Sunday, April 6, 2008

Jourdan Dunn - Observer Magazine


Scan uploaded by decadent_chains/ONTD

From the article:

...Dunn is a fashion star, but first and foremost she's a teenager, and a very smart one. She's articulate and observant not only about her own history but about the fashion industry. At London Fashion Week in February, her comments about race made the news. 'London is not a white city,' she told the press, 'So why should our catwalks be so white?'

Race replaced weight as the story of Fashion Week and anonymous 'fashion insiders' opined that the industry had to bow to customers who apparently demand white, thin, blonde, models. "The way people said I was stupid...saying that fashion is just a business so they need to use models who sell things....I don't see change. It needs to be said because I think about these things and other girls do too."

It warms my cold cold heart to read quotes like this from such a young woman, especially one caught up in an industry like this one. It's commendable that she thought enough about the current state of race and the fashion industry to speak on her thoughts and then not shy away once it became media fodder. She and Chanel Iman are probably working more than any of the other new Black faces in the industry and I think I would have been a lot easier for her to cash her checks and say nothing.

1 comment:

matt williams said...

I like Jourdan a lot and hope the industry does not play her against Channel Iman like they did Naomi and Tyra. I respect for her too in that she spoke out at the beging and height of her career. Many black models wait until they have or are close to retirement to talk about the injustices of the fashion bussiness.