Daniel Peddle has cast runway shows for everybody from Alexander McQueen and Thakoon to Phillip Lim and YSL. He is regarded as one of the top casting directors in the fashion industry. Here lately, he’s been busy casting for Fashion Week, which we all know is a little over a week away. Two looks, as he explains to Models.com that will dominate the runway this fall -- the tomboy look and ethnically ambiguous models.
I was very anxious to see how they were going to tackle the issue of diversity this season. I guess this is the answer. The new "aspirational model" is a woman who is vaguely ethnic -- just not too much as to offend or stand out even. It seems that this is the industry's way of getting around casting models who actually look unmistakably Black, Asian, or Hispanic. He mentioned Dominican newcomer Arlenis Sosa as one of his new favorites. (One of our favs as well)
"...Another thing this season is trying to discern from all the girls out there the ones that are ethnically ambiguous. Girls and boys that have faces that you can’t just put in a certain place or race or geography. I think it’s very helpful to see those types of faces in our conflicted world because you can see that we’re still evolving as humans and they are the results of people willing to go beyond the socially constructed notions around race. I think that’s really important and were going to see even more of those as the population changes."
