Posted on 03/07/2016 12:10:10 PM PST by SkyPilot
Diversity campaigners Monday condemned the darling of Paris fashion week after he failed to cast a single model of colour in his two headline-grabbing shows.
Demna Gvasalia, who counts black music superstars Rihanna and Kanye West among his biggest fans, used only white models in shows for his own hip Vetements label and for Balenciaga Sunday, where he has just taken over as creative director.
The British-based Models for Diversity group slammed his choice as "appalling, unbelievable and bewildering".
Its founder Angel Sinclair told AFP that the omission was all the more "shocking after the great strides at New York fashion week" and in other Paris shows -- among the most diverse ever staged in the French capital.
"What was he thinking? I can't believe that Kanye (West) could have anything to do with him," she said.
Last month the rapper turned fashion designer -- a regular front row guest at previous Vetements shows -- threatened to poach Gvasalia, 34, from the Spanish label.
"I'm going to steal Demna from Balenciaga," he tweeted.
Sinclair, a former model, said given that the Georgian-born designer had built his reputation on edgy streetwear inspired by black fashion culture, not using black models was "gross".
"He is insulting all the black people who have been supporting him. He really needs to be educated," she said.
Gvasalia, 34, who fled his war-torn homeland as a child for Germany, has said that he gets his inspiration from riding the metro through one of the most ethnically mixed parts of Paris.
But photographs of previous Vetements shows seen by AFP show his label only ever used a non-white model once on the catwalk, an Asian model for the 2015 autumn winter collection.
Balenciaga apologised Monday for any offence the show might have caused...
(Excerpt) Read more at globalpost.com ...
My gosh. Affirmative action quotas now exist for models? What' next? Ugly models? Obese models? One legged models? Models missing teeth?
I did hear that Sports Illustrated just had an overweight model for their swimsuit edition.
Affirmative action for models.
Dictating men’s and women’s preferences at will...
I though models were exploited?
They were sure they heard Kanye say, “Where be the white women at?”
She’s on the cover. Former SI model Cheryl Tiegs said she thought that was “gross” and subsequently apologized after the media s...storm.
Right, I heard that. But I thought Tiegs said she objected becasuse being overweight was unhealthy?
Why don’t all these white devils just die?
Just consider that for a moment.
If the show had all people of color models, would there have been any outrage? Rhetorical question.
Federal and state law in the United States says you can discriminate against whites in employment, denial of enrollment at universities, access to scholarships, etc. White are also barred by law from applying for some Federal aid programs (i.e. Minority Job Assistance, Minority Summer Jobs, Hispanic Jobs Program, African-American Jobs Program, Migrant Education Grants, Empowerment Zones for Minority Communities Grants, Urban Development Action Grants, etc.)
"Equal Protection Under the Law" does not exist.
Yes SI did have a large woman.
I was saying this to my boys this weekend and how they are telling women it is alright to be fat, while ignoring the health problems.
In the old days a woman took care of herself, this weekend I went grocery shopping and there was not one woman with a dent body. All of them fat.
Some had spandex on for crying out loud, some half tops, other showing their spare tire around the waist.
Disgusting.
What we have is open racism in America today.
Whites are not allowed to have certain jobs, programs, promotions etc while the less qualified person who is a minority can have all that.
One black guy has a 5 bedroom house, 3 bathrooms and I asked how he could afford it and he went on to tell me that there are programs for blacks to get mortgages with a cheaper interest rate.
Yes I was fuming and let it be known.
Black privilege and why some whites hate themselves and don’t see this racism is beyond me.
And what about the tendency of the modeling business to use super skinny underweight females with bodies resembling 12 year old prepubescent boys??? Where are the normal sized women ??, what about then being represented???
How about Burkas?
Looks like something Michelle The Mooch would wear!
Yup. (Guilty)
A "plus-sized" model has become the first obese woman to be signed up by a modeling agency, with 29-year-old Tess Munster being hailed as an "important role model for women,"
That’s a hot mess, and yet on the right woman at the right event, I might love it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.