When the historically-hyped, all-black Vogue Italia hit the shelves this summer, fashion-philes everywhere wondered if the magazine's focus on black models would change the fashion industry. Would the people in charge of the white-washed runways and magazines see the light and try to be more diverse in their casting practices. During New York's Fall 2008 Fashion Week earlier this year — pre-Vogue Italia — I counted the black models present at a selection of fashion shows. So did Vogue Italia change the fashion world?

Based on the fashion shows I checked out, designers are definitely more conscious of diversity when casting their shows. Jill Stuart, Calvin Klein, and Rodarte, for instance, all had zero black models in their shows in February. They had at least one this time around (Monique Lhullier still gets a big fat F). All in all, things look better than they did in February, but it would be a stretch for anyone to say they were blown away by the progress that has been made. Yes, Vogue Italia and the campaign led by Bethann Hardison to get some diversity on the runway has definitely gotten the attention of designers, but has it permanently changed anything? It will take more than one season to find out that answer to that.

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When the epic, all-black Vogue Italia hit the shelves this summer, fashion-philes everywhere wondered if the magazine's focus on black models would change the fashion industry. Would the people in charge of the white-washed runways and magazines see the light and try to be more diverse in their casting practices. During New York's Fall 2008 Fashion Week earlier this year — pre-Vogue Italia — I counted the black models present at a selection of fashion shows. The numbers were as expected but pretty disappointing, save for impressive showings from Diane Von Furstenburg and, of course, Tracy Reese.

So did Vogue Italia change the fashion world? At the Spring 2009 shows, currently taking place in Bryant Park, things certainly haven't get worse, and many designers that only had one black model in their shows at least doubled the number this time around. Fashion week isn't over yet, but here's a guess — designers might not care to drastically alter their formulas, but few, if any, will dare have an all-white show.

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There’s a growing movement afoot — led by industy-vet Bethann Hardison — to get more black models on the runways. But has it worked? Hardison told Stereohyped last month that she wasn’t expecting any changes to be made overnight, describing the issue as a “slow tsunami.” Nevertheless, I decided to do a little survey of Style.com’s extensive fashion week coverage to see how many black models are gracing the runways in Bryant Park.

The results of Monday's installment of BMW wasn't much to write home about, but the shows over the past couple days have been worse. Most of the shows I surveyed only had one black model, and it was usually Chanel Iman, Liya Kebede, or Jordan Dunn. Three designers — Jill Stuart, Monique Lhullier, and Rodarte — get a big fat F. Although I didn't include him in Black Model Watch, veteran black designer Stephen Burrows showed his smaller collection yesterday. Speaking of black designers, rumor has it Diddy's show on Friday will feature only black models. While some in the industry say that's almost as bad as having an all-white show a la Jill Stuart, I say more power to Diddy — and the black models who are finally getting some work.

After the jump, the check out the BMW stats from a select group of shows.

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There's a growing movement afoot — led by industy-vet Bethann Hardison — to get more black models on the runways. But has it worked? Hardison told Stereohyped last month that she wasn't expecting any changes to be made overnight, describing the issue as a "slow tsunami." Nevertheless, I decided to do a little survey of Style.com's extensive fashion week coverage to see how many models of color* are gracing the runways in Bryant Park. Diane Von Furstenburg and Tracy Reese (surprise!) fared well under scrutiny. Other designers, not so much. Considering how many black women are loving his bandage dresses, Max Azria (for Hervé Léger) could have done a lot better.

My (subject to human error) results after the jump.

Note: There are a number of Asian models such as Emma Pei, Hye Park, Han Jin, Daul Kim, and Mo Wandan, popping up on the runway.

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