 Jourdan Dunn, who ruled the runways (she's a black model, so this is relatively speaking) during New York Fashion Week earlier this month, became the first black model to appear in a Prada show since the 1990s. Somewhere, a little black infant with good genes is crossing her fingers for the chance to one day be the second model to walk for Prada in the 21st century. A newborn baby can dream, can't she? [ MG]
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Part 2
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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