If I were to tell you the girl seen to the right, Jasmine Tookes, was a Victoria's Secret model I doubt you would be very surprised. I will admit, you may be a bit taken aback because you are accustomed to seeing spray tanned girls with cascading blonde beach waves and light colored eyes in relation to Victoria's Secret. Now, what if I told you the girl featured on the runway photo below was the same girl? I found this stark contrast very shocking. It turns out Victoria Secret has historically struggled in the diversity area in general, nevertheless withholding whitewashing their very limited number of women of color. Even worse, I have read over and over these women who dream of becoming supermodels say they have been told during casting things along the lines of "we already have a black girl, we don't need another."
People questioning the lack in representation of color has been ongoing for at least half a decade now. I found an article from 5 years ago asking where the black women were in relation to the Victoria's Secret fashion show of 2011. The author stated "Puerto Rican and black model Joan Smalls and Brazilian beauty Lais Ribeiro added color to the show but beyond that, the scene was a sea of blondes." If you notice the casting of the current angels you can see the cast is slowly showing more diversity but the majority of models are still light-skinned.
My question is:
Why is the fashion industry having such a tough time embracing the beauty of dark skin models?
When speaking of beautiful black models we cannot forget about Tyra Banks who was the first black women to appear in GQ, Sports Illustrated, as well as the Victoria's Secret catalog and runway.
A quick Tyra bio is found below:
Personally, Tyra has always been my role model. I've watched every one of her America's Next Top Model seasons as well as all her talk show episodes. Two episodes that came to mind when doing my research on colorism were the following which speak on the struggle these two women have faced in loving who they are despite not always being satisfied with the color of their skin:
These short clips break my heart. These gorgeous women are underrepresented and therefore feel like outcasts. The woman in the first video admits to burning her face by attempting to use cleaning bleach to lighten her skin. Even more devastating is how she states the people who say not to bleach your skin because it is unhealthy do not understand the underlying factors that lead to that severe point of desperation. As a supermodel, Tyra has also had to deal with having her skin edited to be considered attractive to the public eye, which she discussed on her talk show.
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| These photos put together of Tyra Banks shows the extremes of skin color editing |
In the second video above I can only imagine how hard it would be to be consistently asked "why are you so dark?" That really is a question that does not need to be asked. She cannot change it, it is the way she is, so uttering those words only dishearten her more. It makes me so sad when she says "if I were light skinned would my life be different?" It disgusts me when she says people would say she was only such a fast runner because she became accustom to being chased by lions.
I love when Tyra says it is imperative for the media to represent all kinds of beauty because young girls who resemble those represented will look up to them and think "I am beautiful." I believe not only would the women like the ones represented in these videos feel more accepted if more dark skinned women of color were prevalent in the media, but also, the terrible people who have made them feel so bad about themselves would most likely not think of them as such outsiders if they too saw more representation of people like these women in their everyday life.
The video below is a bit long but combines different episodes of the Tyra Show that have started a discussion in attempt to deal with the colorism epidemic.
Leomie Anderson, seen below, also spoke on the phenomena in this article. She said in an interview with the BBC, she feels that there has been a lot of improvement in the industry with the use of black models, but she would definitely say that it has a long way to go - especially with regards to shade. 44 models walked the VS runway in 2015, and only eight were black, counting Anderson.
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| Shown above is Victoria's Secret model Leomie Anderson |
2015 also marked the first year that a model wore her natural hair on the runway. Maria Borges (seen in the video below) had worn fake hair for the fashion show in the past but decided to rock her natural look this year and received a lot of praise for doing so. People in 200 countries watch the Victoria Secret fashion show each year. Isn't it time to start expanding the marketing campaign of the brand? I feel as though internet users becoming so excited about this deference from the norm shows that the customer is ready for change. We want to see people that represent the range of people who buy the VS products.
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| Leomie Anderson and Maria Borges, as well as two other dark skinned beauties, backstage at the VS fashion show |
While dark skinned women are making a slow progress towards acceptance in the mainstream, Huffington Post mentions that there has yet to be an Asian Victoria Secret angel chosen. We have at least seen some Asian representation starting at the 2009 fashion show with Liu Wen.
I find the argument of colorism interesting when it comes to Asian women in the VS fashion shows because a lot of the other girls who are not of Asian descent share similar skin tones, however we see Asian girls are just as much a minority, if not more, on the runway as the dark skinned beauties which makes me suspect those in charge of casting would favor the blond of the similar tone of skin. Looking at the photos of the Asian girls who have been cast you can see there seems to be a preference for lighter skin. I do not believe it is only Victoria Secret that is favoring light-skinned more all-American look girls but rather the entire fashion industry, whether consciously or not, which is making it hard for those who have done the same amount of work, but are women of color, receive the same amount of recognition.
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| In 2009, Liu Wen became the first Asian beauty to walk the infamous runway |
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| Model Shu Pei Qin during the 2012 VS fashion show |
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| Model Sui He during the 2013 VS fashion show |
Shu Pei Qin has done more than her fair share of work in the industry yet somehow is still less represented than her blond counterparts like Candice Swanepoel. Sui He, is another notable VS model that not many people seem to talk about, despite her being a 5 year veteran of the VS fashion show.
We also cannot forget about the beauty Ming XI who has walked for many major designers, like Chanel (upwards of a dozen times). I think Victoria's Secret should have made her an Angel right after the fashion show before they lost their chance!
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| Ming Xi who walked for VS in 2013 and 2014 |
Despite the Huffington Post article mentioned above which disagrees with this following statement, I think we need an Asian angel stat! I see the Huffington Post's point but I also know the majority of girls, regardless of race, wear bras and panties. Even if no one else sees them in their VS underwear, every girl deserves to feel confident and sexy. I do not believe any group should be over or underrepresented. I would like to even the playing field and create a beautiful set of diverse women not only for the 2017 fashion show and beyond but also the chosen angels for all the years to come.
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