New report reveals shocking lack of diversity in spring fashion ad campaigns
A review of this season's campaigns slams brands for choice of models.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A new report by online fashion site thefashionspot.co.uk has shed light on an alarming lack of diversity in women's fashion ad campaigns.
The report examined 577 fashion campaigns from spring/summer 2015 and found from the 811 models they included, a staggering 84.7% were white.
Asian models made up 5.7%, black models 5.1% and Latina 2.3% - meaning models from diverse ethnic backgrounds were present in less than 15% of ads from the season.
It wasn't just racial diversity that was examined by the website, body diversity was also examined with the finding that plus-size models made up just 1% of the castings in spring campaigns.
The report names and shames brands - particularly those that have reportedly consistently failed to include models from ethnic backgrounds - these include Saint Laurent whose line-up of 7 models for the season were all white (with the last black model appearing in autumn/winter 2008 when Stefano Pilati was at the helm of the label).
Chloe's history is reportedly even worse - the label cast two white models for spring 2015 having not cast a model of colour since spring 2001 under Stella McCartney's tenure.
It wasn't all bad news though as the report acknowledged brands that did cast models of colour including Burberry Prorsum (with Naomi Campbell and Jourdan Dunn), Prabal Gurung (with Joan Smalls) and on the celebrity front Nicki Minaj was the face of Cavalli and Kanye West fronted Balmain alongside wife Kim Kardashian.
To read the full report theukfashionspot.co.uk
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments