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Beverly Johnson Asks: Where Are All the Black Models?
The Daily Beast ^ | 9/12/2013

Posted on 09/13/2013 6:20:08 PM PDT by Altura Ct.

I didn’t attend Fashion Week in New York this season. And by all accounts, I certainly made the right decision. A disturbing trend that began on the runway a few years back is continuing—a trend of exclusion that is glaringly insulting and simply unacceptable to me.

I’ll never forget Fashion Week in 2010, when a major designer (whom I won’t name) invited me to his fall fashion collection. He messengered over a personal design for me to wear to the show, along with a note complimenting me for all my pioneering work in the industry.

In 1974, I became the first African-American model to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine. I continued to break down racial barriers by becoming the first black model to appear on an international cover of Elle magazine. More major fashion publications followed.

Appreciative of his comments and consideration, I accepted the designer’s invite and proudly took my front-row seat among other celebrities and fashion-industry notables. I sat there as endless numbers of gorgeous garments sashayed down the runway, draped over endless numbers of gorgeous bodies. I loved the detail and the glamour of it all, but as the show neared its end, I realized one unsettling omission: not one black model had strolled down the catwalk. By the time every girl came back onstage—marking the close of the show—my mouth was completely agape. Had this fashion designer actually complimented me on my role in changing the color of fashion and then invited me to a show with absolutely no black models in it at all? He most certainly had, and he clearly saw no problem with it. As reporters approached me after the show to ask my view of the designs, I waved them away, as I’d forgotten every outfit that crossed my sight that afternoon. Now all I could see was red. And it wasn’t a stunning red dress.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: beauty; blacks; blackwomen; blacwomen; fashion; missing
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To: bigheadfred

From a glance at the pic, it is apparent that the “starving 12 year old” look is back. Where are the healthy-looking women of what ever race?


21 posted on 09/13/2013 6:32:52 PM PDT by VietVet (I am old enough to know who I am and what I believe, and I 'm not inclined to apologize for any of)
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To: Altura Ct.

Where the black women at?


22 posted on 09/13/2013 6:33:26 PM PDT by Third Person (Welcome to Gaymerica.)
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To: VietVet

When it comes to high fashion I didn’t know the Twiggy look ever left.


23 posted on 09/13/2013 6:35:24 PM PDT by bigheadfred (INFIDEL)
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To: Secret Agent Man
where are all the white basketball players?

White men can't jump. Except in the Olympics.

24 posted on 09/13/2013 6:35:34 PM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished.)
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Comment #25 Removed by Moderator

To: gaijin

yeah huh


26 posted on 09/13/2013 6:36:58 PM PDT by bigheadfred (INFIDEL)
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To: Altura Ct.

I had a real thing for Veronica Webb, back in the 90’s. She could have negotiated my 401K account. This is coming from a 68 years young, black man. When they start looking like her and Linda Evangelista, they will be on the runway. Another one of my favorites.


27 posted on 09/13/2013 6:37:16 PM PDT by Capt_Hank (btu's...kcal's...to kJ's, but my activation energy is still high.)
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To: Altura Ct.

Interestingly, I believe modeling is the only job where the employer can openly hire people based on their race.


28 posted on 09/13/2013 6:39:11 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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To: Altura Ct.
a trend of exclusion that is glaringly insulting and simply unacceptable to me.

Victim Alert! Victim Alert!

29 posted on 09/13/2013 6:39:20 PM PDT by exit82 ("The Taliban is on the inside of the building" E. Nordstrom 10-10-12)
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Comment #30 Removed by Moderator

To: All
Serena Williams models her own clothes...


31 posted on 09/13/2013 6:42:50 PM PDT by raybbr (I weep over my sons' future in this Godforsaken country.)
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To: dsc

White fashion models are for the most part singularly unattractive. Actually, that is true for fashion models in general, regardless of hue.


32 posted on 09/13/2013 6:43:04 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE http://steshaw.org/econohttp://www.fee.org/library/det)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

What’s wrong with full lips ? Thin lips are plain unattractive.


33 posted on 09/13/2013 6:43:15 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: Altura Ct.

“... where are the black models...?”

i don’t know, ask the white fags who run the fashion industry...


34 posted on 09/13/2013 6:44:02 PM PDT by Reverend Wright (1990 Budget Agreement: learn from other's mistakes)
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To: South40

I liked the Ethiopian chick and then the Zimbabwe chick.


35 posted on 09/13/2013 6:44:22 PM PDT by Sirius Lee (All that is required for evil to advance is for government to do "something")
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To: raybbr

We on a safari? It looks like we are on a safari.


36 posted on 09/13/2013 6:45:24 PM PDT by bigheadfred (INFIDEL)
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To: basil

“Not only is your remark racist”

Road apples. Hypersensitive PC merde like that has no place in reasoned discourse.

I’m sure, of course, that you would call a negro woman racist if she said the same thing about white men—because PC is always logically congruent.


37 posted on 09/13/2013 6:48:03 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: yarddog

I haven’t said this out loud before, but by about 6 months of Obeyme’s reign, I noticed more blacks in T.V. commercials than ever before.

It stands to reason many blacks would align themselves with the first (half) black president; the same for producers of commercials, so I thought ‘go for it while you can.’
An opportunity is an opportunity.


38 posted on 09/13/2013 6:48:21 PM PDT by USARightSide (S U P P O R T I N G OUR T R O O P S)
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To: Altura Ct.
"I accepted the designer’s invite and proudly took my front-row seat among other celebrities"

So.....she is calling herself a celebrity? Who is this dimwit?

39 posted on 09/13/2013 6:48:28 PM PDT by spel_grammer_an_punct_polise (Learn three chords and you, too, can be a Rock Star!)
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To: dsc
that is REAL stereotyping.....there are many many very attractive black women....I am a typical discriminating person, and I have issues with black culture, but I would never ever say what you said...I know differently....

big problem in American culture is that all you guys think you deserve a 5'11 skinny pale skin woman with naturally blonde hair and even though such a woman is very thin, walaaaaa, she has great big bazoomers....well, such a woman exists only in barbie dolls....have fun with that...

40 posted on 09/13/2013 6:48:34 PM PDT by cherry
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