Milan Model Update: New York Magazine Counts The Models

Over at New York Magazine's fashion blog The Cut, they have done a comprehensive survey of the racial diversity of Milan's model lineups —kind of like what we did last season, except we were to lazy to go through all that counting again so we can't complain.
Anyway, they came to basically the same conclusion that we did a few days ago which is that Italian designers as a group don't seem to think much of black models.
Out of 29 shows in their breakdowns, they found 8 with all white casts. It's worth mentioning that they classified models as White, Black, Asian and Latina, which complicated things a bit. Categorizing white Brazilian and Spanish born models as Latina did not sit well with most of their commenters. Knowing a models actual nationality and ethnic descent can make things murky. Is blond Brazilian Raquel Zimmerman a Latina in this context?
We don't think so, and, more importantly, we don't think the industry does either. If she reads as white on the runway and in photographs, and she surely does, then white she is for our purposes.
Models are essentially silent, and for all intents and purposes, how they look is what they represent ethnically regardless of where they were born. 90's Supermodel Yasmeen Ghauri was born in Canada, but to the world, she was considered at least part Indian. The Cut considers Bangalore-born Lakshmi Menon Asian, which is technically correct, but she certainly represents a different part of the planet than, say,  Liu Wen or Tao Okamoto —practically singlehandedly, we might add.
Before we sound too race obsessed (and anyone who is so inclined coould probably spend days parsing the various ethnic descents of models), let's reiterate the point here: Milan's record here basically stinks, and thanks to The Cut for giving us the cold (if slightly flawed) statistics.
Why Were Milan’s Runways So Whitewashed? (The Cut)

Comments

[Emmy]

To extend further thought into this matter, I find it interesting that some of the designers are still slow in featuring a greater diversity of faces in their advertisements.

Burberry is an apt example of the lack of diversity in their advertising. Looking at the face of modern London and modern England, it certainly wouldn't hurt if they could feature English models with a greater diversity of hues.

If Burberry needs provocation, how about featuring "Slumdog Millionaire's" Dev Patel in their advertisements, who happens to be English and of Indian origin?