Another reason not to buy YSL: The design house's Stefano Pilati says that although hiring black models in the 1970s "was sort of a message of having an open mind", he doesn't much like dark girls on his 21st century runways. In an interview with Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan, Pilati says that he tends not to want to put his "cerebral" fashions on black models because of their bodily proportions. "My fit model was a black model," he tells Givhan. "When I wanted to translate what I put on her, it was a disaster. It would need 13 times more work in the atelier to modify it to put on a more Caucasian anatomy."
Sometimes it's not your choice. You can't find [black models] that are beautiful and with the right proportions. I prefer them with lean proportions with no big hips.
Poor Stefano! Sometimes genetics really mess with one's attempts at diversity!
Back In Fashion [Washington Post]
Related: Saartjie Baartman (Hottentot Venus) [Wikipedia]