THE EXOTIC OTHER AND FASHION MAGAZINES

To different markets, different ideals are presented as exotic. For the majority of fashion destinations,  the blonde, caucasian model is viewed as the norm however in emerging economies such as China and the Middle east the pale skinned, fair haired model is viewed as an exotic presentation of women.

In western fashion advertising and promotion, such as campaigns, catwalks and promotional imagery, the use of white models heavily out weighs the number of black models featured. The first issue of Vogue was published in 1916, but it took until 1966 for the cover to feature a black model.

The first black cover star was Donyale Luna, however, her appearance on the cover featured her covering her face and sporting a western hairstyle. Despite equality, in fashion black and white models aren't equally printed, with  the most recent individual black cover star being Naomi Campbell in 2002, 12 years ago.

There has been campaigning to place Jourdan Dunn as a cover star, especially since her recent high profile industry position as a Burberry girl and Prada model. It appears though, that there is only one stand out black model per generation, despite the vast amount of successful black models currently working the runways and it's especially shocking when contrasted against the number of white 'it' models. For the last five decades, young women have only had Donyale Luna, Naomi Sims, Iman, Naomi Campbel and Jourdan Dunn as main sources of highly promoted black models.

In September 2013, Naomi Campbell, Iman and Bethann Hardison wrote an open letter asking for designers to reflect society more effectively and diversify their catwalks."No matter the intention, the result is racism. Not accepting another based on the colour of their skin is clearly beyond aesthetic."

There has been much anger towards British Vogue and their lack of diversified casting, with Carole White founder of Premier Model Management stating "I'm surprised that there has not been a black model on the cover of British Vogue for this amount of time as we are such a diverse country, but perhaps British Vogue think the calibre of black models are not out there?". Within the last 10 years of September Issue British Vogue, the biggest and best selling issue of each year, they have cast entirely white models with 50% of the covers featuring Kate Moss. The lack of diversity is echoed in the cover stars of September Issue American Vogue in the last 10 years, featuring one black cover star Halle Berry however she is wearing a westernised wig. This lack of black model representation is surprising since Vogue America appears in 1 in 3 households in the states.