<![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs" - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs" - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Rrose_Selavy: Word. It's white privilege to talk that way. She won't be ostracized for her comments & if it helps, her attitude is colored (ha.) by her anger at the lack of diversity on the runway.
If an Asian-American designer said that white people are just better looking than Asians, you'd better believe there'd be an uproar - picketing, hate mail, the kitchen sink. Not so in this case.
I miss the days of the weird-looking models: Karen Elson, Alek Wek, Kate Moss, Jenny Shimizu.

ShoplifterOfTheWorld

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Kayne West actually made a comment about"thank god for mixed girls/mutts otherwise there would be no video girls" or soem nonsense like that.
She shouldn't have said that comment but I feel her in her anger.

ldq32

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @littlemisschatterbox

well, why can't you make the comparison, because one medium is predominantly controlled by whites, the other by blacks? Is the hip-hop music video medium beyond reproach because most of the casting decisions are made by people of color? You're telling me that you don't find it the least bit ironic that the racist white fashion industry allows for a broader interpretation of black beauty more often than hip-hop media, which was actually pioneered by blacks?

uhoh-ohno

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> well it changed so much from the 70s and 80s when there was a lot more diversity on the catwalk (and even in magazines to some extent) compared to now. anyway, modelling and fashion is not even what it was. used to be a lot more exciting, there were real stars, now its just like faceless, and non-descript, anonymous - key word, MINIMALISM... perhaps that is a caucasian luxury...;)

reneesouffle

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @uhoh-ohno: I don't agree with your assertion.

Trust me...I know what you're talking about with the hip-hop videos.

I do not think that you can compare these videos to runway shows, editorials, etc. in terms of who is more progressive. You're talking about colorism (between black people) and racism (between black and white people). Yes, they are related but they are different.

All I'm saying is that what you see on the runway or in editorials ain't all good.

littlemisschatterbox

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Wow, I so completely do not care about racism in the fashion industry. But just for fun, I'd love to see this model blackballed (no pun intended) for blathering such bs to the media.

gabelle

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Not that I can afford any of this stuff anyway, but just in case I could, I would like a list of the firms that request "no ethnics" so that I never buy anything from them.

And I am baffled by the idea of ascribing beauty or ugliness based on race. It's such an individual thing.

exelizabeth

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @littlemisschaterbox

So, the fact that you're more likely to see dark skinned models like Alek, Naomi, Januel, and Georgie in high fashion than you are on BET, makes the fashion industry more racist/discriminatory than the recording/music video business? In the interest of not being racist, maybe the fashion industry should take their cues from more black recording artists and high profile black men in the media and be just as colorist when casting black models. I mean, really, is that what you're proposing, because I wasn't wrong about my assertion. Watch hip-hop videos, and you'll see exactly what I mean.

And the few examples that you can provide about Alek Wek being exotified or racistly stereotyped aren't exclusive to blacks, and they don't negate the other milestones that Wek was able to achieve as a model, the Elle cover, the NARS cosmetics campaign, her editorials, handbag line, book deal, the millions of dollars in her bank account etc., all courtesy of the fashion industry. So, no one's saying that there isn't a dearth of black models in the business, but the industry's interpretation of black beauty is hardly narrow.

uhoh-ohno

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> She's right about one thing - the cosmetics companies do hate non-white women. I seem to recall that MAC was the first cosmetic line to offer foundation and powder shades tailored to darker skin tones - in the 1990s and shilled by RuPaul. Even now I have to spend twice as much as a lighter-skinned person to get cosmetics that match my medium-brown skin.

On another note, I miss Jenny Shimizu.

durgalicious

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Apparently Alek is aware of this herself.

From

[fashionolog.blogspot.com]

Alek Wek, recently revealed in her self entitled biography, Alek, just hot off the printing press, her views on a coffee ad for the Italian brand Lavazza. During a photo shoot the black beauty posed nude in a "gigantic white espresso cup bigger than a car . . . My skin was to be the espresso. I can't help but compare them to all the images of black people that have been used in marketing over the decades. There was the big-lipped jungle-dweller on the blackamoor ceramic mugs sold in the '40s; the golliwog badges given away with jam; Little Black Sambo, who decorated the walls of an American restaurant chain in the 1960s; and Uncle Ben, whose apparently benign image still sells rice." Lavazza CEO Ennio Ranaboldo told Page Six: "A great artist photographer, Albert Watson. A great model, Alek Wek. A great calendar. That's all there's to say."

littlemisschatterbox

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> I meant Alek Wek and not Georgie Badiel.

littlemisschatterbox

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @uhoh-ohno: "To think that "racist" whites are more progressive than a lot of blacks in the media (see that one post about Michelle Obama being a lighter shade of trophy wife)is not without irony."

What???

Personally, I think that models like Georgie Badiel are used to serve as a contrast to the predominant Northern European look (think blonde-haired blue-eyed)... If I'm right...I do not think this is "progressive" at all!

littlemisschatterbox

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @tie_me_up

I don't understand your criticism. I said that WHEN models of African descent are cast in fashion shows, those models tend to be very ethnic looking, not always the fair skinned/mixed race looking ideal that's often perpetuated in hip-hop and r&b videos. Yasmine Warsame, Januel McKenzie, Hollis Wakeema, Jourdan Dunn, Liya Kibede, Chanel Iman etc., run the gamut in terms of different interpretations of black beauty. Georgie Badiel, a dark skinned model from Burkina Faso, just walked for Marc Jacobs Fall 2008 show, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who looks like her as the "featured girl" in a Chris Brown video.

uhoh-ohno

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> to be clear, i meant sexism DIRECTED at men, as in women being "sexist" against men. the phrasing was a little amiguous.

Tokyo-Eye

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Cam/ron: I'm curious to hear some examples. And I'm not being snarky.

Tokyo-Eye

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Rrose_Selavy: Thank you for posting that!

littlemisschatterbox

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @uhoh-ohno: There's only flaw with your statement- the time factor. About 10-20 years ago there were plenty of black women on catwalks. Pretty much all of thise women you named are from the supermodel era- they're not on catwalks anymore.

tie_me_up

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Rrose_Selavy: Yes.

@Wandie: No.

Archetype

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Rrose_Selavy: FWIW, I've found that racism is basically the notion that people are the way they are (good or bad) because of their "race" and therefore they ought to be judged and treated accordingly.

Cam/ron

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> "racism applies to oppressed groups. that's like claiming sexism towards men. it doesn't happen."

Say what?

Cam/ron

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Rrose_Selavy: Thank you for saying that.

macho strut

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @ulookinatmyjunk: :)

Tokyo-Eye

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Rrose_Selavy: AMEN. i was a bit disturbed by some of the comments. sure her comment may have been discriminatory, but so is the industry she is commenting on. racism applies to oppressed groups. that's like claiming sexism towards men. it doesn't happen.

Tokyo-Eye

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> I do see some part of hamnett says because when i watch half of those fashion shows i sit there going my god she should not be up there! But as many people on this wall have said we have to think about other ethnicities that have little to no representation as models. At least there are black models there, there are very few asian models and really i havent seen a full arab or middle eastern model!
I think the main point here is that there are beautiful women from every race and saying that one race is more beautiful than another isn't helping anyone!

d87

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @ulookinatmyjunk: I agree. Though not with the racist towards white women part. But yes, in terms of the bigger picture and what people of color have to go through every single day...What this Katherine chick said is not in any way going to endanger the status of white models in the industry or white women in society.

Rrose_Selavy

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Katherine Hamnett does not care about white people. Omigod, I've always wanted to say that.

Okay, so I know her statement was racist against white women and that's totally not right; I get it. However, she's dismissing white women in thought and word only. While the industry she's shit-talking is discriminating and marginalizing people of color in reality. It sucks that white chicks are made to feel shitty by this ONE comment, but trust, it sucks more when the society that you live in consistently rejects you. It sucks to pick up magazines that do not have a single person of color; it sucks to watch commercials that normalize white culture; it sucks to know that your "brand" of beauty is not "in" this season; it sucks to be told that you are not beautiful. This happens to women of color every day. It happens so much that it is not news. It happens so much that many accept it as "just the way it is" Little black girls are told all the time that they are not beautiful. Everytime they look out to a world that does not reflect them, they are taught this. So, whatevs...she made one shitty comment.

Ulookinatmyjunk!?!

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> All this talk of Katherine Hamnett's racism is a bit.....off, maybe? Racism to me implies something more institutionalized and oppressive than a white woman saying some stupid shit about white women in comparison to black women. White women were/are not an oppressed class. But "reverse racism?" I don't think so. We'll call it reverse racism when "ethnic" people conquer/colonize "white" people and treat them like second-class citizens.

We're so quick to point and yell "racist" that we've become numb to actual racism as opposed to simple bigotry and prejudice.

Not that I don't agree with y'all that the fashion industry is fucked up. Not using "ethnic" women and perpetuating "western" beauty ideal: racism. Saying black women are more "beautiful" than "white" women: not racism.

Rrose_Selavy

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @littlemisschatterbox: "I have no idea why when it's obvious that black girls are just so genuinely much more beautiful than Caucasians, who have clearly got the short straw."

I think she was pretty clear!

But, perhaps letting her anger get the best of her.

Archetype

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Ahh, I can see comments now...after I commented on why I can't see them.

UpsetPanda

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Why can't I see comments?!

UpsetPanda

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> I think the "white dogs" Hamnet is talking about are the models that are placed on the catwalk simply because they are BLONDE and BLUE-EYED. While black models who have PRETTY FACES aren't used simply because they're BLACK.

Check out style.com and to see what I mean.

You can also look through some of the model profiles on nymag.com.

Hmmm, I wonder what model Tanya Dziahileva is "KNOWN FOR" :

[nymag.com]

I do not think she genuinely believes that black women are prettier than white women. I think she is upset about this blonde and blue-eyed phenomenon.

littlemisschatterbox

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> not excusing the woman's comments, but this brings up some interesting ideas about what is considered beauty. i am much more appalled that a company explicitly asks for "no ethnics", thereby lumping all non-"white" women into a category of other. that is more racially charged to me.

when i pored over my mother's fashion magazines, and my teen rags (sassy, ym, seventeen) i almost never saw photo spreads featuring so-called "ethnics". while there is some marked improvements since then, this makes me sad and angry at the same time. let's all buy the alex wek cover in may!

lilbrowngirl

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @UPSETPANDA

Well there's Hye Park and Ai Tominaga. Kimora is actually half Black and Asian like token model of color of the moment, Chanel Iman.

That Hamnett quote is so ridiculous. The point should be, that beauty is not based on color,yet by excluding women of color, as of late, the industry only perpetuates the stereotype. Oddly enough, I always thought that the fashion industry was pretty diverse in its inclusion of African beauty (Oluchi, Chanel Iman, Alek Wek, Naomi, Veronica Webb, etc.), when they do cast women of African descent in their shows. The Black models that do get cast aren't always light skinned, which is more than you can say for media outlets created or controlled by actual blacks, i.e. music media, where the girls in the rap and r&b videos are more often than not, fair skinned or mixed race looking. To think that "racist" whites are more progressive than a lot of blacks in the media (see that one post about Michelle Obama being a lighter shade of trophy wife)is not without irony.

I had a feeling that Jourdan Dunn was probably British. She looks West Indian.

uhoh-ohno

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @golddigger: No, I wouldn't. But the schadenfreude enthusiast in me likes a little reverse discrimination now and then. See how the other side lives and all that.

I'm just not too worried about white women thinking they're not beautiful as a class. Individually, sure. But as a group, I think society does okay propping up the self-esteem of Caucasian, y'know, fashion models.

Dashrashi

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Black models are an endangered species. Found only in the darkest corners of the world of media and at Sean John shows. Occasionally, they can be found in multi-cultural packs, with Latina and Asian models at Baby Phat shows. Rarely seen, they quietly stalk the empty runways pleading for equal representation. Their only enemies are vapid talent recruiters who puff cigs while screaming "NO ETHNICS". Thankfully, Rocawear and Apple Bottoms have taken on the gargantuan task of employing and thereby insuring the survival of these increasingly rare creatures as their proponents appeal to the fashion world to pay heed to their plight.

Ulookinatmyjunk!?!

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> It's bizarre to me that someone commenting on the unfairness of choosing one race over the other might come off as preferential to one race over the other. As an Asian woman, I wouldn't mind seeing more ethnicity on runways and in ads. But I know in a lot of places, "white" is status quo, regardless of where the women are from...after all, "white" as a description can mean Heidi Klum or Gisele Bundchen, and they're from different continents. But anyone who is not descriptively white is immediately placed in the "other" category, and I'm waiting for an Asian woman other than Kimora Lee Simmons to show up on a runway.

UpsetPanda

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Yes, there is clearly racism in the fashion industry... but the fashion industry is a rather specific and cruel industry that promotes all kinds of violence against women in the first place. I could think of a few other places where we could worry about the presence of black women that would be less exploitative to black women and women in general, like where do we see black women represented politically for instance? But then I realize this blog is geared towards the fashion industry and that's cool too.

sparklytoesfairydustbutt

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Dashrashi: Would you give her "credit for boldness" if she was saying this about black women? Come on, now.

jgh

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Archetype: Was I going to say that. Asians and Latinos typically get left out of the discussion as if they don't count as "people of color."

@ihateyourescalade: Yep, that's the ongoing theory.

Cam/ron

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @lalaland13: I don't think it's the photographers. It's it's the line, or the designer, or the head of marketing. Whoever is calling the shots.

chelotoyou

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> OK, she was totes out of line and silly, but I do know a photographer who loves how black women photograph. He thinks they photograph so much better than white women most of the time. I tease him about his crush on Alex Wek (or Alek?) whose name I am surely misspelling.

lalaland13

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> maybe the only six foot tall anorexics around right now are white?

SharonTaint

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Um, how about a dash of hypocrisy with your cup of racism, madam?

randomthoughts

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @SFO: You are so right. It doesn't make them any better than the companies requesting no ethnic models.

virginiawoolf

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @BiscuitDoughJones: I'm wondering if maybe the quote was slightly out of context?

AnnieGetYourFun

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @Archetype: Ditto on your point!

chelotoyou

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @linkura: Haha - actually, I was trying to see if I could fit the "r" word in another two or three times. Darn my short straw!

chelotoyou

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> PMM needs to refuse to work with people who ask for "no ethnics," and so do all the other agencies. But no, the agencies blame the design houses, the designers blame the consumers, the consumers blame the media. Just once, for the love of crap, can I read about someone accepting responsibility in a troubled industry?

SFO

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> I think it's sort of awesomely in-your-face, though. Credit for boldness.

Dashrashi

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> I wouldn't go as far as calling most of the catwalk waifs "dogs", but I've seen some models on those runways that have no damn business modeling. If I were one of these gorgeous, out-of-work Black models, I'd be pretty incensed about it, too. So I'm'a let Hamnett's comments slide, on account of how she's probably been choking back her opinions and her outrage for some time.

BiscuitDoughJones

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @glamzonhobbitfeet: Word. Nicely put.

blackbirdfly

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> What Katherine Hamnett said is very extreme. There is beauty in all races! As a black woman, I am appreciative of the love. But you don't have to undervalue one group to appreciate another!

glamzonhobbitfeet

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Honestly, I'm not surprised. Modeling is a world of idiotic, idealized beauty -- ie, white skinny people. Anyone outside those guidelines (Black, Indian, Chicano, or overweight) is a rarity.

VEGAFEM

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @chelotoyou: You speak the truth.

Maybe it's just me, but 95% of the time I don't understand anything about the fasion industry and its models anyway.

virginiawoolf

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Er...it's one thing to compliment the beauty of black women and quite another to insult white women in the process. Can't we all be beautiful?

Lady Skittlehattington

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @golddigger: Yes.

And, honestly, when taking either group of people and talking about whether one group is more beautiful than the other makes racist assumptions about both groups. Dig?

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> Truth be told, I wish the conversation was not so focused on black models. What about Asian models? Latin? Middle Eastern?

@chelotoyou: So agreed. Reversing the critique isn't going to push forward a resolution.

Archetype

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> ". I have no idea why when it's obvious that black girls are just so genuinely much more beautiful than Caucasians, who have clearly got the short straw.""

Um... what? I don't think that statement is valid in either direction.

jgh

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> @chelotoyou: You stole my comment! Actually, I was afraid to say it first because I didn't want to be accused of "racism."

linkura

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> I love that it's a zero-sum game here--that SOMEBODY has to be ugly, whether black girls or white girls. My mom always maintained that the fashion industry was run by people who hate women. Now I think she was right!

ihateyourescalade is an east coast elite

]]> <![CDATA[Designer: Fashion Runways "Are Full Of White Dogs"]]> While I completely agree, Katherine Hamnett might want to try coming off as less racist when complaining about racism.

chelotoyou

]]>