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Naomi Campbell, the supermodel who was catapulted into the international fashion world after appearing on the cover of Vogue aged 17, has accused magazines of "sidelining black beauty".
Campbell, now 37, said she was so dismayed by the dearth of black models appearing on the front of glossy magazines that, two decades after her Vogue debut, she was planning to set up an agency in Kenya to redress the imbalance.
Her words put the fashion world under new scrutiny yesterday with allegations of 'institutional racism' emerging from some figures inside the industry.
Campbell, who was born and raised in South London, became one of the fashion industry's most famous faces in the 1990s and appeared on the front of British Vogue seven times following her debut shoot in 1987.
But since she appeared on its front cover in August 2002, no other black model has been similarly promoted.
Speaking during a trip to Nairobi, Campbell said: "Black models are being sidelined by the major modelling agencies. It is a pity that people don't appreciate black beauty.
"Even myself, I get a raw deal from my own country in England. For example, I hardly come on the front pages of the London Vogue magazine.
Only white models, some of whom are not as prominent as I am, are put on splash pages, I don't want to quit modelling until I find that black models get equal prominence and recognition by the world media and information instruments," she said.
Adenike Adenitire, editor of the women's supplement for New Nation, a newspaper for Britain's black community, said she felt models with light skin were more likely to advance their careers.
In 2005, the singer Beyonce Knowles was caught up in a controversy after appearing on the front cover of Vanity Fair, when some accused the magazine of airbrushing the image to make her skin appear lighter, an allegation that Vanity Fair vehemently denied.
Ms Adenitire said: "I would say a lot of black girls do not get certain breaks, not because they are not great models but because they are black.
"You don't really see black models on the front covers of mainstream magazines in Britain, especially darker skinned models. You may see women like Jamelia or Halle Berry but it's because they are big names.
"Also, you notice that the black models you do see tend to have lighter skins and features that are less ethnic, more Anglicised. It is far more common to see black faces on front covers in America and women who have very ethnic features," she said.
Anya James, a 20-year-old black model from London and a former contestant on Channel Five's reality show, Make me a Supermodel, said Campbell's words "ring so many truths."
She felt she had to try harder than her non-black counterparts during assignments.
"From my experience as a black model, I have to work ten times as hard. For example, at castings, I make sure I look 110 per cent and that I'm on my best form. You hardly ever see a black model in the public eye, but no-one seems to be speaking up about this imbalance," she said.
Ms James said she belonged to a modelling agency in which she was among two black faces out of around 50 models.
"It's not the fault of the agencies that there are so few black models on their books. It's just a response to what the industry demands," she said.
She added that she had been on shoots where professionals did not have the appropriate make-up for her skin tone and where she had felt that she was the "token" black face on the assignment.
Meanwhile, Select Model Management, owned by Tandy Anderson who features among the top 50 of the most influential black businesswomen in a power list published by New Nation next week, said it was "always on the look out for black models."
A statement added that the agency was currently in the middle of a nationwide search for an African Caribbean face.
A statement added: "We have some very successful black models on our books such as Nadine Willis, who was the first black girl to get a Gucci contract. Nell Robinson, another of our top black models has appeared in campaigns for Victoria's Secret and Rimmel and is currently shooting for H&M."
- INDEPENDENT
