A group of models staged a protest at the door of the popular Rio event minutes before participants modeled on the event’s first day. They wanted to renew the agreement which requires a quota of at least 10% of all models featured on the catwalk during the event be black.
And the summer edition 2012/2013 of Fashion Rio already gotten off to a hectic start. Just before the first parade of the season started around 4pm, 15 models, men and women, all dressed in African style with multicolored prints, protested at the main door of the event, that will go on until Saturday (26) in the Brazilian Jockey Club, in Rio de Janeiro.
In a staged protest that has become as much a part of Brazil’s major fashion events as the events themselves since at least 2007, black models continue speak out against the exclusion of a population that represents nearly 51% of the Brazilian population. The intention was to alert the fashionistas and the press regarding the low number of black models on the catwalk and also claim the renewal of the Termo de Ajuste de Conduta (Term of Conduct Adjustment or TAC), which suggests the inclusion of at least 10% of models on the catwalk be black. According to demonstrators of the NGO Educafro that organized the protest, the agreement was not signed for the production of the event.
They read a manifesto that was critical of Fashion Rio: “We want a more inclusive Brazil, including fashion,” said Frei David director of the NGO that works for the inclusion of blacks in the labor market. According to one of the organizers of the protest, the NGO had won the inclusion of at least 10% of black men and women on the runways of the São Paulo Fashion Week. During Rio de Janeiro’s fashion week, they criticized the fact that only 5% of the casting was black and they claim that is should be at least 20%.
The event in Rio once again highlights the vast under-representation of Afro-Brazilians in media and also specifically in areas dealing with beauty and fashion.
See more images of the protest below:
Source: iG Moda, UOL Mulher Moda
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