a part of the Diversity Coalition with
Iman, has also spoke out about the lack of diversity in fashion. The supermodel
expressed her disgust, saying ‘ the statistics, its really shocking,
heartbreaking. Your body and beauty, it doesn’t matter what colour you are. If
you’ve got the right talent, you should be there having the opportunity to do
the job’.
Yves Saint Laurent was known for pioneering the use of black models on
the catwalk and was even said to of really helped black models back in the 60’s
and 70’s yet at the Summer 2013 show (Hedi Slimanes first at the helm of the
French brand) only featured one black model.
Its
upsetting that in this modern day and age when you think prejudice would be
long behind us fashion seems to be going backwards, however with stunning
models like Jourdan Dunn, Alex Wek, Chanel Iman and Joan Smalls popping up on
the catwalks perhaps its time for the casting directors to start being more
thoughtful and radical with their selections.
Paul Deneve, CEO of French fashion house
Yves Saint Laurent has announced he’s leaving the brand to work on ‘special
products’ with technology giant Apple. There’s been rumors flying around for a
while that Apple are looking to begin creating ‘wearable’ technology and many
have speculated that Apple are creating an ‘iWatch’.
With the news of Deneve's
arrival at Apple seems to confirm the rumours. The iWatch is basically an iPhone on your
wrist, smart huh? By bringing in Deneve Apple are hoping to create a watch that
will rival premium brands such as Rolex. Deneve has previously worked at Lanvin and
Nina Ricci and whilst at YSL almost doubled their revenues thanks to his
marketing so we know Deneve is the perfect candidate to help Apple out.
Does this signify a big change expected in
fashion? It seems anything is possible now when it comes to technology so I
have no doubt that the iWatch will be just the beginning of techno fashion. Is
this a wonderfully smart idea to modernize fashion or is this taking things too
far?
