Fashion ' s Lack of Diversity

IT’S 2020 AND THE FASHION INDUSTRY STILL LACKS DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

It has been 46 years since Beverly Johnson made her appearance as the first Black woman on the cover of Vogue in August 1974, and the fashion industry has certainly changed and progressed in terms of inclusion throughout the years. However, despite the fact that by the year 1975 all of the major mainstream magazines had featured a woman of color on their covers and it slowly became a standard, the fight against racism, ableism and lack of diversity within the world of fashion is still not over.

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After that Vogue cover premiere, Beverly Johnsons career skyrocketed, as she was desired in hundreds of other photoshoots, including two more Vogue covers, and that triggered other publishers to include women of color in their magazines. Many would see that as a breaking point of progress and consider the issue of magazines lacking representation of people of color solved, but in order to truly understand, one must dig deeper and look behind the scenes.

Although Beverly was as desirable as white models, maybe even more at the time, she was paid only a fraction of her Caucasian colleagues’ salary, and apart from that her and other Black models were often kept from requesting a Black photographer, stylist or a make-up artist.

That sadly remained unchanged for many following years, as the first ever Vogue cover shot by a Black photographer appeared only in 2018, when Beyoncé advocated Tyler Mitchell to shoot her September cover. This only shows how hypocritical the industry can be, as it profits from exploiting the Black culture immensely, but rarely gives the real people who come from it any credit and representation. There has also been a countless number of cases where whole collections had been inspired by African or Asian cultures, however the models presenting the clothes were European.

For example, Valentino faced backlash for the house's Spring 2016 "Wild Africa" collection with only 8 models out of 87 being Black, and white models wearing cornrows.

it would be easy to think that the world of fashion has overcome these issues and flourishes in diversity, inclusion and representation of a wide variety of people, however, recent events and movements such as Black Lives Matter brought the still occuring injustices to light. As transgender and disabled models Chella Man and Aaron Phillip explained in their interview for Vogue, there is still a lot to improve. They both felt isolated and disconnected from fashion during their teenage years because of the lack of representation of queer and disabled people of coloron the covers of magazines and forced the doors of the fashion industry open for people like them by working hard along the journeys of their modelling careers. Representation, in the end, is key not only for creating safe spaces for employees and creators affiliated with fashion, but also for consumers, as it has a major impact on mental health and self-esteem, as well as on how the general public views minorities. Consumers are undeniably essential for profit, and many companies have already figured put that diversity can equal money. And although the morality of profit being the only reason behind increased representation is questionable, it is a step forward nonetheless.

After pondering my findings, I cannot help but wonder, why are talented people of color still not promoted appropriately and enough, when the industry profits immensely from their cultures? And how to define whether the inclusion and promotion of these people is truly an act of creating diversity, or an act of pure tokenism? Will fashion within our society ever get to a point where everyone will be able to find themselves on a cover of a magazine?