Balance Diversity — Fashion Industry Staples Speak Out on That Problem We Aren’t Talking About

Is the fashion industry more or less diverse today than it was in the 1980s? The answer may surprise you. As one of the world’s first supermodels, Naomi Campbell knows better than most:

“When I started modeling in 1986, there were Asians, blacks, whites, Indians, Chinese. It was very diverse. It’s not like that today.”

It shocks us today that one industry seems to have gone backward while the rest of society creeps forward, but the evidence is there. Statistics compiled by the website Jezebel demonstrate that 82.7% of models walking at NYFW in 2013 were white. This belies the stark difference between representation on the runway versus the actual population demographics of the planet in 2014.

Balance Diversity, an initiative launched in 2007 by former model agent Bethann Hardison with help from supermodels Iman and Campbell, seeks to make those fashion houses perpetuating this alarming standard accountable for their lack of diversity.

Several other non-white models, like Jourdan Dunn, have also begun to speak out vocally, insisting that their voices be heard. Dunn, a British model who began her career 2006 and became the first black model to walk the runway for Prada in a decade in 2008, says:

“I feel like the people who should be talking about it, and who can make a difference, aren’t. All I can do is talk. The people higher than me – the stylists, the designers, the casting directors – they’re the ones with the power to change this. That’s where the conversation needs to happen – at big-dog level. The people who control the industry. They say if you have a black face on a magazine cover it won’t sell, but there’s no real evidence for that. It’s lazy. You always hear ‘there aren’t enough black models’, which is BS. It’s all about these dead excuses.”

It is becoming increasingly more clear that a change will have to come.

And changes are coming: there has been a noticeable increase in diversity on the runway. Figures compiled from 15 different designers at NYFW for the last 10 years demonstrate that even the most reluctant fashion houses — like Versace, Gucci, and Prada — are starting to be more inclusive. The problem is that it is not happening quickly enough. In 2005, a lot of designers had exactly 0 non-white models. In 2014, there are many that still haven’t added more than 3 per show.

The fashion industry needs to become accountable for itself. This is an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars, a lot of which comes from non-white people all around the world, refusing to recognize how important diversity is, and one day that will surely catch up to them. With campaigns like Balance Diversity popping up more and more, a more heterogeneous future seems inevitable.