On a chilly afternoon last winter, the atmosphere inside Club USA--one of New York City's hottest nightspots--matched the outdoor temperature, but for a different reason: America's Black supermodels were in revolt. The Black Girls Coalition (BGC), a consortium of fashion models formed in 1988 by supermodel Iman and former model Bethann Hardison (now owner of the modeling agency Bethann Management Co., Inc.) to aid the homeless, had chosen this site for a press conference to speak out on an issue that's been hidden beneath the glamour and glitter of the profession: namely, racism within the fashion and modeling business.
About 20 strong, almost all of BGC's members were in attendance--among them Karen Alexander, Cynthia Bailey, Tyra Banks, Kersti Bowser, Naomi Campbell, Peggy Dillard, Iman, Coco Mitchell, Gail O'Neill, Beverly Peele, Phina, Karla Otis, Akure Wall, Veronica Webb, Roshumba Williams and the designated leader, Bethann Hardison.
Also present were more than 100 members of the press representing Black and White American and European publications, who got an earful from the Black beauties gathered to expose the industry's ugly side. Accustomed to being seen and not heard, the models--who for the most part were stripped of their ready-to-work glamour-girl makeup--nonetheless took their turn at the podium and spoke candidly about the everyday injustices that exist within their "workplace."
Among the specific grievances addressed: the gross underrepresentation of African-Americans in fashion advertising (television commercials, billboards, magazines, catalogs, in-store promotions), designer shows and even the editorial pages of consumer magazines. "People don't realize there are hundreds of jobs related to the fashion industry, from being a makeup artist to scouting locations for a photo shoot," said a Black fashion editor at a women's magazine. "But you can practically count on both hands the number of Blacks who have any of these jobs in what's become a very closed arena." This is despite the fact that collectively African-Americans spend over $16 billion on clothing annually, according to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, and will represent approximately 13 percent of the total population by the year 2000, according to the U. S. Census Bureau.
WHAT PRICE BEAUTY?
As "soldiers" at the forefront of the style wars, the models also expressed outrage at other more subtle but unmistakable signs of racism that exist in their field: everything from the lack of Black behind-the-scenes fashion personnel--art directors, editors, designers, photographers--to being controlled around the clock right down to how they wear their locks, or indeed, told whether or not they can even wear "locks." Many, instead, are forced to wear wigs, falls and weaves.
"In more than ten years as a model," explained Coco Mitchell, "I've always had to look like what other people wanted me to look like, never how I wanted to." Most of the models admitted to being under pressure to have flowing hair that emulates that of the White models. Two have refused to give in to such pressure, however: Roshumba Williams and British-born Phina both wear their hair natural and closely cropped. Phina, in fact, stepped on these shores wearing her hair in spiky twists. "I wear my hair like this because I want to--not because I am militant, as I am so often told," she explains. "I think it's really sad that time and time again I'm asked to adhere to a certain look or value that is justifiable only to certain people." Adds Roshumba, "I'm constantly arriving at a photographer's studio and being told that I have to wear a wig." Roshumba, though, is one of the few Black models who still gets a lot of work while sporting her short natural.
The grievances of the Black models were dramatically supported in a groundbreaking study conducted by the City of New York's Department of Consumer Affairs in 1991. The report, titled "Invisible People," looked at how often Blacks and other ethnic groups were used in magazine and catalog advertising--and the findings were shocking. A paltry 3.4 percent of all consumer-magazine advertisements depicted African-Americans--despite the fact that we comprise approximately 11.3 percent of the readership of all consumer magazines and 12.5 percent of the U. S. population.
In addition to its study, New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs conducted a special survey of repeat advertisers in 634 issues of general-circulation magazines and found that some of the most prolific fashion advertisers rarely, if ever, depict Blacks (or Asian-Americans) in their ads. And when they do, it is usually as stereotypes, not consumers. The companies included Calvin Klein (out of 148 ad insertions reviewed, none depicted "identifiable minorities"), Perry Ellis, Giorgio Armani, Gucci and Guess? by Georges Marciano. In the case of Calvin Klein, one of his ad campaigns in particular--which features White rapper Marky Mark and White model Kate Moss profiling in low-slung, oversize jeans--doesn't exactly have the rap-music community singing "Hip-hop hooray." After all, it was the Black rappers who created--and still perpetuate--the urbanized, flavorized look, yet no major advertising campaigns have come their way.