Even serious fashion lovers can be turned off by the attack of the 5’10 blonde clones that dominate most runways. And even when a handful of supermodels break the mould, the overall look of most fashion shows in this part of the world is sadly homogeneous.
This season however, the models walking down many designers’ runways were beautifully diverse. This isn’t the first season that feels like the modelling tides are turning, but it was the first were it felt like diversity was a normal feature of a fashion collection.
Plus Size Models
Before Toronto Fashion Week even took place a Canadian fashion designer was already making headlines. Designer Mark Fast showed his collection at London Fashion Week, and made waves in the fashion world by opening his show with a plus size model. Hayley Morley, who is a size 14, strutted down the runway in one of Fast’s knitwear designs, to the delight of many, and dismay of a few (Fast’s stylist allegedly walked out right before the show).
Morley was one of three plus size models in Fast’s show, and even though a plus size model is actually a normal sized woman, it caused quite a stir. And after a German magazine announced it was going to use normal sized women as models in its publication, some fashion divas spoke out in an effort to put a stop to progress. Fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld had some harsh words about curvy women on the runways.
Racial Diversity
For years there have been models that have broken the mould and pushed the boundaries. But finally it seems that there is a shift happening where seeing models who are considered ‘different’ on a runway is no longer newsworthy, but wonderfully normal.
Supermodels like Iman and Naomi Campbell led the way for rising stars like Chanel Iman, Jourdan Dunn, Du Juan, and Lakshmi Menon. And there are more and more girls each day walking the runways and getting a chance in the modelling world, a traditionally white-dominated industry.
Of course the system is far from fixed. Many designers, season after season, send out their clothes on their army of blonde, white, leggy young things. But one can only hope that the past few seasons, which have shown more racial diversity on the runways than ever before, are a positive sign for the future.
Models of All Ages
This next trend in diversity on the runways may be more about publicity than progress, but regardless, it’s still a nice change from the ordinary. Older models, anywhere from 30 to 60 years old (yes, unfortunately 30 is old in the modelling world), have been pulling down their stilettos from the shelf and strutting their stuff.
At the Hermès Spring 2009 show last year Supermodel veterans Naomi Campbell, 39, and Stephanie Seymour, 41, walked the runway to the delight of many. During Vivienne Westwood’s Fall 2009 show for Red Label, Jo Wood (wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, and in her mid-50s) pulled off the school-girl inspired looks without appearing foolish. And style icon and muse Daphne Guinness, 42, opened Giles Deacon’s Spring 2010 show in Paris.
It will be interesting to watch the future of fashion shows. In an industry that revolves around innovation, progress, and trends, hopefully the designers who have mixed up the homogeneous line up of models on the runway will be the future leaders of the pack.
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