Diversity Rules! Part 1: Ford
I have addressed the industry by having town hall meetings, gaining international media support, even naming those who lack the sense of responsibility of incorporating models of color. And after being given the CFDA’s Founders Award in June 2014 for upfront confrontation and determination to change how things are done and seen, still we lag at where we should be as an industry.
Surely there has been some improvement.
Where there is clear improvement over the years…are the model agencies. They have improved their inclusion of the model of color and continue to seek those beauties.
So I decided, instead of looking at what and where it isn’t happening (for now), to show where it continues to grow. There are agencies with far more ethnic models than others, but there are many still open to growth.
I decided to reflect what I saw here with the support of Models.com and the model agencies.
I start with FORD who reached out to me to say, look at our efforts. I knew then it had to be an ongoing series…to include all that are making that same effort.
It was truly my pleasure and pride, to see and meet the models that I selected to represent their agencies and to link the others the agency represented as well.
No doubt, it’s a beautiful movement.”
Edited by Bethann Hardison
Photos by Hans Neumann (De Facto) for Models.com
Hair: Andre Gunn
Makeup: Tracy Alfajora
Retoucher: Tatiana Chebotareva
Bethann Hardison portrait by Hans Neumann for Models.com
Video interviews by Bethann Hardison
Art direction: Stephan Moskovic
Video editing: Andrea Fumagalli @ Blue Barn Pictures
Producer: Jazmin Alvarez
Obsessed with Kayla
Yes that are some very beautiful girls!
LOVELY!
I want to be a model doing it…
Khadija Otero looks so interesting!! why no video for Ting Gong?
Absolutely stunning ladies. England is still so far behind!
This is amazing and this woman is an inspiration.
What an exciting time to be apart of this industry.
What an amazingly beautiful group of women. Simply superb choices. I agree with what Jessica Fresh says.
That girl from Dominican Republic is gorgeous !! Bethany is perfection.
Kayla is cool stuff. Love her!
Love ting gong and sara marie – true standout 🙂 since we are talkng about diversity, the casting director of this post should’ve included even just 1 of the 3 filipino models on the “ford women” board. They are the only filipina girls who represent the filipino race in the highfashion world since Anna Bayle. They deserve much attention just like the other ethnicities in this post, knowing that they are the so-called minority in the Western fashion. Hopefully, the mdc team would include Sherita Dehon if a post regarding this will be made about DNA models.
http://www.blessthemodels.com
This is a great movement. But there is a problem, Hispanic beauty is not represented in Fashion, Runway, Editorials. I want to say I got rejected from Ford Models Chicago because of racial discrimination toward wanting to represent Guatemala as a male. I want this to change, I want Hispanic men and woman to be involved In the Fashion world, Runway, Editorials. Also guys have to be given a chance to at least Model if their height is of 5’8 tall like a girl so there is EQUALITY
Yesss Bethann!! This movement is soo needed. NYFW was sooooo incredibly white and I do not even recall seeing any of these models and its terribly sad. I am so glad Bethann is still pushing for this because there is soo much work to be done.