New report reveals shocking lack of diversity in spring fashion ad campaigns

A review of this season's campaigns slams brands for choice of models.

(copyright: Mario Sorrenti/Balmain)

A new report by online fashion site thefashionspot.co.uk has shed light on an alarming lack of diversity in women's fashion ad campaigns.

The report examined 577 fashion campaigns from spring/summer 2015 and found from the 811 models they included, a staggering 84.7% were white.

Asian models made up 5.7%, black models 5.1% and Latina 2.3% - meaning models from diverse ethnic backgrounds were present in less than 15% of ads from the season.

It wasn't just racial diversity that was examined by the website, body diversity was also examined with the finding that plus-size models made up just 1% of the castings in spring campaigns.

The report names and shames brands - particularly those that have reportedly consistently failed to include models from ethnic backgrounds - these include Saint Laurent whose line-up of 7 models for the season were all white (with the last black model appearing in autumn/winter 2008 when Stefano Pilati was at the helm of the label).

Chloe's history is reportedly even worse - the label cast two white models for spring 2015 having not cast a model of colour since spring 2001 under Stella McCartney's tenure.

It wasn't all bad news though as the report acknowledged brands that did cast models of colour including Burberry Prorsum (with Naomi Campbell and Jourdan Dunn), Prabal Gurung (with Joan Smalls) and on the celebrity front Nicki Minaj was the face of Cavalli and Kanye West fronted Balmain alongside wife Kim Kardashian.

To read the full report theukfashionspot.co.uk