Confronting westernization in the creative industry

Being a fashion industry student, I feel the need to dress the constant state of white washing and cultural appropriation that occurs within the industry. I fact, this issue is so deeply rooted within the industry, it directly affects the outdated beauty standards that a majority of the industry still adheres to for some reason. In a report done by the guardian in 2016, 78.2% of all the models featured in spring 2016's fashion adverts were white. In a breakdown of the statistics, 8.3% of models featured in ads were black, 4% were Asian and 3.8% were Hispanic. In 2018, Sudanese model Anok Yai, who was raised in the United States after arriving as a refugee in 2000, became the first black model to open a Prada runway show in more than 20(!) years. (The last being Naomi Campbell in 1997.) Still, models who don’t fit Prada’s erstwhile waifish, Lolita-esque standard remain the minority. The problem is not a lack of diverse talent for designers and casting directors to choose from. The problem is that only a handful of designers — most of them in New York — choose to practice inclusive casting season after season.

This goes beyond the current brands that are dominating the industry today and affects the future leaders of fashion. Curriculum in schools are notoriously white washed and propagated in order to fit a white savior complex.

"When it comes to a culture of inadvertent racism, my disappointment with scoring AP US and World History exams for the College Board and the ETS knows no bounds.The testing bias is so strongly Anglo-American and Eurocentric that it lags behind what I taught in my US and World History college courses a quarter-century ago. The AP curriculum leaves many high school instructors ill-equipped to teach about historical nuances that would allow advanced high school students to make a comprehensive college-level history argument, especially on issues related to racism." you can read more about this issue here

Fashion Institute of design and Merchandising alumni Annaa Celia expressed her disdain for the neglect of education of people of color in the school's curriculum. Stating:

"Designers I learned about multiple times throughout fashion history courses during my BA:

Charles Worth, Madeleine Vionnet, Gabrielle Chanel, Claire McCardell, Elsa Schiaparelli, M. Christian Dior, (and) Yves Saint Laurent.

Designers that were never mentioned in any of those classes:

Ann Cole Lowe, Patrick Kelly, Zelda Wynn, Willi Smith, Daniel Day, (and) Ola Hudson.

The education in the fashion history at FIDM was already extremely limited, but on top of that, there was absolutely no emphasis put on any designer of color or fashion of any non-western cultures. Maybe the school should broaden their range and utilize their own resources. (fix it, please)."

Current student, Meredith Brown states:

"Ten weeks is already NOT enough time to thoroughly learn about Western/ Euro-centric fashion history alone, and FIDM has made no effort to teach about GLOBAL fashion history focused on cultures other than those in the West. When will we learn about the fashion of cultures throughout Asia, Africa, the Southern Pacific, and the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australia? The list goes on. It is far past the time that more fashion history classes are created, focused specifically on cultures outside the Western world. better yet, it is time fashion history became a MAJOR itself.

It is time to hold those accountable for neglecting to address the accountability the fashion industry must take in order to give credit where it is due. The Fashion industry has taken so much from black culture, they should at the least be represented and spoken about. Their impact has happen the modern fashion world as we know it.