French Designer Accused of Racist Casting Just Showed a 90 Percent White Runway

Bella Hadid, second in line, walks the runway during the Lanvin show during Paris Fashion Week on March 1. During Paris Fashion Week, design house Lanvin presented its fall/winter 2017 collection, featuring delicate silks evoking “ballerina black tie,” according to New York Times fashion director Vanessa Friedman. But praise for the collection was clouded in criticism — not of the clothing, but of who wore it. Amid harsh criticism by veteran casting director James Scully, who accused Lanvin‘s team of excluding diverse models, the house presented a collection in which four of 44 models were nonwhite, among them Yue Han, Luping Wang, Joan Smalls, and Alicia Burke.