Japanese Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo, who started the brand in 1973, is being honored with a new Met exhibit.
Designers have been making great strides in casting more diverse runways in recent years, but the fashion industry still has a ways to go when it comes to inclusivity — with some designers have much farther to go than others.
In a recent article for Refinery29, Connie Wang delved deep into the topic of models of color missing entirely from some runways, pointing out the this year’s Met Gala honoree, in particular, struggles majorly with diversity.
Connie noted that Comme des Garçons hasn’t cast a black model in a Fashion Week show in over ten years — and FEMAIL’s own research discovered that the last show to feature a black model was Fall 1994, over two decades ago.
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Comme des Garçons was founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1973 by Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo.
When the label launched — and in fact, up until recently — it wasn’t unheard of for runways to feature no models of color at all.
But with more industry pros and the public calling for diversity in fashion, most labels have taken the movement to heart.
In March of this year, The Fashion Spot found that the Fall 2017 fashion shows in New York, Paris, London and Milan were 2.5 per cent more racially diverse than in the previous season.
In fact, 27.9 per cent of models were women of color. New York had the highest diversity rating, with 31.5 percent models of color.
Comme des Garçons shows in Paris, where over a quarter of models were nonwhite for the Fall 2017 season. At the CDG show, however, not a single model was black.
This trend appears to go back decades for the designer. Though there has been a healthy mix of Asian models on the catwalk since the brand’s inception, there have been few if any Latinas and black women.
Adding insult to injury, for the Fall 2007 show, the white models‘ hair was styled into Afros.
Quite a few shows have also featured white-painted faces, including for the Spring 2007, Fall 2005, Spring 2004, and Fall 2002 seasons.
The last black model that FEMAIL could find working for the designer’s main line was Chrystèle Saint Louis Augustin, who walked in Fall 1994 Ready-to-Wear show. Naomi Campbell also walked for the brand in 1990.
Despite an astounding lack of diversity on the runways, several black celebrity guests at the Met Gala on Monday wore the designer’s work, including Rihanna and Helen Lasichanh.
While CDG is coming under fire for what might be over two decades of whitewashed runways, however, the brand is certainly not the only one with a diversity problem.
In February, the fashion community was in an uproar after it was discovered that certain design houses, including Lanvin, had a whites-only policy for picking models. Casting director James Scully made the charges on Instagram.
