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Why Were Milan’s Runways So Whitewashed?

While New York’s runways were more diverse than in seasons past, Milan was quite the opposite. Top Italian designers Gianfranco Ferré, Giorgio Armani, Jil Sander, Marni, Missoni, Moschino, Prada, and Salvatore Ferragamo featured all-white casts of models. And the few times when designers did book ethnic models, they picked from a small, highly-selective pool of girls: Jourdan Dunn, Liu Wen, and Marina Peres (Dunn, Wen, and Peres were the most requested girls from their respective groups.) When you break down the stats of all the ethnic girls the diversity issue on Milan’s runways becomes even bleaker. We noticed that most of the girls had just one turn down the runway, while their Eastern European counterparts had two. Though at the shows where only one or two ethnic models were booked for a show, they would often do double duty having two looks. Way to get your money’s worth, casting directors.

Even Prada, which broke a ten-year dry spell by featuring Jourdan Dunn for a couple of seasons, had no models of color. Nada. And this is coming from the country that made that made waves in fashion with their all-black issue of Italian Vogue just last year
We can understand that designers want their shows to be directional not only in their clothes, but in their selection of models, too. But what good is being directional if you’ve been going the same direction for years? Picture this: Jourdan Dunn opening for Prada. Now that’s what we’d call directional.

The staggering stats for Milan:

Aquilano e Rimondi
Asian: 2 (Tao Okamoto, Liu Wen)
Black: 0
Latina: 1 (Daiane Conterato)
White: 36 of 39

Alberta Ferretti
Asian: 2 (Tao Okamoto, Du Juan)
Black: 1 (Jourdan Dunn)
Latina: 4 (Marina Peres, twice; Raquel Zimmermann; Daiane Conterato, twice; Bruna Tenorio)
White: 35 of 44

Alessandro Dell’Acqua
Asian: 1 (Tao Okamoto)
Black: 1 (Jourdan Dunn)
Latina: 1 (Raquel Zimmermann, twice)
White: 26 of 30

Blumarine
Asian: 1 (Lakshmi Menon, twice)
Black: 1 (Chanel Iman, twice)
Latina: 3 (Isabeli Fontana, twice; Viviane Orth, twice; Gracie Carvalho, twice)
White: 46 of 56

Bottega Veneta
Asian: 1 (Daul Kim)
Black: 2 (Chanel Iman, Arlenis Sosa)
Latina: 3 (Raquel Zimmermann, twice; Daiane Conterato, Clara Alonso)
White: 28 of 35

Burberry
Asian: 0
Black: 1 (Rose Cordero, twice)
Latina: 0
White: 47 of 49

C’N’C Costume National
Asian: 1 (Shu Pei, twice)
Black: 3 (Aminata Niaria, twice; Georgie Badiel, Ariel Meredith)
Latina: 0
White: 34 of 40

D&G
Asian: 2 (Daul Kim, Tao Okamoto)
Black: 2 (Chanel Iman, Jourdan Dunn)
Latina: 1 (Aline Weber)
White: 48 of 53

Dolce & Gabbana
Asian: 3 (Daul Kim, Liu Wen, Tao Okamoto)
Black: 2 (Jourdan Dunn, Chanel Iman)
Latina: 1 (Isabeli Fontana)
White: 58 of 64

DSquared2
Asian: 1 (Du Juan)
Black: 2 (Chanel Iman, twice; Jourdan Dunn, twice)
Latina: 0
White: 30 of 35

Emporio Armani
Asian: 0
Black: 0
Latina: 4 (Martha Streck, twice; Bruna Tenorio, Roza Gough, Martina Correa)
White: 49 of 54

Etro
Asian: 1 (Lakshmi Menon, twice)
Black: 1 (Jourdan Dunn, twice)
Latina: 0
White: 38 of 42

Fendi
Asian: 0
Black: 1 (Aminata Niaria, twice)
Latina: 0
White: 41 of 43

Gianfranco Ferré
Asian: 0
Black: 0
Latina: 0
White: 40 of 40

Giorgio Armani
Asian: 0
Black: 0
Latina: 1 (Bruna Tenorio, twice)
White: 47 of 49

Gucci
Asian: 1 (Liu Wen)
Black: 2 (Jourdan Dunn, twice; Chanel Iman, twice)
Latina: 2 (Raquel Zimmermann, three times, Marina Peres)
White: 40 of 49

Jil Sander
Asian: 0
Black: 0
Latina: 0
White: 57 of 57

Marni
Asian: 1 (Liu Wen, twice)
Black: 0
Latina: 2 (Daiane Conterato, twice; Marina Peres, twice)
White: 49 of 55

MaxMara
Asian: 3 (Lakshmi Menon, Liu Wen, twice; Tao Okamoto)
Black: 1 (Rose Cordero)
Latina: 1 (Aline Weber)
White; 36 of 42

Missoni
Asian: 1 (Liu Wen)
Black: 0
Latina: 0
White: 36 of 37

Moschino
Asian: 1 (Tao Okamoto)
Black: 0
Latina: 2 (Viviane Orth, Daiane Conterato)
White: 41 of 44

Moschino Cheap & Chic
Asian: 0
Black: 1 (Jourdan Dunn)
Latina: 0
White: 38 of 39

Pollini
Asian: 2 (Tao Okamoto, twice; Liu Wen)
Black: 0
Latina: 3 (Raquel Zimmermann, twice; Marina Peres, Daiane Conterato)
White: 25 of 32

Prada
Asian: 0
Black: 0
Latina: 1 (Marina Peres)
White: 39 of 40

Pucci
Asian: 1 (Liu Wen)
Black: 1 (Jourdan Dunn)
Latina: 0
White: 39 of 41

Roberto Cavalli
Asian: 2 (Daul Kim, Liu Wen)
Black: 1 (Chanel Iman)
Latina: 1 (Marina Peres)
White: 31 of 35

Salvatore Ferragamo
Asian: 0
Black: 0
Latina: 1 (Bruna Tenorio, twice)
White: 40 of 42

Sportmax
Asian: 1 (Tao Okamoto, twice)
Black: 1 (Aminata Niaria, twice)
Latina: 1 (Marina Peres, twice)
White: 46 of 52

Versace
Asian: 0
Black: 1 (Jourdan Dunn, twice)
Latina: 3 (Raquel Zimmermann, three times; Isabeli Fontana, twice; Bruna Tenorio)
White: 47 of 55

Why Were Milan’s Runways So Whitewashed?