Model Lilah Parsons exposed the ugly side of fashion on Twitter this week. While diversity has long been a problem of the industry few casting agents, brands or model bookers are willing to admit the real depth of the problem. Parsons, who is a television presenter has worked for labels like Chanel and Vivienne Westwood, tweeted a screenshot from a 2011 casting call that asked for: ‘All hair lengths and colours no afro’. A second image revealed that another casting call echoed this saying, ‘Hair Type: All except afro’.
Lilah prefaced the social media blast saying, ‘When I started modelling, casting requests frequently contained comments like this - I hope times have changed..’. The tweet was sent out in response to Leomie Anderson’s article in Elle that was a letter to her 15-year-old self about her teen beauty struggles as a woman of colour. All Elle has said in response was just, ‘wow. That’s…wow.’
While fashion has come on miles in the last few years with more people of colour walking in last season’s collections than ever before and with an increase in the number of beauty brands catering to a range of skin tones, this tweet shows there is still a lot of work to be done.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.