The shocking absence of black models on the Paris Haute Couture runways...

When I pored over the Paris Haute Couture collections on Style.com this morning what struck me instead of the time and effort put into the beautiful clothes was the sheer number of white models on the catwalks.

The predominantly and shockingly white Valentino runway

Number of black models at Chanel? Zilch. There was around 60 look sent onto the runway and not the ladies modelling these were black.

Elie Saab? Yep zero again.

Valentino? Just the one.

Givenchy? Only 2 out of the 10.

Jean Paul Gaultier had the most out of these brands but still the black models were a minority on the runway.

This makes me so angry. But then I got thinking about black models off the runway and in other aspects of the fashion world.

You can count the number of black women who have made it onto the cover of US Vogue on one hand.
There was Oprah Winfrey in 1998, Halle Berry in 2002, Jennifer Hudson in 2007 and Michelle Obama and finally Beyoncé in 2009. This fact is even more shocking when you bear in mind that the magazines first issue was published in 1892. So that makes 118 years of US Vogue and only 5 African-American women on the cover. Astounding.

But then Vogue has been a cause for controversy of race many times. There was the outrage at the Carine Roitfeld's Steven Klein shoot for French Vogue which featured the shocking image of a pale skinned Lara Stone painted black (see below)

Then there was the infamous US cover featuring Lebron James and Gisele Bundchen which caused much controversy when released. Many saw the cover as portraying and enforcing a racist stereotype and likened it the King Kong film poster because of the similarities of James’ aggressive stance as he embraced Bundchen the ‘damsel in distress’ Fay Wrey character (see bel0w).But there are positive steps for black models in the fashion world, such the ‘Pretty Young Things’ i-D cover in September 2009 which featured Jourdan Dunn, Chanel Iman, Sessilee Lopez and Arlenis Sosa Pena on the cover and Dunn said was “About the hottest black models out there right now.”
Don’t forget Naomi Campbell, arguably the most famous black supermodel and Chanel Iman, one of my favourite ever models who appeared on the front cover of the ‘Black Beauties’ issue of Korean Vogue.

However these are very small steps and they appear few and far between.
Black models are simply not represented fairly on the runways and in magazines and something needs to be done about this.

Anna Wintour if you are reading this, please make my dream where I can count the number of balck models on the front of US Vogue on more than 1 hand come true. It's not hard.