Racism within the fashion industry?

Published on Wed 17th Oct 2007

Open the pages of any glossy magazine and black and Asian models are conspicuous by their absence. You can count those who have made it on one hand. The fashion world has been rocked by the size zero debate and now a number of model agencies are admitting that racial discrimination in the fashion industry is just as widespread as eating disorders.

It never ceases to surprise me that London's fashion industry, which is renowned around the world for its creativity in design, is so pro-establishment and risk-averse in the way it runs itself. In reality it's not unlike a stuffy private members' club, with the "chosen few" deciding who's in and who's out.

When I was campaigning to get skinny models banned, no-one in the industry was prepared to show leadership. "If you can get others to speak out first, then count us in" came the chorus of voices. It took a government report, a year of intensive media pressure and the death of 2 models to even get people round a table.

Today, every model agency seems to have a token black girl. Or maybe two. An unspoken quota that they won't exceed because they don't believe there is the market for non-white girls. Hardly surprising when you see some of the casting criteria circulated by the fashion show organisers: 'Blonde, small hips, straight hair'. Some model agencies have even been told 'no Afros' or 'no black girls'. And if the girls are lucky enough to get booked, their experience can be humiliating. Make-up artists claiming not to be able to 'do' black make-up, hair stylists who 'can't deal' with black hair and clothes that 'don't fit' black girls.

In the next few months I will be hosting a Model Forum. This will bring together opinion leaders, models, designers and fashion agencies from all communities to examine why black and Asian models find it so hard to break into fashion and what can be to done to change it. Fashion can no longer afford to be so unrepresentative of the world we live in, be it about race or size.

It's time the industry took a good look at itself in the mirror and asked 'Do I like what I see?' Because frankly, many of us don't.

Dee Doocey is the Liberal Democrat Culture spokesperson on the London Assembly and has worked extensively in the fashion industry.