The stats are in, and Black models were still severely underrepresented during fashion weeks across the globe.
According to The Fashion Spot, after factoring 373 shows and 9,926 models in New York, London, Paris and Milan, almost 80 percent of models on the runways were White. Black models accounted for only 8.5 percent of castings, with Asian and Latina castings coming in at 7.7 percent and 2.6 percent respectively.
When it came to each individual city, New York came out on top as far as diversity goes with 10.7 percent Black models. Brands like Chromat, Tracy Reese and Sophie Theallet led the way with the most diverse shows.
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Erdem, Giorgio Armani, Nina Ricci and Saint Laurent all lagged behind, hiring just two models of color to walk their runways.
Coming in last place was Comme des Garcons, Junya Watanabe and Erin Fetherston with absolutely no models of color featured in their shows.
The fashion industry has seen a slight improvement in diversity in recent years. In Fall 2015 7.4 percent of models were Black and in the previous spring it was 6.8 percent, compared to this season’s 8.5 percentage. Yet, progress has still been significantly slow.
Although industry veterans like Bethann Hardison, Beverly Johnson and Andre Talley have been vocal about the impertinent need for models of color to be represented on runways, the statistics prove that there is still work to be done.