Try to name a fashion show Lineisy Montero wasn’t in this season? Go on, we dare you! You’ll be hard pushed to think of one, as the Dominican beauty and her perfect afro graced all the hottest runways from New York to London, Milan and Paris.
Montero racked up 68 shows in total, opening five and closing one, taking in Givenchy, Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs in New York, J.W. Anderson, Versus, Giles and Burberry in London, Prada, Versace, Moschino and Marni in Milan, and literally everything in Paris: Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Balmain, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Dries, Loewe, Chloé, Céline — the list goes on.
Although Lineisy’s success must be celebrated, it is sadly not part of a wider trend for more black models on the catwalks generally. The next most successful black catwalk model this season was Binx Walton, who walked in 37 shows, just over half the number Lineisy appeared in, losing out to a number of white models whose names are not well-known internationally, as well as handful of other industry favorites including Greta Varlese (62), Maartje Verhoef (57), Kiki Willems (42), Mica Arganaraz (42) and Lexi Boling (37).
Though many black models have emerged in the international circuit — including i-D favorites Aya Jones (28) and Aamito Lagum (27), Tami Williams (27), i-D cover star Karly Loyce (25) and Ysaunny Brito (25) — they aren’t being cast in huge numbers of shows. Diversity campaigner Bethann Hardison suggested in an opinion piece on this issue today that this is possibly because the top black models are only being shown to the most high profile fashion houses, meaning that many designers who want to increase the diversity on their catwalks are not being given the option to.
Credits
Text Charlotte Gush
Photography Jason Lloyd Evans