In Italy, At Least, Black is Beautiful
Q: You've said that you're not excited about the girls working today.
Bethann: We have to be as competitive as our white counterparts. The black girls the agencies are finding are not strong enough. I stand behind that.
Q: Let's flashback a moment to when you walked the catwalks in France at the Palace of Versailles.
Bethann: Mr. De La Renta's first wife, the late Françoise De La Renta, wanted to hold a benefit to restore the Marie Antoinette Theater at Versailles. Her idea was that there would be five American designers and five French designers. At the time, in the 1970s, American designers weren't known for fashion, we were known for sportswear. With this big show happening, the American designers took a lot of black girls to make sure they had a great show. But you had to have three designers invite you in order to go. I was sweating a little bit. I'd been invited by Stephen Burrows and Mr. De La Renta, but I needed a third. Then Anne Klein chose me. We did a very simple show—Liza Minnelli was there; Kay Thompson choreographed. I walked out the runway, threw my train down and all of a sudden people started stomping their feet and the programs went up in the air. We had won.
Q: What will it take for black girls to reach the highest rungs in this industry once again?
Bethann: It takes time for a great model to develop. Even Liya. She did well with Estée Lauder, but she wasn't able to keep it. After three years, her contract was up. She's not like Carolyn Murphy who goes on and on and on. But the genius was she was able to do it. I think Liya is still growing as a model. It took a long time for them to know how to light her. The image makers don't know how to present a black girl to her full advantage. The hair people don't know how to do her hair properly. The makeup people don't know how to do her makeup properly. A black stylist can do a white girl's hair, no problem. But it's rarely the case the other way around. The fashion photographers have to be inspired by the girl and be able to say, "This isn't a black story, it's just a cool story with a cool girl." We have to think about the ideas we hold in the industry, not just the images.
Q: Some people say that black models aren't inspirational, that they don't reflect the ideal that really sells products. What's your take on that?
Bethann: I'll tell you one thing. The girls aren't inspirational if they aren't the best they can be. We have to work harder to find amazing girls. Tall and pretty doesn't cut it. Mr. and Mrs. Designer, you're hurting us. I'd rather you have no black girls than two black girls who aren't up to par. Every agency has the one black girl they send out. You can't send out one black girl. You've got to send out 10 black girls and hope that two are liked, that's what it takes, it takes quantity to discover quality, that's the edge that the white girls have.
Also on The Root:
Helena Andrews kisses the runway for Vogue Italia.
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In Italy, At Least, Black is Beautiful
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View All Comments »MrMarques72 at 09/17/2008 12:50:57 PM
Comment:
When I heard that Italian Vogue was printing a special "all-black" issue of course I wanted to check it out. But when I picked it up what immediately struck me was how many pages of white models in the advertisements I had to go through before I even got to the "all-black" section. Seeing that it is the advertising that sells magazines, TV shows, etc., the fashion paradigm of whiteness remains the same. In Brazil there is a saying that "the dark/black meat is the cheapest". I guess that applies to fashion and fashion marketing as well. Although I've heard that the "all-black" has become Italian Vogue's top-selling issue, I am curious to see what the models of their next issue will look like. The simple fact that they had to devote part of an issue to black models reinforces blackness as "other", "exotic" and "different". After getting a "taste" of the "flavor of the month", things usually go back to normal. A lack of color on runways and magazines is a global phenomenon whether on the runways of Milan, Paris, London, New York or S??o Paulo, and one issue partially devoted to black models will not solve the problem.
MrMarques72 at 09/17/2008 12:50:16 PM
Comment:
When I heard that Italian Vogue was printing a special "all-black" issue of course I wanted to check it out. But when I picked it up what immediately struck me was how many pages of white models in the advertisements I had to go through before I even got to the "all-black" section. Seeing that it is the advertising that sells magazines, TV shows, etc., the fashion paradigm of whiteness remains the same. In Brazil there is a saying that "the dark/black meat is the cheapest". I guess that applies to fashion and fashion marketing as well. Although I've heard that the "all-black" has become Italian Vogue's top-selling issue, I am curious to see what the models of their next issue will look like. The simple fact that they had to devote part of an issue to black models reinforces blackness as "other", "exotic" and "different". After getting a "taste" of the "flavor of the month", things usually go back to normal. A lack of color on runways and magazines is a global phenomenon whether on the runways of Milan, Paris, London, New York or S??o Paulo, and one issue partially devoted to black models will not solve the problem.
dundada at 07/18/2008 10:44:37 AM
Comment:
There's an issue that preceeds and is also related to the issue of the lack of black models in the fashion industry. That issue is the national and GLOBAL respect of all Black CONSUMERS!
The advertisers, and probably the publicists, do not respect that Black people in the US for example are spending billions just to line someone else's pockets, and then these advertisers say that black images won't sell anything or won't sell much of any certain items. As if they've never seen a black consumer in their whole life.
Black people should definitely continue start their own businesses and not look to whites for validation or anything BUT if Blacks choose to spend in white-owned shops, they should put pressure on the advertisers to show Black images and let them know that Black people will collectively take away their billions of dollars away from these businesses if they don't.
Black people need to let these execs know that only black images will sell to Black people. There is no respect for the way Black consumers act in real normal life, think, or feel and this relates even to racist security measures of following black people around shops and targeting only them.
How should we make sure countries such as USA, UK, and Canada respect the image and the money of hard working Black consumers who line CEO pockets just like anybody else?
This is not about being nice to Blacks, this is also about business and good customer service. If they want billions from Blacks then Blacks should make sure small or large companies earn this with plenty of our positive images being advertised, and only the BEST non-invasive un-security guard-targeting customer service in any of these shops.
They need to be shown that they need to earn our respect and our money, if they want to make any money out of Blacks at all.