While it was Jourdan Dunn this year who brought to light the matter of diversity on the runway, suggesting that the use of models of color are less a step toward a more accepting industry and more a trend, this article archived from 1990 somehow mimics the sentiment. Twenty-three years before Dunn's statement, The Guardian published "Suddenly, Black Models Are Everywhere," which speaks to Naomi Campbell's emerging talent and the shift in the industry to include not "the pale, European-featured black models of five or so years ago," but rather, the story claims, "real black girls."
While the post speaks to the '90s-centric popularity of black models — a time in which Campbell's face appeared in all the major advertisements, there was a more diverse range of women inside glossies, although still rarely on the covers — Irene Shelley, the editor of Black Beauty & Hair claimed otherwise. She states that while Campbell's was a prominent public face, it did not mean the industry as a whole was seeing more women of color finding more work. While the read in an interesting one, it's also quite sad to see that the struggle to make diversity the norm still continues over two decades after it was "fashionable." (The Guardian)
Photo: Via The Guardian.