Is Asian fashion biased towards lighter skin colour?
6th April, 2005
by Kalpana Mistry
Staff Writer
It's an open secret that the majority of Asian parents have a bias towards fairer skin. Is the same true for Asian fashion magazines in Britain?
Aside from the horror stories of girls applying dangerous chemicals to their skins, the image of a beautiful Asian girl as fair with coloured contact lenses and dark brown hair is constantly thrown at us. Surely Asian fashion publications are partly to blame for this?
AiM asked two writers who have been in the industry for years, and both say the problem lies with wider culture and society, coupled with a lack of professional Asian models.
Nilpa Bharadia is former acting editor of Asian Woman/Bride magazine and recently launched the Asian Bridal Look Book with her business partner Kiren. She says the decision to use European and Brazillian models for fashion shoots is never made lightly.
"The simple fact of the matter is that if we had a choice of an agency standard Asian model, i.e 5'10" plus, and a size 8 and with beautiful features, and a white model - we would cast the Asian girl everytime," shes says.
"It's not that the Asian girls that used to come through the door weren't beautiful, many were, and we made numerous exceptions on height etc. where possible. But unfortunately they were the exception to the rule."
Shihab Salim, editor-in-chief of Asiana magazine and previously also at Asian Woman, agrees that they are forced to call professional agencies.
"We use agency models because they are trained to understand the nature of photoshoots and do not have hang-ups about wearing revealing outfits or striking daring poses. Also, if the model acts in an unprofessional manner, the agency can be held accountable. No mainstream fashion magazine would dream of using a girl, however beautiful, that did not belong to a reputable fashion agency. Why should we be different?"
The need to use professional agency models is understandable. However, why are they still all very light-skinned? Do they not have darker-skinned models on their books?
Shihab says: "Agencies do not hire and train models only so they can appear in Asian magazines because, quite frankly, there aren't enough Asian magazines out there. So they tend to go for Asians who will also appeal to the mainstream market – especially ones carrying bronze beach look or Indian summer spreads. It's no secret that the mainstream fashion magazines aren't particularly keen on dark skinned models."
Because of the small size of the market, he admits, Asian fashion magazines have to take what they can from the agencies.
"Agencies aren't biased – they provide what sells. When they hire black models for cutting edge magazines such as i-D, you'll notice they are extremely black-skinned. Fashion works in extremes. It's a shallow industry and has never pretended to be anything but skin deep."
Nilpa, not surprisingly, concurs. "There are many people who know sisters, friends, daughters whom they believe are stunning. However modelling is a profession and not every stunning girl translates this talent onto film." Height and beauty she says are "basic skills" of any competent model, and fashion magazines have to start with that basic requirement.
Then of course there is the touching up of pictures that goes on - sometimes making the models whiter, taller or even thinner in some cases, than they are in reality.
"Most fashion pictures are colour adjusted to make sure the detail on clothing is more striking. Modeling the world over is all about chisel chinned, toned, thin, fair-skinned girls. We don't take ourselves so seriously that we believe we can change that," Shihab adds.
Not all Asian fashion magazines subscribe to that view, thankfully. Some do use non-professional models with a darker-tone, specially in India. But the British Asian market and the Indian fashion industry are worlds apart. Who has the budget to pay for professional Indian models to come to Britain for a shoot?
There is also a paradox at work. We may want a darker, chocolate-coloured sister on the front cover of a fashion magazine but do then buy that product? Certainly, the more successful fashion publications such as Asian Woman, Asiana and Look Book feature mostly light-skinned models.
Could it mean us girls vote with our wallets using our eyes and not our hearts? It seems as if it's become unfashionable to look Asian, as this writer says.
Is there any hope for the majority of us? Yes, according to both the editors.
"As far as our editorial content is concerned, we promote Asian women as a breed happy to be under the skin they are in. We want people to stop being prejudiced, face and change realities, higher their expectations and aspirations and be proud of who they are. That's a mission for the Asian community and we've taken on the challenge," Shihab Salim says.
But then adds: "The fashion world isn't ours to toy around with. If Vogue doesn't dare to mess with the basics, who are we?"
Asian Bridal Look Book
What do you think? Is it right? Is it expected? Do you vote with your eyes and not your hearts when buying fashion magazines? Email us with your comments. They may be published next week.
----------------------------
kalapna.mistry@asiansinmedia.org
Staff Writer
  |
Aside from the horror stories of girls applying dangerous chemicals to their skins, the image of a beautiful Asian girl as fair with coloured contact lenses and dark brown hair is constantly thrown at us. Surely Asian fashion publications are partly to blame for this?
AiM asked two writers who have been in the industry for years, and both say the problem lies with wider culture and society, coupled with a lack of professional Asian models.
Nilpa Bharadia is former acting editor of Asian Woman/Bride magazine and recently launched the Asian Bridal Look Book with her business partner Kiren. She says the decision to use European and Brazillian models for fashion shoots is never made lightly.
"The simple fact of the matter is that if we had a choice of an agency standard Asian model, i.e 5'10" plus, and a size 8 and with beautiful features, and a white model - we would cast the Asian girl everytime," shes says.
"It's not that the Asian girls that used to come through the door weren't beautiful, many were, and we made numerous exceptions on height etc. where possible. But unfortunately they were the exception to the rule."
Shihab Salim, editor-in-chief of Asiana magazine and previously also at Asian Woman, agrees that they are forced to call professional agencies.
"We use agency models because they are trained to understand the nature of photoshoots and do not have hang-ups about wearing revealing outfits or striking daring poses. Also, if the model acts in an unprofessional manner, the agency can be held accountable. No mainstream fashion magazine would dream of using a girl, however beautiful, that did not belong to a reputable fashion agency. Why should we be different?"
The need to use professional agency models is understandable. However, why are they still all very light-skinned? Do they not have darker-skinned models on their books?
Shihab says: "Agencies do not hire and train models only so they can appear in Asian magazines because, quite frankly, there aren't enough Asian magazines out there. So they tend to go for Asians who will also appeal to the mainstream market – especially ones carrying bronze beach look or Indian summer spreads. It's no secret that the mainstream fashion magazines aren't particularly keen on dark skinned models."
Because of the small size of the market, he admits, Asian fashion magazines have to take what they can from the agencies.
"Agencies aren't biased – they provide what sells. When they hire black models for cutting edge magazines such as i-D, you'll notice they are extremely black-skinned. Fashion works in extremes. It's a shallow industry and has never pretended to be anything but skin deep."
Nilpa, not surprisingly, concurs. "There are many people who know sisters, friends, daughters whom they believe are stunning. However modelling is a profession and not every stunning girl translates this talent onto film." Height and beauty she says are "basic skills" of any competent model, and fashion magazines have to start with that basic requirement.
Then of course there is the touching up of pictures that goes on - sometimes making the models whiter, taller or even thinner in some cases, than they are in reality.
"Most fashion pictures are colour adjusted to make sure the detail on clothing is more striking. Modeling the world over is all about chisel chinned, toned, thin, fair-skinned girls. We don't take ourselves so seriously that we believe we can change that," Shihab adds.
Not all Asian fashion magazines subscribe to that view, thankfully. Some do use non-professional models with a darker-tone, specially in India. But the British Asian market and the Indian fashion industry are worlds apart. Who has the budget to pay for professional Indian models to come to Britain for a shoot?
There is also a paradox at work. We may want a darker, chocolate-coloured sister on the front cover of a fashion magazine but do then buy that product? Certainly, the more successful fashion publications such as Asian Woman, Asiana and Look Book feature mostly light-skinned models.
Could it mean us girls vote with our wallets using our eyes and not our hearts? It seems as if it's become unfashionable to look Asian, as this writer says.
Is there any hope for the majority of us? Yes, according to both the editors.
"As far as our editorial content is concerned, we promote Asian women as a breed happy to be under the skin they are in. We want people to stop being prejudiced, face and change realities, higher their expectations and aspirations and be proud of who they are. That's a mission for the Asian community and we've taken on the challenge," Shihab Salim says.
But then adds: "The fashion world isn't ours to toy around with. If Vogue doesn't dare to mess with the basics, who are we?"
What do you think? Is it right? Is it expected? Do you vote with your eyes and not your hearts when buying fashion magazines? Email us with your comments. They may be published next week.
----------------------------
kalapna.mistry@asiansinmedia.org
