Whiteness In Fashion Essay

For many years, it has been argued that African-American, Hispanic, Asian and other racial diverse models have been under-represented within the media. Whether its watching the New York Times Fashion show on television, or sipping your coffee while you read the newest issue of Vogue’s magazine; you will notice one thing these mediums have in common; that is, the domination of non-coloured models. Thus, arguing that in the fashion industry, the runways are largely dominated by white models and in result, not only does this have an effect on other racially diverse models, however, this leads to major issues in the fashion industry that sparks the notion of racism to occur within the fashion business.

To understand the ideology of race, involves understanding “whiteness” as the dominate

Whiteness then, becomes the normative natural within society. In Richard Dyer’s, “White,” he acknowledges the meaning beyond the colour within a social connotation and symbolic meaning. White is often symbolized as purity, health, cleanliness, all in which can become part of the cultural construction of whiteness as a race (Dyer, 1). Similar to the colour of black, it is often seen as sinful, unstable, evil etc. According to a 2008 survey on models in New York Fashion week, based on the documentary we saw that, six percent of the models are black, six percent are Asian, one percent are Latina and eighty-seven percent are white (St. Philps, 2010). In reference to the survey, it is evident that other diverse racial cultures are being excluded in the fashion world because of the colour in which they were born with. In terms of the colour “white,” Dyer also establishes how whiteness as a racial category can be seem as both visible and invisible. He explains how white individuals are visible in a way where they are perceived to be granted ideologically and socially and in a position of power. However, whiteness is perceived to be