Fashion has a long way to go

Everyone knows about my obsession with all things fashion. Vogue is my Bible and Anna Wintour is one of my idols. I keep up with the shows, trends, designers, etc. I have my favorites, as does everyone. Today, I was looking at the Menswear Spring 2011 looks from shows taking place in Milan. I can't speak for others but I never look at the models. For the most part runway models are just hangers, in my opinion. They are there to make the clothes shine and are therefore secondary. Ofcourse, I have my favorite models, too. But anyway, as I was looking through collections from Armani, Prada, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, I realized that there is very little color in the industry. And I don't understand why. There were a few black models, one or 2 Asians, and no Indians. The rest were white. There just isn't a good explanation for this. In an industry that claims designers from all over the world, it doesn't make sense that there is no diversity in the models. We have Marc Jacobs (USA), Giorgio Armani (Italy), Nicolas Ghesquiere (France), Prabal Gurung (Nepal), Bibhu Mohapatra (India), Dries van Noten (Belgium), Francisco Costa (Brazil), Alber Elbaz (Israel), Alexander McQueen (England), Carolina Herrera (Venezuela), and so many others. Even more ironic is the fact that when you look at the collections of today's designers, one can see the influence of the East. African prints, Indian jewelry, and Russian furs are all being modeled by the same white faces. Steps need to be taken by the so-called "foreign" designers themselves. Why won't an Italian company such as Armani use Italian models? There are gorgeous, talented models in India. Why are they not being considered for NY Fashion Week? It is unfair and disheartening that very little progress has been made in this issue. Lets hope that as the world races on, the fashion world isn't left behind.