A new study shows diversity at New York Fashion week 2017 has decreased.
Kanye West’s Spring 2017 Yeezy show was bashed by critics for casting relatively unknown and aspiring models. But, Ninety-seven percent of West’s cast was comprised of models of color, followed by shows from Kimora Lee Simmons (82%) and Ashish (75%), according to a study by The Fashion Spot.
Study compiled data from 299 shows over the course of New York, London, Paris, and Milan’s Fashion Week comprising a total of 8,832 models. In doing so, they found that this was the most racially diverse fashion month ever, in which models of color made up of 25.35% of runway castings, up from last season’s 24.75%. Among those numbers, 10.33% of the models were black, 7% were Asian, 3.36% were Latina, .40% were Middle Eastern and 4.27% were “Other.”
Every city’s diversity numbers improved except for New York’s, which went down from 31.9% to 30.3%, but The Fashion Spot found that New York Fashion Week is still the most inclusive when it comes to casting models of different ethnicities, races, sizes as well as trans models. ANd three of the ten most-casted models of fashion month were women of color: Lineisy Montero, Mayowa Nichols, and Selena Forrest.
However, several fashion shows included no models of color including Mary Kate and Ashley’s The Row, Daniela Gregis, Junya Watanabe and Anrealage.
According to the study, fashion houses in general still fall really short in terms of diversity. Of the 16 plus size models cast in runway shows, for example, all were in New York and only 13 models over 50 were on runways.
Read more analysis and see break-out graphs at The Fashion Spot.
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