The Seoul Shinmun reports on a story from The New York Times, which focused on the sudden lack of black models on the runways of high fashion, except for one biracial Black-Korean woman:

한국계 흑인인 신예 모델 샤넬 이만 로빈슨(17)이 백인모델들로 패션쇼 무대가 채워지고 있는 기현상에 일침을 놓았다. 뉴욕타임스는 14일(현지시간) 패션업계의 흑인모델 배제 현상이 극에 달했다면서 로빈슨의 발언을 전했다.

미 국 애틀랜타 출신인 그녀는 한국계 혼혈인 어머니와 흑인 아버지 사이에서 태어난 잘 나가는 10대 모델이다.DKNY, 돌체&가바나, 에르메스 등 내노라 하는 디자이너 쇼무대에 섰고 세계적인 모델전문 사이트 모델스닷컴(www.models.com)에 이름을 올리기도 했다. [원기사를 꼭 일으시죠!]

[그리고 또 YTN 보도도 있어요. ]

The NYT reports:

Although black women in the United States spend more than $20 billion on apparel each year, according to estimates by TargetMarketNews.com, it was hard to discern an awareness of this fact on the part of designers showing in New York, where black faces were more absent from runways than they have been in years.

Of the 101 shows and presentations posted on Style.com during the New York runway season, which ended a month ago, more than a third employed no black models, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Most of the others used just one or two. When the fashion caravan moved to London, Paris and Milan, the most influential shows — from Prada to Jil Sander to Balenciaga to Chloé and Chanel — made it appear as if someone had hung out a sign reading: No Blacks Need Apply.

“It’s the worst it’s ever been,” said Bethann Hardison, a former model who went on to start a successful model agency in the 1980s that promoted racial diversity.

…Honorine Uwera, a young Canadian of Rwandan heritage, was hired during the New York season for just five runway shows.

While Ms. Uwera’s showing was respectable, it was not enough to justify the cost to her agency of sending her to Europe, where most modeling careers are solidified.

…the reality was that only one black model worked at anything like the frequency of her white counterparts: Chanel Iman Robinson, 17, who is African-American and Korean [pictured at the top of this post]. Particularly in Milan and Paris, Ms. Robinson’s was often the only nonwhite face amid a blizzard of Eastern European blondes. [Read the original article in its entirety!]

무슨 일이죠? 왜 흑인들이 90년대부터 잘 나가고 있었는데 갑자기 또 없어진 건가? 너무 많이 성공적으로 나가면 안 되는 건가? 패션세계는 흑인이 있는 걸 기겹나? 뉴욕타임즈 기사에 따라면 에이젠트들이 ‘디자이너의 탓이라’고 주장하며 디자이너한테 물어보면은 ‘백인 모델밖에 없어서 어쭐 수 없다’고 말하는 거예요.

핑계같은 말인 것같은데 요즘에 ‘앤드로이드 룩’ (로봇처럼 감정이 없는 모습)이 유행이래요. 어떻게 보면 아이스퀸처럼 생긴 아주 백인스러운 백인 스타일을 좋아하는 것같기도 하고. 근데 그렇게 백인이 우월주의적으로 보는 게 그냥 다른 말로 바로 ‘인종차별’아닌가?

What’s this all about? For all the progress that seemed to have been made in assuming a more prominent spot in the public eye, now blacks have suddenly disappeared again. Some cite a “preference” for a particular style or “look” that is in vogue these days, but isn’t that just another way of saying “we prefer whites”?

Indeed, blacks are not in Vogue:

There is something illustrative of the entire issue, and the state of the industry, to be found in this September’s Italian Vogue.

Just one image of a black model appears in the issue, midway through a 17-page article photographed by Miles Aldridge and titled the “Vagaries of Fashion.” In it, the glacial blond Anja Rubik portrays an indolent, overdressed Park Avenue princess with a gilded apartment, a couture wardrobe, two towhead children and a collection of heavy rocks. The sole black model in the pictorial is more modestly attired, in an aproned pinafore.

She plays the maid. [Read the original article!]

웃기는 사실이 있는데. 이번 달의 보그이탈리에서 흑인 모델이 딱 한 명이 노온대요. 가운데 17페이지 동안 나오는 금발머리 안야 루빅(Anja Rubik)이란 모델이 ‘파크 아벤뉴 공주’ 역할로 나오며 흑인 모델이랑 나온대요.

바로 청소부 역할로.

그런 역할에서 벗어나온 거아니냐? 휴. ㅊㅊㅊ