Spring 2010 Menswear designers like Gucci, D&G, and Emporio Armani are currently showing in Europe, and I decided to pop online to take a look at the newest trends for the fellas.
First I took a peek at Dsquared2…
… for obvious reasons!
You might remember, last year DSquared made headlines for having a majority black cast:
At the time, website Fashionista said in an article called Changes on the Runway, “In reverse of how shows usually go, the majority of the models were black, with just a couple majorities. Now, there’s a delightful rumor…that next week’s Lanvin show will have an ‘all ethnic’ line up.”
Welp, this year, Brazilian Jean Carlos (in the 1st picture above) was the only splash of color in DSquared2’s whole show. Quite a drastic change, so I decided to see if other shows kept up with the celebrated diversity of yore.
Emporio Armani featured two men of color:
Vivienne Westwood provided some eye candy:
And surprisingly, Calvin Klein represented with a handful of brothers (maybe it was that New York Times article by Cathy Horyn where she shouted out Francisco Costa for his homogeneous lineup):
But for a large majority of shows–Gucci, D&G, Moncler Gamme Bleu, Iceberg, John Varvatos, Prada, Moschino, Salvatore Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli, Gianfranco Ferre, Burberry Prorsum–they were decidedly back to their old non-diverse tricks:
We always hope that a large outcry, an all black issue, and numerous blog and newspaper articles will effect a true change. But after all the hubbub of last season, it seems things have returned back to normal (for the men’s shows at least).
With all the love Gucci gets from Soulja Boy and Gucci Mane, you’d think they’d have at least one brother!
What do you think?
June 24, 2009 4:17 pm
I am not surprised that most of these designers used their typical line up. Truth be told, they don’t care about not using minorities as models. Wasn’t it the Owner or CEO of Timberland that said that he didn’t want “us” wearing his shoes and we are their primary source for revenue. The same goes with Cristal Champagne saying that they didn’t like how the rappers were portraying their alcohol in the videos. These are people that no matter how we try to move forward in society they refuse to succumb to the fact that minorities exist, want to be treated the same and want the same respect as the majority. What DSquared did was phenomenal but will it be done again, I doubt it. We made a cry as a community that there was a need for black models and the only people who answered the call were the NY Times, Vogue, DSquared and a few others. All we can do from here is keep making our voice heard.
June 24, 2009 4:34 pm
Fashion doesn’t care about black people.
June 24, 2009 6:38 pm
i’m honestly not surprised by stuff like this any more… apparently black male models are only cast a-plenty when they’re working as nude props for giselle. which is a shame, cos these men are beautiful (especially homeboys with the glasses in the d-square pic… lawd!!). like was said above, it’s important that we as consumers make our voices heard about what we want from the people whose revenue we provide.
June 25, 2009 3:13 pm
I’m not surprised, as long as they are getting the black consumers dollar without having to cater to them, why would they? Plus, a lot of these lines already have plenty of famous blacks modeling and shouting their clothes out for free. They don’t need to do anymore catering to blacks.
Personally, as a consumer, I support brands that support me. If more minorities did that, these brands would be HURTING. Then we’d see more diversity.
November 13, 2009 8:52 am
I think the gucci line has too much white, maybe had sum more style and patterns.
August 19, 2010 10:04 am
its fine