Diversity Rules! Part 5: Next NY
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.
We are continuing our series with Next NY.
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 Steven Yatsko for Models.com
Hair: Martin Christopher Harper
Makeup: Munemi Imai
Bethann Hardison portrait by Hans Neumann (De Facto) for Models.com
Video interviews by Bethann Hardison
Art direction: Stephan Moskovic
Video: Blue Barn Pictures
Producer: Jazmin Alvarez
DALIANAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This girls are AMAZING!!!!
Stunning looks, Shu Pei looks incredible!!
The girls from Next are great. I miss Juliana Imai, a brazilian/japanese model who is with Next Miami and is a big name among the ethnic collors model.
Beautiful girls. NEXT, so far, seems to have the best “diversity”. The other agencies should take a page from their book.
I love Sharam, and Yuan has an incredible face
Enjoyed your article. My daughter is finding an interest in modeling. She’s 5’9″ and 12yrs old.
It’s great to see diversity more today than ever. I love that.
oh, stop lying to yourself, modelsdotcom and all the agencies. Have a look at the top list of runway 15/16. White models still got booked way more often.
Well yes artspeak, that is exactly the point of doing this series.