Posts filed under 'Scandals'
Some are saying – it’s all Carla Bruni’s fault! With an oops heard round the world French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the collapse episode has many fingers pointing at his wife, the skinny and sexy former supermodel Carla Bruni Sarkozy! When all else fails, blame the collapse on the model and her super skinny diet.The UK Daily Mirror claims in a report that since the 54-year old Sarkozy, wed the “glamorous ex-model Carla Bruni, 41, last year, he has hurled himself into a regime of exercise and dieting.” The title of the piece from writer Don Mackay reads, “Fainting Nicolas Sarkozy ‘worn out’ by his young wife Carla Bruni.”
Even though heat and overwork were blamed for his collapse while jogging on Sunday, many are asking if it is just too much to keep up with the “model-turned-singer wife, who is 13 years his junior,” asks “The Age”.
According to the Associated Press, the president was “prescribed a few days’ rest.” Is it really fair to blame the French First Lady?
source: nationalledger.com
July 29th, 2009
David Bowie’s supermodel wife Iman struggled for years to feel at home in the U.S. – until New York city was devastated by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Somalian-born beauty came to America in 1975 after she was spotted by U.S. photographer Peter Beard, and landed her first modelling job with Vogue magazine.
As an in-demand face throughout the last three decades, Iman stayed in the country, and was eventually granted American citizenship.
But she admits she never felt as though she belonged in the U.S., or her adopted city of New York, until it came under attack in 2001 – and her local community fireman were wiped out in the catastrophe.
She tells Hello! magazine, “I never felt American – although I’ve had citizenship for 30 years – until September 11 happened.
“I live in SoHo (New York). A couple of of blocks from us, there’s a fire station. They used to see me and Lexi (daughter) and she would be in her pram. The next thing she’d be tottering along. The firemen would ask, ‘Is she talking? Did she get her new teeth?’ I assumed she’d be going to her prom and they’d still be seeing her. None of them made it. I felt like my home had been attacked.” (c) WENN
source: postchronicle.com
April 27th, 2009
An out-of-control Sophie Anderton was arrested last night after allegedly threatening to kill herself in front of former boyfriend, property developer Ed Buxton.
Sophie turned up at the tycoon’s apartment at 2am demanding to see him.
After he refused to let her in, in her highly emotional state, she reportedly screamed: ‘I’ll kill myself if you won’t take me back.’
When Buxton and his doorman tried and failed to calm her down, the property developer was forced to call 999.
Ed split from Sophie last week, after Sophie flirted with Danio Domingues, a doorman from Chelsea nightclub Kitts.
Buxton’s wealthy neighbours in Parsons Green, west London, rushed to help after hearing Sophie’s screams in the lobby.
A resident told the Sun: ‘She kept shouting, ‘”I’ll kill myself if you won’t take me back.” She said she didn’t want to live without him.
‘She was scratching at her wrists and saying, “I could do it, who would care? Nobody cares’.
‘Ed kept saying they’d talk things over but she kept wrestling with him and screaming.’
Paramedics were also called to deal with Sophie, but she allegedly resisted treatment when they arrived, before police arrested her for disorderly conduct.
The Mail On Sunday’s Katie Nicholl wrote this weekend: ‘It’s all over and Sophie’s in a very bad state at the moment,’ I’m told.
But friends of the former supermodel, who has battled drink and drug addictions, and recently finished a long spell in rehab after being exposed as a call girl, insist that the break-up had nothing to do with Danio.
‘Sophie told me she was single,’ said Danio.
‘She was really hitting on me.
‘She gave me her number but, when I called, Ed answered wanting to know who I was.’
November 11th, 2008
Friends and family of a Manitoba-born fashion model are asking questions about how the 26-year-old died in Italy.
Hayley Marie Kohle, originally from Beausejour, Man., northeast of Winnipeg, died Saturday in Milan.
The Italian police are investigating and Ottawa is providing consular assistance. So far, her family has heard only that she fell from a seventh-floor window.
Quinn Adams says Kohle was full of life, and she still can’t believe her close friend is dead.
“Just absolutely fabulous. She could light up a room,” Adams said.
“She was a model. She had everything going for her, she was ready to be a supermodel. And when somebody dies like that, it’s going to be suspicious, I think.
“We don’t know a lot of information, whether it was suicide, whether she was pushed, whether she accidentally fell.”
Liz Crawford, one of Kohle’s first modelling coaches in Winnipeg, agrees: “How does a girl fall from the seventh floor window of a model apartment? I don’t know. I mean, you know, it’s a little unusual.”
Modelling industry needs more regulation: coach
Crawford was behind the Worker Recruitment and Protection Act, which was passed in Manitoba last spring requiring licences for employment agencies, individuals recruiting foreign workers and anyone who recruits or represents models or entertainers.
The modelling industry in general needs to be better regulated, Crawford said. She hopes other levels of government will help protect models from finding themselves in situations they’re not prepared to handle.
“My concern … for a lot of the girls that come in, is just, you know, how well educated are they before they go off and do this?” she said.
A memorial service for Kohle will be held on Monday in Beausejour.
source: cbc.ca
October 17th, 2008
STUNNING actress Olga Kurylenko yesterday told how her mother feared she was going to be kidnapped by sex traffickers.
The new Bond beauty’s big break came when she was approached by a modelling agency on the Moscow subway aged just 15.
But her Russian mum refused to let her talk to the firm because she was concerned that it was run by gangsters.
Olga said: “I went on vacation to Moscow with my mum and a woman stopped us on a subway.
“She spoke to my mum and said she thought I could be a model.
“But my mum and I went back to the Ukraine because we thought we would have to talk about it.
“Then she called and asked us to come to do some tests. Mum came with me to see everything was fine and that it was a real agency and not some trafficking of girls to become sex slaves.
“When she knew it was all real, she let me go alone.
“So I started travelling around the Ukraine and then Europe.”
Now Olga, 28, is the latest Bond femme fatale, ensuring that once more the famous spy is starring alongside an impossibly beautiful woman.
And while the good news for all single men out there is that the Ukranian beauty is also unattached, having recently divorced from her second husband Damien Gabrielle, the bad news is that she is loving being young, free and single.
The 28-year-old, who lives in Paris, said: “I want to say, ‘Thank God I’m single,’ but that might offend people.
“Sorry, but I ended a relationship a few months ago and I’ve had enough.
“I’m really enjoying my freedom. Nobody asks, ‘Where are you going? What have you been doing? Why?’ I hate those questions. I hate jealousy, I hate possessiveness.
“Why do people always want to possess you and try to make you their thing? I’m nobody’s possession. I’d rather be alone than deal with that.”
Starring next to Daniel Craig in the latest Bond film Quantum Of Solace, the highly anticipated sequel to Casino Royale, the model turned actress looks set to be a Hollywood A-Lister by the time she is 30.
And that’s quite an achievement, considering the level of poverty she was born into.
She was born in the Ukranian city of Berdyansk to aUkrainian father and Russian mother. They divorced when she was just three, leaving Olga to be raised singlehandedly by her mum.
And while she used to dream of growing up to be an actress, one job grabbed her attention even more.
Olga said: “I went to school theatre so I was always participating in plays. I loved it.
“But while that was high on my dreams, there was something I wanted to do even more – to be a doctor. I love medicine and I’m very passionate about it.
“My grandmother was a doctor and had all these medical books at home and I kept reading them.
“I think it’s so amazing. I even still read medical books in my spare time.
“My mum used to come in and she’d find me looking at these horrible and disgusting pictures in the books. She couldn’t understand it.”
OLGA’S acting career took off in France three years ago when she starred in a string of French films.
Then last year, she appeared alongside Dougray Scott in Xavier Gens’ film Hitman.
From there, she landed the role of Camille, a morally ambiguous Russian-Bolivian agent, in Quantum Of Solace, beating off a string of A-list Hollywood actresses. Not that Olga is allowing herself to get carried away in all the hype.
She said: “I’d rather not talk about that because who knows? I have a few projects that may happen, but until it’s definite I don’t like to say in case it doesn’t work out.”
Unsurprisingly, Olga says she reckons Daniel Craig is the best Bond ever, saying she thinks he suits the part perfectly and is a great actor.
She even reckons nude scenes alongside 007 were a breeze.
She said: “The sex scenes are OK, I can handle it. I’m used to it. I’ve done a lot of modeling and I’ve done naked scenes a few times before.
“There’s nothing to be anxious about. If other people don’t make a big deal about it, then you won’t feel uncomfortable.
“My mother taught me that there is nothing to laugh at or be embarrassed about when it comes to the human body. We are all made in the same way.”
And Olga reckons acting is a much more honest way of earning her living than modelling ever was.
Although she still does the odd bit of pouting and posing for TV adverts and campaigns that appeal to her, Olga thinks acting is a far more truthful profession.
She said: “A modeling career is nothing to look for, there’s no research. It’s just a lie. It’s just pictures.
“You just get in front of the camera and smile, even if you don’t feel happy. So it’s a lie. It’s not you. It’s all fake.
“But you can’t lie in a movie. If you’re acting, you have to be involved.
“Even if you’re sad, the moment you play the person, if she’s happy you have to find the happiness somewhere. It’s a different thing. You have to be there. You can’t just be detached.”
It is just as well for Olga that her film career is taking off so spectacularly, as she reckons it’s time to quit the catwalk.
She said: “It’s coming to an end little by little. I don’t think I am too old to model as such.
“If I had nothing else to do, I could still get a lot of work as a model. I could work for at least seven years – until I was 35, easily.
“I see the girls now and there are some models even past age that and they still look great.
“There’s work for every age, so they need models that are older, too. That’s not a problem, but I’m done with it.
“I want to do something else and I want to have fun.
“I’m very impatient to do other things.” And annoyingly, Olga claims that she doesn’t do much in the way of work to keep her fabulous figure in shape – even admitting a penchant for hamburgers.
She said: “I’m so bad. I’m really lazy. But for the movie I’ve been going to the gym and training a lot.
“When it’s accessible, I’ll work out. But where I live in Paris, there’s no gym around me, so I don’t do it as a part of my normal life.
“There’s no way I’d take time to do it. Well, if I had a gym on my roof, maybe.
“My mum has a good figure, but you always have to maintain it. It’s always better when I work out.
“But I do love hamburgers. I’m always looking for a good burger.
“I like to eat everything, it’s just a matter of balance.”
source: dailyrecord.co.uk
September 5th, 2008
Sabina Johansson, a stunningly attractive 23-year-old Swedish model, has been swept up in the bust of Big Daddy Lou’s Hot Lap Dance Club on W. 38th Street in Manhattan where she allegedly worked as a house madam for a prostitution ring.
Prominent attorney Lou ‘Big Daddy’ Posner, was also arrested and charged with promoting prostitution at the club, according to court records.
Johansson, who has appeared in an Avril Lavigne music video and on the Tyra Banks Show, was arrested July 24, the NY Daily News reports. Her arrest raises new concerns over how young fashion models can fall into lines of work that exploit their looks and vulnerability.
On June 28, Russian model Ruslana Korshunova, 20, fell to her death from her Manhattan apartment amid a swirl of rumors that she was involved in a vicious ring that exploited young foreign models. Her death was officially ruled a suicide.
Johansson has denied knowing about the sex-for-sale activities going on in the private rooms of the club, but investigators say she was in on the business.
NYPD vice unit officers posing as patrons claim Johansson greeted them at the club and hinted they could expect sex from lap dancers if the price was right. “Defendant told [the undercover officer] that she was aware prostitution activity was going on at the club in its private rooms,” according to court records.
One undercover officer claimed prostitution was widespread. “On each occasion, he received offers from scantily clad female lap dancers working at the club to engage in sexual conduct, including intercourse, in exchange for money in the private rooms of the club,” court records say.
As the house mom, Johansson allegedly collected nightly fees of up to $80 from the club’s 120 dancers, scheduled shifts and rented out the private rooms and suites, prosecutors claim. Johansson could not be reached for comment.
A grand jury is hearing evidence in the case and could indict Posner and others as early as next week.
source: theimproper.com
July 30th, 2008
Police are investigating the alleged rape of a model who believes her drink was spiked at a Park Lane nightclub popular with young royals.
The 18-year-old says she felt dizzy and disorientated and was led down to the cellar area of the Whisky Mist club at the Hilton Hotel where the attack took place.
She claims a 23-year-old man she had met previously at the club gave her the Rohypnolstyle ‘date rape’ drug before sexually assaulting her.
She went to the police the next day and the man was arrested later that day by officers from Westminster’s Operation Sapphire unit which specialises in rape cases. He was bailed to return later this month pending further enquiries.
The model, who is a regular at top designers’ shows in London, New York, Milan and Paris, said the alleged rape happened when she went to the club last Wednesday evening.
A close friend said: ‘She was having a drink at the bar and enjoying herself. She was also given a drink by the guy she says went on to rape her. Then she suddenly felt dizzy and disorientated.
‘She has a hazy memory of what happened but is convinced she was spiked with some kind of drug
A close friend said: ‘She was having a drink at the bar and enjoying herself. She was also given a drink by the guy she says went on to rape her. Then she suddenly felt dizzy and disorientated.
‘She has a hazy memory of what happened but is convinced she was spiked with some kind of drug.
‘She was then led downstairs into the cellar area where wine and drinks are stored and says she was raped.
‘After that she remembers coming upstairs in the club and realising something dreadful had happened.’
The friend added: ‘She is in pieces. She can’t stop crying and is frightened of every shadow.’
CCTV has been taken from Whisky Mist, which only opened a month ago.
Last night, a club worker said: ‘The police investigation could be really damaging to the reputation of the club. We are co-operating fully.’
A spokeswoman for Whisky Mist said today: ‘The matter is being investigated and we cannot comment any further at this time.’
Whisky Mist, owned by the people behind Mahiki, another popular royal haunt, already boasts Prince Harry, girlfriend Chelsy Davy and Princess Beatrice as regulars.
Prince William’s girlfriend Kate Middleton was photographed leaving the club after the Nelson Mandela 90th birthday concert 12 days ago.
Other celebrities spotted at Whisky Mist include Guy Ritchie and US singer Kid Rock, who cancelled his appearance at the Download Festival last month after he allegedly attended a late-night event at the bar.
source: dailymail.co.uk
July 9th, 2008
Aspiring Canadian model Diana Gabrielle O’Brien’s body was found stabbed and fully clothed, according to a CBC report quoting her longtime boyfriend.
Joel Berry, 32, told CBC he had obtained the information second-hand from a source that wasn’t disclosed.
On Sunday, O’Brien’s roommate Charlotte Wood found her body in the stairwell of the apartment picked out for the two B.C. models by the Jh Model Agency.
It was previously reported that the apartment was in a safe neighbourhood in Shanghai, but Agence France Presse reported the apartment was near one of Shanghai’s red light districts.
O’Brien’s boyfriend, Berry, said Tuesday Chinese authorities reported the apartment was ransacked.
“Everything had been stolen from the apartment – all their cameras and laptops,” said Berry, 32, in an interview with Canwest News Service.
“They may have some surveillance videos of the culprit. Maybe somebody had seen her and followed her home. I don’t know if she answered the door to someone. I don’t know those details.”
All of the information about O’Brien’s death has come from her father, Michael. However, reached Tuesday at his Regina home, the grieving father said he didn’t want to discuss the case with reporters.
He said he learned of his daughter’s death early Monday, and the Foreign Affairs office in Ottawa has been keeping him up to date on the investigation.
“I have all the information available up to this point,” said the grieving father.
Michael said he’s waiting to learn more about the death of his daughter before he heads to the B.C. coast, where she was raised, to grieve with O’Brien’s friends and family.
“She was a beautiful, innocent and loving girl, and she was just pursuing her dreams and her career. She wasn’t involved in anything that was untoward at all,” said Michael.
He said he wasn’t sure when his daughter’s body would be returned to Canada. “Sooner, I hope, than later, but there isn’t really any indication at this point when we’ll have Diana back.”
O’Brien’s death was a tragic turn to a life that seemed on a path to success. The 22 year-old model thought she was on the verge of making it big. Fresh from a coveted contract to model in Italy – something that doesn’t happen every day for a woman from tiny Saltspring Island in B.C. – O’Brien decided to try advancing her career another step by working in Shanghai.
“She had such a great time in Milan that she had the confidence and courage to go to Shanghai,” said Zoltan Kodaly, one of O’Brien’s best friends. “If Milan didn’t go so well, it’s tough to say whether she would’ve gone through with it.”
But working in China wasn’t the star-studded dream O’Brien thought it would be. And only about two weeks into her three-month contract with Jh Model Agency, O’Brien was found dead, possibly the victim of a botched break-and-enter.
Days before her suspected murder, O’Brien complained to her friends about the type of assignments she was getting in Shanghai. Many models here are hired for club and restaurant openings or product launches, where their job is to decorate the scene.
It’s not unusual for them to be sent to dancing jobs as well – the type of work O’Brien was doing for the Chinese agency, friends said. She was told to dance in long, flowing robes, said friend Melanie Callas.
“It wasn’t provocative. She could dance however she wanted, but it was sort of odd,” said Callas.
O’Brien was getting homesick, and had decided to return to Canada on July 24 or 25. She wanted to be back in Saltspring Island at the home she shared with her boyfriend.
The day before her death, O’Brien was assigned to work in Kunming, Yunnan, a city near the Chinese border with Vietnam. She was to stay over the weekend. She left her apartment Saturday, but didn’t make it out of Shanghai.
One of O’Brien’s last acts was to update her Facebook page: “Diana is missing her other half,” she wrote.
The mystery surrounding her death continues to grow.
Laura and Barbara Coultish from the Barbara Coultish Agency, which represented O’Brien, said they’ve had a working relationship with Jh Model.
“Our agency has maintained an excellent rapport with the owner and bookers at Jh Model,” said a statement from the agency. “Jh Model has been professional to work with and have secured legitimate modelling assignments for our models including Chinese Vogue, an advertisement for Maybelline, fashion shows and promotional work.
Jh Model escorts their models to each casting and assignment they are booked for. However, models are not accompanied on their personal free time.
“We have not been told all of the details of this tragedy however we do know that she was not working at the time,” said the statement. “Details of the incident must be issued by her family as they are the ones notified by the authorities.”
On Tuesday, the website of the Jh Model Agency was not accessible. Earlier, however, the site featured pictures of dozens of Chinese and international models, calling the company one of China’s top agencies.
The main page featured a model’s photo and the name of Canadian supermodel Daria Werbowy. However, an unidentified spokeswoman for New York-based IMG, the agency that represents Werbowy, said she had “never worked for a Shanghai agency” and the picture was likely used without permission.
There was no answer Tuesday at either of the phone numbers listed for the Chinese agency, and a visit to the rundown building where the modelling agency was supposed to be located proved puzzling. A young man who answered the door said he was a wedding photographer who had moved in a month ago, adding he knew nothing about a modelling agency.
But his neighbours in the down-market building told a different story. They said four people worked out of the office and that it was, in fact, a modelling agency. One neighbour said she rode in the elevator just last week with two Western models.
A second address listed for the modelling agency, an office at another rundown apartment complex, was closed and nobody answered the bell.
The news shocked the close-knit community of Saltspring.
“Fifty people stopped by the house yesterday. It was a tough day,” Berry said. “We’re all in a state of shock. She was a special girl to a lot of people’s hearts over here.”
Friends on Saltspring say the uncertainty over what happened to O’Brien makes her death particularly difficult.
“I want answers, definitely,” said Jada-lee Watson, who became friends with O’Brien through work done at her island clothing company. “When anything happens in a small community, it touches everyone in a different way. It’s a healing process that’s going to take a long time.”
Watson said O’Brien was “radiant” and easy to connect with. “She just touched people. It was the twinkle in her eye, and she was a gentle soul.”
Clarissa Connell, director of the Fulcher agency in Toronto, said Asia is considered a “developmental market,” where young models can go to launch their careers.
“Asia is a good starting ground to build their (portfolio) books,” she said. “There is lots of work, a lot of it legitimate promotional work like in clubs, in malls or hostess jobs.”
Her 48-year-old agency represents 250 models, who are regularly sent overseas to Japan, Australia, Spain and Germany. Only a handful have had problems.
Connell said she has not sent any to China because of the country’s “unstable politics.”
“The models are really young, and sometimes they sneak out at night, go out. But as an agency, you have to know what kind of models you are dealing with,” she said.
“There’s only a certain amount of control that we can have. Any models who travel are told to use common sense.”
She said her agency makes models research laws and customs of the country to which they are travelling.
Most Canadian model agencies also remain in close contact with the international agencies to which they send their models, to help ensure the model’s safety in a foreign country, she added.
Other modelling agencies dismissed concerns about dangerous conditions in Shanghai.
“It’s just another Asian market,” said Charles Stuart, who runs Faces West modelling agency and hosts the annual International Model & Talent Convention in Vancouver.
“There’s no more pitfalls than in any other market. The models are usually chaperoned and have drivers driving them around, although they have their own time in their evenings. You can’t have anyone watching them 24 hours a day.”
The suspicious death of a foreigner is a rare happening in China.
News of O’Brien’s death would be particularly unwelcome to authorities at this time, less than a month before the Olympics are set to open. China is expecting to welcome up to 500,000 visitors from around the world and the slightest hint they might not be safe could have an impact. Already, travel experts have speculated that the earthquake and the riots in Tibet last March might affect the number of Olympic visitors.
But not a word about O’Brien has filtered into the official Chinese media.
If it were revealed, it would be big news, particularly in Shanghai.
Some Mandarin-language website have noted the story, but they picked up the reports from Canadian newspapers and translated them.
source: canada.com
July 8th, 2008
An Australian magazine is being investigated after photographing a 16-year-old girl topless in two fashion shoots.
Russh Australia, a lifestyle and fashion magazine, hired Zippora Seven for a provocative 18-page editorial fashion spread alongside 16-year-old male model Levi Clarke.
Shot in March, one of the images depicts the pair sharing a bubble bath nude with Seven topless and Clarke’s eyes closed as if he is passed out.
In the foreground are four bottles of champagne.
The Classifications Act prohibits the depiction of nudity and sexual activity of minors under 18.
A spokesperson for the Australian Classification Board said: “I can advise that the board has contacted the publisher of Russh Australia.”
Seven’s Australian agent, Priscilla Leighton-Clark, said the photo shoot had gone too far.
“It’s wrong that our girl has appeared in a magazine exposing her breasts when she’s so young,” Ms Leighton-Clark said.
Russh editor Natalie Shukur defended the Seven shoot, which was inspired by supermodel Kate Moss and actor Johnny Depp when they dated.
“We believe Russh readers ‘get it’ in this narrative story,” she said.
“These are beautiful images of two young people in character.”
Russh is marketed towards fashion-minded 18 to 35-year-olds with almost equal readership of males and females.
In a brief interview with Seven, the magazine asked, “When and where was your first kiss?”
“My first lick was in the bubble bath with Levi,” she answered.
Seven lives in Auckland, New Zealand, but is in demand in Australia and has been shot locally for Vogue and Oyster magazines.
It was her second shoot with Russh this year. She appeared in the March issue topless while riding a horse.
In NZ, Seven is represented by Red11 agency and her mother, Ursula, is heavily involved in her career.
In Australia, she is represented by Priscilla’s Model Management, an agency that has a long-standing reputation for being extremely protective of its models.
“I can’t be on every shoot,” Ms Leighton-Clark said. “Had I known it was to be a topless shoot, (Seven) would never have done it.”
May 12th, 2008
One of Jamaica’s leading models has offered insight into the disturbing racial discrimination holding back the careers of black models in the fashion industry, around the world.
Jamaica-based supermodel Gaye McDonald has spoken out about racism in the fashion industry, and revealed how Paris casting agents “drop black girls like they’re hot.”
The eighteen-year-old, who took the world by storm with her striking looks after winning Caribbean’s Next Top Model, has spoken out about the lack of black faces on catwalks.
McDonald is one of the few fortunate black models to have featured during London, Paris, and New York Fashion Weeks this year.
Speaking exclusively to The Voice while on a modeling casting trip in the UK, McDonald said: “The world is not white, so why should catwalks only feature white models?”
She added: “I’m often the only black girl when I go to castings, which is horrible because everyone looks at you as if you are so different. But I have learnt to make my experience empower me.”
The 5′9” stunner with flawless skin is the new face of United Colors of Benetton.
“I count my lucky Jamaican stars that I have been successful within my modeling career, but from what I can tell, black girls don’t get picked and it’s not because they are not good enough. It’s down to racism,” she said.
McDonald, who is signed to Next modelling agency, is not the first model to speak out about the lack of black faces on the catwalk.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell has consistently been vocal on the matter by criticising magazine editors.“Black models are being sidelined by the major modeling agencies,” Campbell once stated.
Five years after her last cover for British Vogue, Campbell highlighted the racial inequality within the fashion industry and the media.
“I even get a raw deal from my own country. For example, I hardly come on the front pages of London’s Vogue magazine,” she said.
“Only white models, some of whom are not as prominent as I am, are put on the front pages.”
The 37-year-old is contemplating setting up her own modelling agency in Kenya to redress the balance.
“I don’t want to quit modelling until I find that black models get equal prominence and recognition by the world media and information instruments,” Campbell said.
“Women of colour are not a trend.”
This new debate has overshadowed the ‘size zero’ furore, which questioned the promotion and relevance of extremely thin models.
Fashion insiders claim there are now fewer black models seen on ramps and in fashion magazines than there were in the 1990s.
Of the 100 plus shows and presentations held during the 2007/08 fashion weeks in London, Paris, Milan and New York, more than a third did not feature any black models.
Elite Model Management, which discovered Naomi Campbell, has only two black models. Its Paris agency says there is not enough work for more black models because people do not like to see black women.
Echoing Elite’s comment, McDonald, who has strutted her stuff for designer collections such as Diesel, Heatherette, Diane Von Furstenburg, Marc Bouwer, and Mary Ping, stated:
“Paris is the worst place to go for castings. Even though you can have a strong walk and look they will never chose you because they don’t like black girls.
“It makes you feel very uncomfortable and you begin to question yourself as to say ‘what’s wrong with me?
“But, I have to always remember where I’m coming from in order to feel proud about myself, despite being rejected due to the colour of my skin.”
Carole White, co-founder of Premier Model Management, which supplies models to top fashion brands, admitted that finding work for black clients was significantly harder than for the white models, because both magazines and fashion designers were reluctant to employ them.
“Sadly we are in the business where you stock your shelves with what sells,” she said.
“Black models don’t sell. People don’t tend to talk about it, but black models have to be so beautiful and perfect because we can’t have a lot of diversity with black models.”
She added: “It’s harder work for the agency because there’s not so much on offer. White models can have more diversity.”
The co-founder of Acclaim Models, Maya Schulz, agrees with White’s views and points the finger at those organising model castings.
“I have had endless casting briefs which say ‘no ethnics’, which in my view is blatant racism,” Schulz said.
“When putting forward my models for casting for London Fashion Week this year, my business partner and I were told over and over again that designers were not looking to use black or Asian models.
“I have been told outright by a designer, ‘please do not send me any black models as they do not suit my clothes’. I have also been told that black models do not know how to carry themselves in a high fashion manner, which is utter rubbish.
“We all know how elegant and graceful Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell and Alex Wek are.”
Continuing Schulz said: “Signed to my books is Sarah Butler and Jasmia Robinson who became household names after featuring on Britain’s Next Top Model. Unfortunately, Sarah and Jasmia have both experienced racism, especially Jasmia.
“Jasmia is known for her amazing features and walk on the runway, but is often told that her hair and features are ‘too Afro’, meaning African.”
She added: “When Jasmia attended a casting for London Fashion Week February gone, we were told by a very famous designer that she looks like a monkey.”
Speaking to The Voice about the racist comments, Robinson said: “I felt sick. How can someone say I look like a monkey?”
The 20-year-old mixed race beauty added: “This is the typical type of racism that black and mixed race girls like myself often experience and it’s wrong.
“Fashion decision makers always say that black girls don’t sell their designs or products, but why don’t they prove it by putting it to the test? They won’t because their excuses are based on lies.”
However, one designer who is attempting to end the racial divide on the catwalk, and setting his own trends, is Gavin Douglas.
“The shortage of black models signed to modelling agencies is very obvious. Very rarely do I come across black models, which is why this year I went out of my way to seek and find,” said Douglas.
Douglas’ designs are exclusively sold in Harrods and he has dressed stars like Kelly Rowland from Destiny’s Child.
“There should not be a colour issue within the fashion industry because designers like myself dress the world’s population, which should be reflected on the catwalk,” he said.
“The fact that the fashion industry does not have a fair cultural and racial representation on the catwalk, magazines and on billboards raises serious societal problems that need to be addressed immediately.”
Another designer blasting the fashion industry is Katharine Hamnett, who told The Voice: “The catwalks are full of white dogs. Cosmetic companies don’t like black models – the racist bitches.
“I have no idea why, when it’s obvious that black girls are just so genuinely much more beautiful than Caucasians, who have clearly got the short straw.
“Black girls have much better body shapes and it’s such a shame. I just think there should be a bit more of a balance.”
While the debate about the lack of black models in today’s industry grows, The Voice is challenging the fashion racial status quo by organising a black model search in conjunction with Select Model Management – The SUPLIGEN® Brand Nu Model 2008.
Are you the next Gayle, Naomi, or Tyson Beckford?
March 29th, 2008
Previous Posts
