Is it true that a black face on the cover of a fashion magazine causes a 20% drop in sales? While many white South African models have made good overseas, we have yet to produce a black model to steal the limelight. But all that could be changing, writes Charl Blignaut
You know that fashion in South Africa has come a long way when a former British pop star’s daughter’s debut collection for a relatively obscure French fashion house gets to tour the country with all the cigarette-sponsored hype of a major rock concert.
You know that fashion in South Africa still has a way to go when, of the 25 local models cast for that tour, only two of them are black.
The simple fact of the matter is that while the list of white South African models to make good in Paris, Milan, London or New York continues to grow – Georgina Grenville-Matthews, Josie Borain, Tanya Fourie, Charlize Theron, Lushano Kuhn, Tanya Eloff, Tanya Hayman, Samantha Peck et al – we have yet to produce a single black model who will steal the limelight on the international catwalk. But the emphasis should be on yet. Because, slowly but surely, African beauty is finding its selling power in the world marketplace.
Of course, optimism is the prerogative of journalists and those in the industry are still cautious. As Naomi Campbell, the world’s best known black model, once put it: “If the fashion industry looked into a mirror it would prefer to see a white face staring back … You’ve got to understand, this business is about selling, and blonde- haired blue-eyed girls are what sells.”
Superstar designer Jean-Paul Gaultier shares her view so strongly that in March this year, in a protest against racism in France, he staged a show using only black models. Putting it bluntly, Gaultier’s representative said at the time: “When you put black girls on the cover of a magazine, sales drop by about 20%.” This figure is privately accepted by most international fashion magazines.
An upshot of this state of affairs is that South Africa, with its ever-burgeoning professional fashion industry, is fast becoming a second home to black models from around the world. It’s an ideal place to get regular work and quality tear sheets for a portfolio.
But an upshot of this state of affairs is that the South African market is becoming so swamped that, as the original black South African model boss, Rose Buthelezi of Look Ahead Models, puts it, “Our own girls have to face so much competition that they struggle to get the breaks that will lead to the experience they need to beat the internationals to a job.” Catch-22.
“The international models are so glib and clients think that they are experienced, so they won’t waste their money,” concludes Buthelezi.
Almost everyone approached for comment – agency bosses, photographers, fashion editors and models – agrees with Buthelezi. While they acknowledge that industry standards, particularly as regards editorial shoots, photographers and the state of male modelling, have vastly improved in South Africa, they fear that local talent is under threat from abroad.
In what has to be one of the country’s fastest growing industries, there are now about 50 sizeable modelling agencies in South Africa. Much of this, of course, has to do with Cape Town’s image as the new Miami – a diverse and inexpensive location for international catalogue shoots. But almost all of those agencies bring between 10 and 20 black international models onto their books each year for our season.
As True Love magazine’s beauty editor Pumi Nkosi Stevens puts it: “We have had to make it a policy to first look at local models before the internationals. We simply have to train and educate our models.”
This is not the only problem facing South Africa’s beautiful people. For many years it has been the case that clients prefer to cast African faces with European features – straight noses and thin lips. “Black Barbies,” as Elle magazine fashion editor Dion Chang puts it. There’s been space for Iman, Naomi and Tyra.
But slowly even that is changing. One of the keenest barometers of this is the controversy stirred up by the emergence of young British model Alek Wek.
She’s got the kind of face that can launch a thousand words from virtually every industry insider approached. Many find her unattractive and regard her success as a passing phase. Many black women feel that she is the brunt of a racist joke – that the only black woman who can cut it is notably “ugly” and a curiosity. Yet just as many feel that she is representative of diverse African beauty and an example that the industry is beginning to accept unique looks.
In her recent tirade against prejudice in the industry, Campbell stated that she was surrounded by people who wanted to portray her as a wild beast – “a typical stereotype”. The same furore has surrounded Wek, who recently appeared in Elle with little devil horns on her head, sticking out her tongue.
What is clear is that the time is ripe for distinctive African faces to test the international waters. In South Africa a new generation of black models is getting ready to try the world circuit. Dali Shezi, the first of these, recently featured in Britain’s Pride magazine and has just returned from a suitably successful stint in London.
But the real flavour of the moment is Pumla Majola, a finalist in M-Net’s Face of Africa competition. She began modelling at the age of 16, but, as is typical of the local scene, has taken four or five years to pick up the requisite experience against the tide of visiting models.
Since she shaved her hair off and developed a more distinct, slightly aggressive look, there’s been no looking back for Majola. Everyone refers to her as “the next big thing”. That may have a lot to do with the fact that, like Shezi and Wek, she is emphasising the uniqueness of her look; demanding that the catwalk begins to feel a bit more like real life.
Speaking on a cellphone from the Sun City rehearsals for the huge Stella McCartney Chlo show touring South Africa, Majola said that she’s leaving for Paris next year. When asked when, her reply came straight back: “On the first of January.”
This time there is every chance that she could become a fixture like her white sisters before her. What many seem to forget is that Majola is far slicker, far more competitive and certainly accustomed to the pressures of a breakneck industry – precisely because of the international competition on the local market.