Kanye West's Casting Call for "Multiracial Women Only" Incites Backlash
9:45 AM PDT 9/6/2016 by THR staff
Kanye West - Getty - H 2016
The casting call was for the designer's upcoming Yeezy Season 4 show, taking place at New York Fashion Week.
Leave it to Kanye West to put out a casting call during Labor Day weekend and have hundreds of models show up in the hopes of becoming a part of his Yeezy Season 4 show, which is scheduled to kick off New York Fashion Week on Sept. 7.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) September 3, 2016
On Saturday, West took to Twitter to post a casting call that specified for "multiracial women only," adding that models should have "no makeup please, come as you are." The post sparked social media backlash, with one user questioning if models should bring "their ancestry.com dna results to the call."
Yeezy Season 4 casting
"they want black features not black girls" pic.twitter.com/0QFJfF4hPK
— Aquamarine (@ladybreec) September 4, 2016
@kanyewest This is a major issue. In an industry that consistently cuts Black models out, you do this?! You are the absolute worst. Truly.
— k. (@KatchKenda) September 3, 2016
@kanyewest do they need to bring their https://t.co/ZJLx6HlVaq dna results to the call or.....
— Bri Malandro (@BriMalandro) September 3, 2016
In an industry known for its exclusivity and lack of diversity, the rapper and fashion designer's latest casting call doesn't help the situation. According to the Fashion Spot, the fall 2016 runways were the most diverse they've ever been, but even with West's Yeezy Season 3 show featuring the most models of color, it was still less than 25 percent diverse.
The CFDA and the Diversity Coalition most recently released new guidelines for designers to increase diversity on the runway, but perhaps West missed the memo. In any case, given West's past shows, Yeezy Season 4 is sure to be spectacular.
