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All rights reserved. webmaster@world-of-newave.com (Webmaster) Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:46:45 GMT Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:46:45 GMT Newave Lisa XML Engine v1.0 - http://www.world-of-newave.info/about.htm 60 http://www.world-of-newave.info/images/wi8831.gif World-of-Newave.info - Knowledge and Informational Database http://www.world-of-newave.info/ 88 31 {EUROPE > NEWS AND MEDIA} - QE2 runs aground on final voyage http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/news-and-media/qe2-runs-aground-on-final-voyage-20081161512.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/news-and-media/qe2-runs-aground-on-final-voyage-20081161512.htm Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:55:20 GMT It was hardly the most regal moment in the QE2's glittering career when the supreme luxury ocean liner ran into a sandbank off Southampton this morning on its final voyage before metamorphosing into a floating hotel in Dubai.But the embarrassment was merely fleeting as the ship, which has carried royalty and Hollywood stars, as well as millions of less famous passengers, docked just 25 minutes late at the port, where the Duke of Edinburgh led the farewell ceremonies.A Cunard spokesman said the ship had been pulled off the sandbank. "No one on board has been injured. A lot of people will have been in bed when it happened and not have noticed."The QE2's final departure from British shores will be accompanied by solemnity as well as pomp and ceremony. To mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the first world war, a Tiger Moth plane dropped 1m poppies on the 70,000-tonne liner, which served as a hospital ship during the 1982 Falklands war.After a two-minute silence, Prince Philip met long-serving staff as well as the former captains of HMSs Ardent, Antelope and Coventry, ships that were lost in the Falklands campaign. He will also stand on the aft decks of QE2 to watch a fly-past by a Harrier jet. A small flotilla is expected to accompany the ship as it leaves Southampton for its final voyage to Dubai.Passengers snapped up tickets, with the highest-priced berths going for more than £28,000. The trip was sold out almost instantly. The QE2 will reach Dubai on November 26 and be handed over to the firm Nakheel - part of the Dubai World company and the creator of the Palm Jumeirah, the world's largest man-made island.The QE2 will be extensively refurbished over the next few months before docking permanently at a specially constructed berth on the island. The revamped vessel will have a heritage museum displaying artefacts from the ship and from maritime history.Since it was launched by the Queen on the Clyde in 1967, the QE2 has carried more than 2.5 million passengers. The longest-serving ship in the history of the Cunard line, it has broken records both for speed and endurance. After 40 years and 5.5m miles, however, keeping it at sea for much longer would have been too costly.With the Queen Mary 2 now the Cunard flagship, and with other vessels due to join the company's fleet, Cunard announced last year that the QE2 would be sold to Dubai World for around £50m.Over its 40-year career, the QE2's passengers have included most of the crowned heads of Europe, politicians such as Lady Thatcher and Nelson Mandela, the astronaut Buzz Aldrin and the explorer Sir John Blashford-Snell. British stars have included the singer Vera Lynn, most of the Beatles, individually, Mick Jagger and David Bowie. The Hollywood actors Elizabeth Taylor, Bob Hope and Paul Newman have also sailed on the QE2.Dubai's hot, dry climate should help to preserve the ship in the long term.CruisesTransportDubaiguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Guardian.Co.Uk QE2 runs aground on final voyage {new window}   Www.Guardian.Co.Uk - It was hardly the most regal moment in the QE2's glittering career when the supreme luxury ocean liner ran into a sandbank off Southampton this morning on its final voyage before metamorphosing into a floating hotel in Dubai.But the embarrassment was merely fleeting as the ship, which has carried royalty and Hollywood stars, as well as millions of less famous passengers, docked just 25 minutes late at the port, where the Duke of Edinburgh led the farewell ceremonies.A Cunard spokesman said the ship had been pulled off the sandbank. "No one on board has been injured. A lot of people will have been in bed when it happened and not have noticed."The QE2's final departure from British shores will be accompanied by solemnity as well as pomp and ceremony. To mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the first world war, a Tiger Moth plane dropped 1m poppies on the 70,000-tonne liner, which served as a hospital ship during the 1982 Falklands war.After a two-minute silence, Prince Philip met long-serving staff as well as the former captains of HMSs Ardent, Antelope and Coventry, ships that were lost in the Falklands campaign. He will also stand on the aft decks of QE2 to watch a fly-past by a Harrier jet. A small flotilla is expected to accompany the ship as it leaves Southampton for its final voyage to Dubai.Passengers snapped up tickets, with the highest-priced berths going for more than £28,000. The trip was sold out almost instantly. The QE2 will reach Dubai on November 26 and be handed over to the firm Nakheel - part of the Dubai World company and the creator of the Palm Jumeirah, the world's largest man-made island.The QE2 will be extensively refurbished over the next few months before docking permanently at a specially constructed berth on the island. The revamped vessel will have a heritage museum displaying artefacts from the ship and from maritime history.Since it was launched by the Queen on the Clyde in 1967, the QE2 has carried more than 2.5 million passengers. The longest-serving ship in the history of the Cunard line, it has broken records both for speed and endurance. After 40 years and 5.5m miles, however, keeping it at sea for much longer would have been too costly.With the Queen Mary 2 now the Cunard flagship, and with other vessels due to join the company's fleet, Cunard announced last year that the QE2 would be sold to Dubai World for around £50m.Over its 40-year career, the QE2's passengers have included most of the crowned heads of Europe, politicians such as Lady Thatcher and Nelson Mandela, the astronaut Buzz Aldrin and the explorer Sir John Blashford-Snell. British stars have included the singer Vera Lynn, most of the Beatles, individually, Mick Jagger and David Bowie. The Hollywood actors Elizabeth Taylor, Bob Hope and Paul Newman have also sailed on the QE2.Dubai's hot, dry climate should help to preserve the ship in the long term.CruisesTransportDubaiguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
QE2 runs aground on final voyage | Travel | guardian.co.uk {...} Luxury cruise liner rescued from sandbank off Southampton ahead of farewell ceremony {...}
Published: November 11, 2008, 10:55 am - Indexed: November 11, 2008, 1:07 pm - Page Size: 78KB
Category: Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > News and Media

]]> Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > News and Media {NORTH AMERICA > LODGING} - Thanksgiving $150/nt Cozy Home in Woods/Sleeps8 (South Lake Tahoe) $99 3bd http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/travel-and-tourism/lodging/thanksgiving-150-nt-cozy-home-in-woods-sleeps8-south-2008111671.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/travel-and-tourism/lodging/thanksgiving-150-nt-cozy-home-in-woods-sleeps8-south-2008111671.htm Mon, 03 Nov 2008 05:29:21 GMT We are a licensed vacation home in the county of El Dorado. Available September 12th –September 28th Available after October 10th ONLY ***Check out the pictures below!*** Email Kathy at timeintahoe@aol.com or phone 530-318-6065 for immediate reservation. This Non-Smoking, family home features an unbeatable location. It is close enough to dozens of activities to fill your vacation with excitement, yet it is located in a quiet, private neighborhood that offers a feeling of serenity. Wintertime offers a host of outdoor fun for the entire family. This home is just 15 minutes from Heavenly Ski Resort and Sierra at Tahoe, and just 30 minutes from Kirkwood. Squaw, Alpine, Homewood, Sugar Bowl, and other Ski Resorts are under an hour's drive away. When you return home, garage parking is a must, and a cozy, gas fire will be awaiting you. Snow removal services are provided. Summertime in Tahoe is mild and gorgeous. Locals love to hike or bike to any of the hundreds of smaller lakes. Many are day hikes, but backpacking further into Desolation Wilderness offers solitude without comparison. Spring and Fall offer discount rates during two of the most beautiful times of year. Locals love these "slow seasons," as there is so much to do, yet fewer tourists around! Have you seen our Aspens in the fall? Winter offers a host of snow play activities, from skiing and snowboarding at major resorts such as Heavenly Valley, Sierra at Tahoe and Kirkwood. Squaw is 1 hour drive around the west side of the lake. Check out Heavenly's new ZIP RIDER!! This is their great new attraction- check out the video at the following link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid687557379/bctid1438428679 Get away from the hustle and bustle of your life. Relax and enjoy the great outdoors in Tahoe!!! Amenities: Gas Fireplace, Phone, Satellite TV, VCR, Stereo, CD Player, Full Kitchen, Microwave, Dishwasher, Refrigerator, Ice Maker, Cooking Utensils provided, Linens provided (beds are made and ready for you), Washer & Dryer, Garage, Charcoal Grill (BBQ), Outdoor furniture, fenced yard, 2 car garage, snow removal service included, No Smoking. House is decorated with handmade wall quilts for a cozy, home-like atmosphere. Activities (on site or nearby): Hiking, Backpacking, Rock Climbing, Biking & Mountain Biking, Golf, Fitness Center, Gym, Miniature Golf, Amusement Parks, Fishing, Wildlife Viewing, Horseback Riding, Shopping & Outlet Shopping, Restaurants, Live Theater (Summer only), Cinemas, Casino Gambling, Sightseeing, Swimming, Boating, Sailing, Water-skiing, Windsurfing, Parasailing, Jet-skiing, Rafting, Downhill Skiing/Snowboarding, Cross Country Skiing, Snowmobiling, Sledding, Snowshoeing. RATES: 10% Occupancy tax additional $150 cleaning fee additional $300 refundable security deposit Thanksgiving ...................... .............$225/night (3 night minimum). Christmas & New Years Weeks ....... $250/night .. and $299/nt Winter Season ................................ Ski lease available $2200/month Weekly $850.00 Nightly $150 Mon-Thurs and $199 Fri-Sun Spring Special .................... ............$ 99/night .. $ 500/week . Summer Rates .................... Summer lease available $2200/month Nightly $150 Mon-Thurs and $199 Fri-Sun Fall Special ..................................... $ 99/night .. $ 500/week. ADDITIONAL CHARGES 10% Occupancy Tax Cleaning fee $150 Refundable security deposit $300 Note: Until confirmed, rates are subject to change without notice. COMMENTS FROM PREVIOUS GUESTS: Date Rating Comment [Guest Comments: 9 positive, 0 negative] 05/09/06 Positive What a beautiful house and perfect location. We enjoyed all of it including beautiful backyard with many birds and flowers. Absolutely gorgeous! The house is very clean and cozy. We hope to come back and visit again very soon. Vera, Sunnyvale, ca 12/27/05 Positive We had such a great time celebrating Christmas in this very cozy Tahoe home! We were happy to find that it was very well equipped with everything you may need - washer&dryer, fully stocked kitchen, and all the miscellaneous items for a pleasant stay! Yoyi Franco, San Jose, California (lawladie@aol.com) 12/05/05 Positive Dear Kathy, It was such a pleasure to stay in your vacation home.My family and I had so much fun staying there.It was like a home away from home.My wife enjoyed cooking in your cozy kitchen.We will surely recommend your home to our friends.Again,thank you for welcoming us to your home. Ben Villamor & Family, San Jose CA 95148 (blvillamor@sbcglobal.net) 408 223 6188 09/01/05 Positive We really enjoyed our time at this charming home. It was so relaxing and comfortable that we will definitely be back again soon! C. Green, Benicia, CA (bacgreen@sbcglobal.net) 08/19/05 Positive This was a GEM of a find in South Lake Tahoe. I visited mid August and stayed with 3 young students. There was plenty of room for everyone and the house is unbelievably well equipped...even down to spices in the kitchen and shampoo in the bathroom. Location is super convenient right off the Hwy 50 and 7 mins from supermarket in S. Lake Tahoe. Peaceful, comfortable, cosy, spotlessly clean. I HIGHLY recommend this cottage in the pines! Owner could not have been more helpful and pleasant. I hope to return in the winter. I consider it a real bargain. Jill Trigg-Smith, Kailua, Hawaii (jillwt@aol.com) 12/20/04 Positive Our family stayed in this house for Thanksgiving and we had a great time.House is very clean and cozy. Our favorite was the kitchen.It is so rare to find matching plates and utensils in the vacation rental.This kitchen was fully stocked up. Vesna, San Jose , CA (vkadric@yahoo.com) 4082652823 11/12/04 Positive We certainly enjoyed our stay at your home. We particularly enjoyed the large open kitchen and the attractive eating area where we could look out at the trees and falling snow while eating our breakfast. It was nice to come home to the cozy fireplace when it was freezing outside! The quilts and paintings on the walls added to the homeyness. We have stayed at your home 3 times now in snow and summer and hope to return. Betty Crupi, San Diego, Ca. (rcrupi@san.rr.com) 08/13/04 Positive We visited 1798 Nez Perce last President’s Day with two other couples and were very happy with our stay. The house was clean and cozy, and the location was perfect for us. The house is close to great cross country skiing on the Angora ridge, and it’s right off 50 so we never noticed the holiday traffic. Anonymous 08/12/04 Positive My wife and I, our Golden Retriever, and another couple with their child stayed at this home for some spring skiing in March 2004 in Tahoe. It was cavernous compared with the small city apartments that we are used to - it could have comfortably held several more people. We had a fabulous time, and we really enjoyed the house! The price is totally reasonable - some of the best value in accomodations I've ever seen. It's also a very convenient location in South Lake Tahoe - close to the 50 for easy entry and exit to/ from Tahoe. We'd highly recommend it! David, San Francisco, CA 08/09/04 N/A Guest Comment Entered By Homeowner: I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this very special home. I am sure you will enjoy your stay here in our beautiful, forested land, and I know you will feel comfortable in our home. We have some recent additions of more hand-made quilts on the walls which add to the charm and warmth you will feel. Please make sure to visit the guestbook comment area on the VRBO website to have your enjoyable stay recorded for others to review. Thanks again, and enjoy your stay! Sincerely, Kathy Time In TahoeAOL.com Sfbay.Craigslist.Org Thanksgiving $150/nt Cozy Home in Woods/Sleeps8 (South Lake Tahoe) $99 3bd {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - We are a licensed vacation home in the county of El Dorado. Available September 12th –September 28th Available after October 10th ONLY ***Check out the pictures below!*** Email Kathy at timeintahoe@aol.com or phone 530-318-6065 for immediate reservation. This Non-Smoking, family home features an unbeatable location. It is close enough to dozens of activities to fill your vacation with excitement, yet it is located in a quiet, private neighborhood that offers a feeling of serenity. Wintertime offers a host of outdoor fun for the entire family. This home is just 15 minutes from Heavenly Ski Resort and Sierra at Tahoe, and just 30 minutes from Kirkwood. Squaw, Alpine, Homewood, Sugar Bowl, and other Ski Resorts are under an hour's drive away. When you return home, garage parking is a must, and a cozy, gas fire will be awaiting you. Snow removal services are provided. Summertime in Tahoe is mild and gorgeous. Locals love to hike or bike to any of the hundreds of smaller lakes. Many are day hikes, but backpacking further into Desolation Wilderness offers solitude without comparison. Spring and Fall offer discount rates during two of the most beautiful times of year. Locals love these "slow seasons," as there is so much to do, yet fewer tourists around! Have you seen our Aspens in the fall? Winter offers a host of snow play activities, from skiing and snowboarding at major resorts such as Heavenly Valley, Sierra at Tahoe and Kirkwood. Squaw is 1 hour drive around the west side of the lake. Check out Heavenly's new ZIP RIDER!! This is their great new attraction- check out the video at the following link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid687557379/bctid1438428679 Get away from the hustle and bustle of your life. Relax and enjoy the great outdoors in Tahoe!!! Amenities: Gas Fireplace, Phone, Satellite TV, VCR, Stereo, CD Player, Full Kitchen, Microwave, Dishwasher, Refrigerator, Ice Maker, Cooking Utensils provided, Linens provided (beds are made and ready for you), Washer & Dryer, Garage, Charcoal Grill (BBQ), Outdoor furniture, fenced yard, 2 car garage, snow removal service included, No Smoking. House is decorated with handmade wall quilts for a cozy, home-like atmosphere. Activities (on site or nearby): Hiking, Backpacking, Rock Climbing, Biking & Mountain Biking, Golf, Fitness Center, Gym, Miniature Golf, Amusement Parks, Fishing, Wildlife Viewing, Horseback Riding, Shopping & Outlet Shopping, Restaurants, Live Theater (Summer only), Cinemas, Casino Gambling, Sightseeing, Swimming, Boating, Sailing, Water-skiing, Windsurfing, Parasailing, Jet-skiing, Rafting, Downhill Skiing/Snowboarding, Cross Country Skiing, Snowmobiling, Sledding, Snowshoeing. RATES: 10% Occupancy tax additional $150 cleaning fee additional $300 refundable security deposit Thanksgiving ...................... .............$225/night (3 night minimum). Christmas & New Years Weeks ....... $250/night .. and $299/nt Winter Season ................................ Ski lease available $2200/month Weekly $850.00 Nightly $150 Mon-Thurs and $199 Fri-Sun Spring Special .................... ............$ 99/night .. $ 500/week . Summer Rates .................... Summer lease available $2200/month Nightly $150 Mon-Thurs and $199 Fri-Sun Fall Special ..................................... $ 99/night .. $ 500/week. ADDITIONAL CHARGES 10% Occupancy Tax Cleaning fee $150 Refundable security deposit $300 Note: Until confirmed, rates are subject to change without notice. COMMENTS FROM PREVIOUS GUESTS: Date Rating Comment [Guest Comments: 9 positive, 0 negative] 05/09/06 Positive What a beautiful house and perfect location. We enjoyed all of it including beautiful backyard with many birds and flowers. Absolutely gorgeous! The house is very clean and cozy. We hope to come back and visit again very soon. Vera, Sunnyvale, ca 12/27/05 Positive We had such a great time celebrating Christmas in this very cozy Tahoe home! We were happy to find that it was very well equipped with everything you may need - washer&dryer, fully stocked kitchen, and all the miscellaneous items for a pleasant stay! Yoyi Franco, San Jose, California (lawladie@aol.com) 12/05/05 Positive Dear Kathy, It was such a pleasure to stay in your vacation home.My family and I had so much fun staying there.It was like a home away from home.My wife enjoyed cooking in your cozy kitchen.We will surely recommend your home to our friends.Again,thank you for welcoming us to your home. Ben Villamor & Family, San Jose CA 95148 (blvillamor@sbcglobal.net) 408 223 6188 09/01/05 Positive We really enjoyed our time at this charming home. It was so relaxing and comfortable that we will definitely be back again soon! C. Green, Benicia, CA (bacgreen@sbcglobal.net) 08/19/05 Positive This was a GEM of a find in South Lake Tahoe. I visited mid August and stayed with 3 young students. There was plenty of room for everyone and the house is unbelievably well equipped...even down to spices in the kitchen and shampoo in the bathroom. Location is super convenient right off the Hwy 50 and 7 mins from supermarket in S. Lake Tahoe. Peaceful, comfortable, cosy, spotlessly clean. I HIGHLY recommend this cottage in the pines! Owner could not have been more helpful and pleasant. I hope to return in the winter. I consider it a real bargain. Jill Trigg-Smith, Kailua, Hawaii (jillwt@aol.com) 12/20/04 Positive Our family stayed in this house for Thanksgiving and we had a great time.House is very clean and cozy. Our favorite was the kitchen.It is so rare to find matching plates and utensils in the vacation rental.This kitchen was fully stocked up. Vesna, San Jose , CA (vkadric@yahoo.com) 4082652823 11/12/04 Positive We certainly enjoyed our stay at your home. We particularly enjoyed the large open kitchen and the attractive eating area where we could look out at the trees and falling snow while eating our breakfast. It was nice to come home to the cozy fireplace when it was freezing outside! The quilts and paintings on the walls added to the homeyness. We have stayed at your home 3 times now in snow and summer and hope to return. Betty Crupi, San Diego, Ca. (rcrupi@san.rr.com) 08/13/04 Positive We visited 1798 Nez Perce last President’s Day with two other couples and were very happy with our stay. The house was clean and cozy, and the location was perfect for us. The house is close to great cross country skiing on the Angora ridge, and it’s right off 50 so we never noticed the holiday traffic. Anonymous 08/12/04 Positive My wife and I, our Golden Retriever, and another couple with their child stayed at this home for some spring skiing in March 2004 in Tahoe. It was cavernous compared with the small city apartments that we are used to - it could have comfortably held several more people. We had a fabulous time, and we really enjoyed the house! The price is totally reasonable - some of the best value in accomodations I've ever seen. It's also a very convenient location in South Lake Tahoe - close to the 50 for easy entry and exit to/ from Tahoe. We'd highly recommend it! David, San Francisco, CA 08/09/04 N/A Guest Comment Entered By Homeowner: I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this very special home. I am sure you will enjoy your stay here in our beautiful, forested land, and I know you will feel comfortable in our home. We have some recent additions of more hand-made quilts on the walls which add to the charm and warmth you will feel. Please make sure to visit the guestbook comment area on the VRBO website to have your enjoyable stay recorded for others to review. Thanks again, and enjoy your stay! Sincerely, Kathy Time In TahoeAOL.com
Thanksgiving $150/nt Cozy Home in Woods/Sleeps8 {...}
Published: November 3, 2008, 5:29 am - Indexed: November 3, 2008, 11:32 am - Page Size: 13KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Travel and Tourism > Lodging

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Travel and Tourism > Lodging {EUROPE > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Black. Beautiful. Barely seen http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/news-and-media/black-beautiful-barely-seen-2008111491.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/europe/united-kingdom/news-and-media/black-beautiful-barely-seen-2008111491.htm Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:03:35 GMT It's been the biggest fashion story of the year and it's had nothing to do with harem pants, the coat versus the cape, or the alluring comeback of the brogue. An industry not known for its crises of confidence has been forced to ask itself some uncomfortable questions. Might there be something nearing apartheid inside the pages of the glossy magazines and on the runways of the international designer collections? Is fashion racist? The debate - some say long overdue - would not have been kick-started without a woman called Bethann Hardison. The first black saleswoman in the Garment District of New York in the Sixties and a runway model in the Seventies, she spent the Eighties and Nineties as one of the few black women with her own modelling agency (for black and white clients). She's so celebrated in the business that she's known mostly by her first name only, like Naomi and Iman, to each of whom she also happens to be a long-time confidante and mentor. Over the past 14 months she's held campaign meetings in New York to speak out about a subject that has been largely taboo in the fashion industry. These are protest groups like no other - a cross between a rumbustious church service and the coolest party you have ever been to. Here, the likes of Naomi Campbell, Liya Kebede, Iman, Tyson Beckford and Veronica Webb squeeze into a room with some of the fashion world's biggest players such as André Leon Talley, editor-at-large of American Vogue and designer Vera Wang, as well as casting agents, stylists and representatives from the modelling agencies. At each meeting, Hardison sits at the front and beckons people she knows to stand up and speak. 'I knew I could make things happen,' she says. 'I knew I could make the rest of the industry feel self-conscious about what was going on.' Over the months her audiences revealed a fashion white-out - design houses that hadn't used a black model for a decade; issue after issue of American Vogue without a single black model on the fashion pages. Casting agents who stipulate 'No ethnics' this season. Magazine editors who say black covers don't sell. Caption writers who get the few black models who are successful mixed up. Designers who, out of a total of 30 models, use only two who are black because, 'If it's more than two it becomes a Black Thing'. Black models paid less than their white counterparts. As Iman said at one of the early groups: 'In any other industry it would be racism and you'd be taken to court for it.'Hardison had actually sold her agency and stepped out of fashion, preferring, she says, to lie in a hammock in Mexico and dance salsa with pretty skinny Latino boys. (She is, it swiftly transpires, not a typical sixtysomething. She won't tell me her exact age. 'Not even my doctor knows that!' she hoots.) It was Naomi Campbell who persuaded her to come out of retirement to organise the events. 'Every couple of months she'd ring me and say, "There are no black girls out there. You've got to do something!"' Hardison was in a unique position. She'd retired, which meant she had nothing to gain financially. She knew everyone. She was respected and well liked in a business renowned for being fickle and as ingrained with ego and jealousy as a designer logo on a leather handbag. Eventually she decided to act. She emailed Iman. 'Did you realise that, over the past decade, black models have been reduced to a category? Call me.'We sit in her small apartment near Bryant Park in New York, a short walk from the Garment District where she started out working for a button company. Paintings, mostly of black women, line the walls; there's a large framed poster from Andy Warhol's American Indian Series. She is, she tells me, exhausted. Something to do with the fact that yesterday she held another campaign meeting, and that she's fasting because it is the month of Ramadan. What irks her most about the lack of diversity on the catwalks is the fact that 'we'd had it before and it had disappeared'. In the late 70s and early 80s, she recalls, on the back of the black civil-rights movement, catwalks and magazines were often more diverse than they are now; black models were the stars.'Once you've climbed to the top of the mountain you don't expect to be back at the bottom again. It's like once you've seen Paris it's hard to go back to the farm. We had been there. We had achieved all of this' - she sits up straighter, tilting her chin imperiously and I catch a glimpse of how arresting she must have been as a 20-something woman striding down a runway for Oscar de la Renta or Halston - 'and we'd disappeared'.Casual observers might wonder why this issue is important, why anyone cares who's wearing a £2,500 coat in a magazine fashion spread or on a catwalk since most of us will never be able to afford it anyway. According to Hardison: 'Fashion should be a reflection of society. I want my industry to be as modern as the next one. And my industry is the least modern of them all. Fashion isn't just about the way a dress moves.' The concern is that a generation of girls, both black and white, will grow up thinking there is only one - white - benchmark for beauty.It seems astonishing to think that, in two days' time, America may elect its first black president, but the editor of a glossy magazine might still think twice about putting a beautiful black woman on the front cover. Or even, indeed, on the inside pages, thanks to the current fascination with celebrity that means a famous person (usually a white, fake-tanned one) bags the cover slot. Thus the number of new, well-known black or Asian models has shrunk to a handful: Jourdan Dunn, Chanel Iman, Sessilee Lopez, Georgie Badiel. On Forbes magazine's 2007 list of the 15 top-earning models, only one - Liya Kebede - was black.Trying to work out why fashion seems to have gone backwards on diversity is complex.Everyone blames everyone else - model agencies blame casting directors, magazine editors blame readers, designers blame model agencies. The reasons range from the aesthetic to the more insidious.'I don't think in terms of black and white,' stylist Katie Grand tells me. 'I just think about who is going to look best in the clothes.' The fashion designer Katharine Hamnett claims to be baffled by the situation. 'The strange thing is that Caucasian girls actually got the short straw. Very few of them are model material. Black girls and Indian girls have far better faces and far better figures than white girls, period. I remember taking my kids to India and looking out of the bus window and saying, "My God, this is like a model casting". Why white girls remain so popular is a mystery to me, whether it's because consumers are mostly white, or aspire to be white, I don't know.'In America, where 30 per cent of the population is non-white and where black women spend a colossal $20 billion on fashion and cosmetics, the issue is particularly sensitive. Other American media, including some hit television dramas, reflect a society that is racially mixed, but the fashion industry remains as pale as a partially cooked chicken drumstick. American Vogue, with a readership of two million, has, in particular been criticised for its scarcity of black images.'We still have reactionary forces in this country,' says Veronica Webb, one of the most successful black American models in the Eighties and the first to land a major cosmetics contract for Revlon. 'And they are part of our power base. It's our national ailment. To be told "no" simply because of your colour means you are screwed ... And it wasn't even so bad for me because I am very mixed - part black, part African, part Latino.' Nevertheless she recalls being turned down for a job for a leading French design house. 'The photographer, who was a friend, told me the client didn't want their accessories to become status symbols in the black community.'I repeat this story to other black commentators in the industry and it's so typical they don't even sound surprised. Former model Beverly Bond has set up a group for black teenage girls called 'Black Girls Rock', an attempt to attach a slogan to the protest in the same way that 'Black is Beautiful' did in the Seventies. 'I've been to auditions where they automatically turn away the black girls without even looking at their books. It's racist. Imagine them behaving that way if I went to a job interview. It's amazing how far behind the fashion world is and how they can get away with being so blatant about it.'She's given up modelling and become a well-known DJ instead. 'In the end black models get disheartened by it. No matter how hot you look, you are never going to be hot enough.'In July, no doubt partly because of Bethann Hardison's campaign, Italian Vogue published what they called 'a black issue'. Every page of editorial was devoted to black beauty (while the advertising remained almost universally white). It included many of the best black models of the past 30 years, from ground-breakers like Pat Cleveland to Jourdan Dunn, said to be the new Naomi Campbell. (It seems there's little chance of there being room for two very successful black models at the same time.) The result was dazzling, although the website Gawker noted wryly: 'Never has the racism issue looked so stunning.'For the first time in its history the magazine sold out, helped by a campaign on Facebook by black readers starved of the black image for long enough. The issue made newspaper headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. Commentators said it showed, finally, that the black image could sell. Critics noted that the majority of the models were pale-skinned, their hair often slicked back or hidden in a turban. True, black women don't all look the same - and thinking they do is part of the problem - but there were few images of darker skin and natural afro hair. With a circulation of 145,000, Italian Vogue's readership is edgy and niche. Editor Franca Sozzani can afford to take risks. Rivals may have sat up and taken notice but most probably thought, 'Fabulous publicity. I wish I'd thought of that!' And then carried on as before.Some felt that it was too little too late. 'There's nothing I like more than to see beautiful black people,' says Rebecca Carroll, author of Sugar in the Raw, about black teenage girls in America, 'but it felt a bit like black history month - "Now we've done it we don't have to worry about it again".' Black stylist and fashion editor Edward Enninful disagrees. He worked on the issue: 'I'd love it if fashion was 50/50 between black and white. But you have to think in terms of baby steps. In the end little drops make an ocean.'Whenever designers and stylists enter the debate many talk about the cyclical nature of the business and how trends come and go. However, even if this is the case, change is achingly slow. Katie Grand worked on five shows last season and struggled to find the quality of black models she wanted. 'I think the agencies could do more,' she says. 'I saw every girl but there were very few black girls.' At Louis Vuitton, out of a total of 54 models, she used only four that were black. At the recent collections in September Chanel still had no black models; nor did Yohji Yamamoto, Giorgio Armani, Marni or Jil Sander. Balenciaga, Gucci, Christian Lacroix and Prada had one each. The vast majority used just two or three (at least, everyone said, it was better than last year) although many were only seen on the runway once. Jean Paul Gaultier and Vivienne Westwood, famously fans of a mixed cabine, broke through the 20 per cent ceiling. One up-and-coming designer, Sophie Theallet, stood out - her whole show was made up of only black models. It was a success but, as she tells me: 'I told nobody beforehand - only my husband and the people closest to me at work. It was too risky. I didn't want anyone telling me it was not a good idea.' And this in a spring/summer collection when, as Bethann Hardison points out, black models traditionally do much better. 'The bright colours against the dark skin ...' she says, rolling her eyes. When she was an agent she used to ring up the design houses and say: 'You know we do wear clothes in winter time?'People in the fashion and media industry who know Bethann describe her as an icon. Admittedly fashion has its fair share of luvviness, but watch her at her meetings and the affection people feel for her is obvious. Both inspiring and outspoken without being self-righteous, she's able to rouse and provoke in equal measure, poking fun at a business that she clearly loves but one which takes itself rather too seriously at times. However, her background had little to do with designer shops on Madison Avenue. Hardison's father, a practising Muslim, was a supervisor in the local housing authority. After her parents separated she was looked after by her mother and grandmother who were domestics in Brooklyn. 'You've got to leave Brooklyn,' she says, 'to be proud of where you come from.' Her mother loved the local bar scene, dancing and dressing up - 'Though in those days, the Fifties, everybody dressed in the same silhouette, whether they were black or white.' Hardison fell pregnant at the age of 18 - 'I had never had sex before and I got pregnant on the first time, which is the worst thing in the world.' When her baby son, Kadeem, was small, her mother and grandmother looked after him (he grew up to become a successful actor, based in Los Angeles) and for a while she had a mixture of jobs working at a telephone company and in a prison before she found a position in a firm that made hand-painted buttons for design houses.She'd inherited her mother's sense of style. 'That first day I wore a white straw hat, a one-off white suit, slingback shoes. The owner was worried I'd get covered in paint so he decided I could be the one to take the buttons to the designers.' It would be true to say she never looked back. Hardison worked her way up through an industry that back then was focused on a few streets in midtown Manhattan. She was an assistant for a dress company, which meant she was secretary, receptionist and book-keeper. Finally two Jewish women who ran a salon allowed her to be the first black saleswoman in the Garment District. The idea of a white woman with money to spend being shown the collection in the showroom by a black woman was unheard of.Hardison's hair was cropped short, as it is now. She was also very skinny. 'Boy was I skinny! Big eyes. I looked like I was from Biafra.' Her unusual look came to the attention of some of the designers she met at work. 'I wasn't a pretty girl but there was something about me that attracted them.' Her debut as a model was in the early Seventies for a designer called Chester Weinberg. The audience, made up of industry buyers, was wholly white. 'They looked stunned. I looked like a little African girl. There were a few other girls of colour but they had a sort of bounce about them. I was just straight.' By the third outfit the uproar was so loud, she could barely get to the end of the room. 'I was dying inside. I wanted to walk right through the door onto the subway and go home. But somehow I kept my head up and it became a point of defiance. I wouldn't let them see how much they hurt me. That became my style. They had never seen anyone who looked like me but that defiance changed the way models could look.'It wasn't long before black models were in demand. 'They called us the black stallions. Black or white it didn't matter. It was a great time because it was so creative and stylish and bohemian. You didn't have to have lots of money to be at the party.' Sensibly - and Hardison, you come to realise, has a very sensible head on those shoulders - she never gave up her day job. By this time she was working as a design assistant. She knew everyone from the Studio 54 crowd to Truman Capote, Jerry Hall to Woody Allen, but, as she says: 'There wasn't a lot of bullcrap then. All you had to do was have interesting dinner-party conversation.'A man once told her she was too busy to be committed to a relationship and, though she was married twice, neither marriage lasted long. In the Eighties she decided to start her own modelling agency. She found premises in the then unfashionable SoHo area of New York. 'As a black businesswoman you can't believe anyone is taking you seriously because you have no one before you who has done what you are doing. It's like walking down the Yellow Brick Road before it's been laid.' She would run the agency for 21 years and set up a pressure group called Black Girls' Coalition with Iman. By the time she sold up there may not have been parity between white and black models but she imagined she'd done enough.The industry changed with the influx of Eastern-European models. Bewitching-looking women: tall, translucent, angular, with flinty cheekbones and piercing eyes. 'They flooded the market,' says Carole White, who owns Premier Model Management. 'They are beautiful, but it is a bland beauty. It's a certain look. We can all spot it.' As a reaction to the reign of the supermodels, labels like Jil Sander and Prada wanted anonymous faces. 'It was almost as though they were revolted by what they had created,' says Michael Gross, the author of Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. According to Hardison: 'The model was reduced to a coathanger.' Of 200 models on White's books, only seven are black or Asian women and she says they have to work twice as hard to get the jobs. White thinks that fashion has become dominated by a white aesthetic that goes beyond the designers. 'Photographers used to be apprenticed for five years. They would learn about lighting and printing,' she explains. 'The thing is that now they probably use digital cameras and don't know how to light a black girl. It's the same with make-up artists. Black make-up artists like Pat McGrath work magic on white models but you don't see it the other way around. It's probably ignorance, and they are probably frightened. They just don't know how to do it.' There is an unspoken presumption that white readers want white models, white women only want to see an image of themselves on the catwalks. It's what academics call 'the white hegemony' and it's so casual if you're white you don't even notice it. But might the pundits be talking down to their consumers?'Editors say customers won't have it, it won't sell,' says Barbara Summers, a black model in the Seventies and the author of Black and Beautiful and Open the Unusual Door. 'But it's self-defeating. They're projecting their own failure and using black people to make the excuse. It's just cowardice. The irony is that the industry is shrinking in the current financial crisis. It can't grow again if it stays stuck in these past ideas. You can't expand your customer base if you only make products for white girls.' The result, according to Rebecca Carroll, is black teenage girls growing up thinking that they're not admired, a sense that goes beyond what they see in the mirror. 'It's painful,' she says. 'No one likes to be excluded and they grow up thinking they don't exist, therefore people don't care.'Even if one goes along with the view that Italian Vogue was, as Enninful says, 'historic and monumental', look through this month's bunch of British monthly glossies and you'd be hard pressed to find any black images. Editors often maintain that the number of black models they include proportionately matches the population. However, in this month's British glossies, the main fashion spreads are universally white. When you do see black models in magazines the same tropes are repeated again and again, says Zoe Whitley. She is a curator and visiting fellow at Sussex University, whose MA thesis was about blackness in Vogue. In mainstream magazines there is traditionally a proliferation of leopard-print and other animalistic symbols. Certain postures are popular - crawling, leaping in the air and smiling. There are lots of accessories and jewellery and colours that deliberately show up the contrast between fabric and skin - vivid reds, turquoise, white. 'The stories can be stunning,' says Whitley, 'but you don't often get a sense that you'd see a black model in a story about tweed, or a muted palette.' The alternative is to create an atmosphere of exoticism by putting a white model in a foreign environment like an African country or India. 'She becomes exotic and they don't even have to resort to using a black model.'Whitley has a theory that, when a black image is used on the front of a glossy magazine it is often in February, traditionally the lowest-selling month anyway. 'The poor sales become a self-fulfilling prophesy.' As a young woman growing up in Washington and Los Angeles, her family would rush out to buy any magazine with a black person on the front. They imagined they could boost sales single-handed.The lack of black images prompts some commentators to wonder whether magazines are interested in black readers at all. Fashion is a business and like all businesses it goes where it thinks the money is. 'This is a commercial industry,' says Michael Gross, 'run by a bunch of old people. Their job is not to change the world, it is to sell frocks. It's not racism. It's not even unconscious racism. It's an utter cluelessness about the real world.'There is a view, though, that if Senator Barack Obama does win on Tuesday, the response will be profound, even on cosseted, inward-looking Planet Fashion. Michelle Obama has wowed the industry with her fashion instincts. She's already reinvented the way a potential First Lady can dress. She might soon be the most sought-after woman on any glossy magazine front cover anywhere in the world. True, she's not a model but it could mark a sea change. 'It will be a wake-up call,' says Gross. 'The reaction in the fashion business will be a blatant and almost laughable attempt to catch up. Such is this craven industry and such is the way they behave.'CatwalkFashionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Guardian.Co.Uk Black. Beautiful. Barely seen {new window}   Www.Guardian.Co.Uk - It's been the biggest fashion story of the year and it's had nothing to do with harem pants, the coat versus the cape, or the alluring comeback of the brogue. An industry not known for its crises of confidence has been forced to ask itself some uncomfortable questions. Might there be something nearing apartheid inside the pages of the glossy magazines and on the runways of the international designer collections? Is fashion racist? The debate - some say long overdue - would not have been kick-started without a woman called Bethann Hardison. The first black saleswoman in the Garment District of New York in the Sixties and a runway model in the Seventies, she spent the Eighties and Nineties as one of the few black women with her own modelling agency (for black and white clients). She's so celebrated in the business that she's known mostly by her first name only, like Naomi and Iman, to each of whom she also happens to be a long-time confidante and mentor. Over the past 14 months she's held campaign meetings in New York to speak out about a subject that has been largely taboo in the fashion industry. These are protest groups like no other - a cross between a rumbustious church service and the coolest party you have ever been to. Here, the likes of Naomi Campbell, Liya Kebede, Iman, Tyson Beckford and Veronica Webb squeeze into a room with some of the fashion world's biggest players such as André Leon Talley, editor-at-large of American Vogue and designer Vera Wang, as well as casting agents, stylists and representatives from the modelling agencies. At each meeting, Hardison sits at the front and beckons people she knows to stand up and speak. 'I knew I could make things happen,' she says. 'I knew I could make the rest of the industry feel self-conscious about what was going on.' Over the months her audiences revealed a fashion white-out - design houses that hadn't used a black model for a decade; issue after issue of American Vogue without a single black model on the fashion pages. Casting agents who stipulate 'No ethnics' this season. Magazine editors who say black covers don't sell. Caption writers who get the few black models who are successful mixed up. Designers who, out of a total of 30 models, use only two who are black because, 'If it's more than two it becomes a Black Thing'. Black models paid less than their white counterparts. As Iman said at one of the early groups: 'In any other industry it would be racism and you'd be taken to court for it.'Hardison had actually sold her agency and stepped out of fashion, preferring, she says, to lie in a hammock in Mexico and dance salsa with pretty skinny Latino boys. (She is, it swiftly transpires, not a typical sixtysomething. She won't tell me her exact age. 'Not even my doctor knows that!' she hoots.) It was Naomi Campbell who persuaded her to come out of retirement to organise the events. 'Every couple of months she'd ring me and say, "There are no black girls out there. You've got to do something!"' Hardison was in a unique position. She'd retired, which meant she had nothing to gain financially. She knew everyone. She was respected and well liked in a business renowned for being fickle and as ingrained with ego and jealousy as a designer logo on a leather handbag. Eventually she decided to act. She emailed Iman. 'Did you realise that, over the past decade, black models have been reduced to a category? Call me.'We sit in her small apartment near Bryant Park in New York, a short walk from the Garment District where she started out working for a button company. Paintings, mostly of black women, line the walls; there's a large framed poster from Andy Warhol's American Indian Series. She is, she tells me, exhausted. Something to do with the fact that yesterday she held another campaign meeting, and that she's fasting because it is the month of Ramadan. What irks her most about the lack of diversity on the catwalks is the fact that 'we'd had it before and it had disappeared'. In the late 70s and early 80s, she recalls, on the back of the black civil-rights movement, catwalks and magazines were often more diverse than they are now; black models were the stars.'Once you've climbed to the top of the mountain you don't expect to be back at the bottom again. It's like once you've seen Paris it's hard to go back to the farm. We had been there. We had achieved all of this' - she sits up straighter, tilting her chin imperiously and I catch a glimpse of how arresting she must have been as a 20-something woman striding down a runway for Oscar de la Renta or Halston - 'and we'd disappeared'.Casual observers might wonder why this issue is important, why anyone cares who's wearing a £2,500 coat in a magazine fashion spread or on a catwalk since most of us will never be able to afford it anyway. According to Hardison: 'Fashion should be a reflection of society. I want my industry to be as modern as the next one. And my industry is the least modern of them all. Fashion isn't just about the way a dress moves.' The concern is that a generation of girls, both black and white, will grow up thinking there is only one - white - benchmark for beauty.It seems astonishing to think that, in two days' time, America may elect its first black president, but the editor of a glossy magazine might still think twice about putting a beautiful black woman on the front cover. Or even, indeed, on the inside pages, thanks to the current fascination with celebrity that means a famous person (usually a white, fake-tanned one) bags the cover slot. Thus the number of new, well-known black or Asian models has shrunk to a handful: Jourdan Dunn, Chanel Iman, Sessilee Lopez, Georgie Badiel. On Forbes magazine's 2007 list of the 15 top-earning models, only one - Liya Kebede - was black.Trying to work out why fashion seems to have gone backwards on diversity is complex.Everyone blames everyone else - model agencies blame casting directors, magazine editors blame readers, designers blame model agencies. The reasons range from the aesthetic to the more insidious.'I don't think in terms of black and white,' stylist Katie Grand tells me. 'I just think about who is going to look best in the clothes.' The fashion designer Katharine Hamnett claims to be baffled by the situation. 'The strange thing is that Caucasian girls actually got the short straw. Very few of them are model material. Black girls and Indian girls have far better faces and far better figures than white girls, period. I remember taking my kids to India and looking out of the bus window and saying, "My God, this is like a model casting". Why white girls remain so popular is a mystery to me, whether it's because consumers are mostly white, or aspire to be white, I don't know.'In America, where 30 per cent of the population is non-white and where black women spend a colossal $20 billion on fashion and cosmetics, the issue is particularly sensitive. Other American media, including some hit television dramas, reflect a society that is racially mixed, but the fashion industry remains as pale as a partially cooked chicken drumstick. American Vogue, with a readership of two million, has, in particular been criticised for its scarcity of black images.'We still have reactionary forces in this country,' says Veronica Webb, one of the most successful black American models in the Eighties and the first to land a major cosmetics contract for Revlon. 'And they are part of our power base. It's our national ailment. To be told "no" simply because of your colour means you are screwed ... And it wasn't even so bad for me because I am very mixed - part black, part African, part Latino.' Nevertheless she recalls being turned down for a job for a leading French design house. 'The photographer, who was a friend, told me the client didn't want their accessories to become status symbols in the black community.'I repeat this story to other black commentators in the industry and it's so typical they don't even sound surprised. Former model Beverly Bond has set up a group for black teenage girls called 'Black Girls Rock', an attempt to attach a slogan to the protest in the same way that 'Black is Beautiful' did in the Seventies. 'I've been to auditions where they automatically turn away the black girls without even looking at their books. It's racist. Imagine them behaving that way if I went to a job interview. It's amazing how far behind the fashion world is and how they can get away with being so blatant about it.'She's given up modelling and become a well-known DJ instead. 'In the end black models get disheartened by it. No matter how hot you look, you are never going to be hot enough.'In July, no doubt partly because of Bethann Hardison's campaign, Italian Vogue published what they called 'a black issue'. Every page of editorial was devoted to black beauty (while the advertising remained almost universally white). It included many of the best black models of the past 30 years, from ground-breakers like Pat Cleveland to Jourdan Dunn, said to be the new Naomi Campbell. (It seems there's little chance of there being room for two very successful black models at the same time.) The result was dazzling, although the website Gawker noted wryly: 'Never has the racism issue looked so stunning.'For the first time in its history the magazine sold out, helped by a campaign on Facebook by black readers starved of the black image for long enough. The issue made newspaper headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. Commentators said it showed, finally, that the black image could sell. Critics noted that the majority of the models were pale-skinned, their hair often slicked back or hidden in a turban. True, black women don't all look the same - and thinking they do is part of the problem - but there were few images of darker skin and natural afro hair. With a circulation of 145,000, Italian Vogue's readership is edgy and niche. Editor Franca Sozzani can afford to take risks. Rivals may have sat up and taken notice but most probably thought, 'Fabulous publicity. I wish I'd thought of that!' And then carried on as before.Some felt that it was too little too late. 'There's nothing I like more than to see beautiful black people,' says Rebecca Carroll, author of Sugar in the Raw, about black teenage girls in America, 'but it felt a bit like black history month - "Now we've done it we don't have to worry about it again".' Black stylist and fashion editor Edward Enninful disagrees. He worked on the issue: 'I'd love it if fashion was 50/50 between black and white. But you have to think in terms of baby steps. In the end little drops make an ocean.'Whenever designers and stylists enter the debate many talk about the cyclical nature of the business and how trends come and go. However, even if this is the case, change is achingly slow. Katie Grand worked on five shows last season and struggled to find the quality of black models she wanted. 'I think the agencies could do more,' she says. 'I saw every girl but there were very few black girls.' At Louis Vuitton, out of a total of 54 models, she used only four that were black. At the recent collections in September Chanel still had no black models; nor did Yohji Yamamoto, Giorgio Armani, Marni or Jil Sander. Balenciaga, Gucci, Christian Lacroix and Prada had one each. The vast majority used just two or three (at least, everyone said, it was better than last year) although many were only seen on the runway once. Jean Paul Gaultier and Vivienne Westwood, famously fans of a mixed cabine, broke through the 20 per cent ceiling. One up-and-coming designer, Sophie Theallet, stood out - her whole show was made up of only black models. It was a success but, as she tells me: 'I told nobody beforehand - only my husband and the people closest to me at work. It was too risky. I didn't want anyone telling me it was not a good idea.' And this in a spring/summer collection when, as Bethann Hardison points out, black models traditionally do much better. 'The bright colours against the dark skin ...' she says, rolling her eyes. When she was an agent she used to ring up the design houses and say: 'You know we do wear clothes in winter time?'People in the fashion and media industry who know Bethann describe her as an icon. Admittedly fashion has its fair share of luvviness, but watch her at her meetings and the affection people feel for her is obvious. Both inspiring and outspoken without being self-righteous, she's able to rouse and provoke in equal measure, poking fun at a business that she clearly loves but one which takes itself rather too seriously at times. However, her background had little to do with designer shops on Madison Avenue. Hardison's father, a practising Muslim, was a supervisor in the local housing authority. After her parents separated she was looked after by her mother and grandmother who were domestics in Brooklyn. 'You've got to leave Brooklyn,' she says, 'to be proud of where you come from.' Her mother loved the local bar scene, dancing and dressing up - 'Though in those days, the Fifties, everybody dressed in the same silhouette, whether they were black or white.' Hardison fell pregnant at the age of 18 - 'I had never had sex before and I got pregnant on the first time, which is the worst thing in the world.' When her baby son, Kadeem, was small, her mother and grandmother looked after him (he grew up to become a successful actor, based in Los Angeles) and for a while she had a mixture of jobs working at a telephone company and in a prison before she found a position in a firm that made hand-painted buttons for design houses.She'd inherited her mother's sense of style. 'That first day I wore a white straw hat, a one-off white suit, slingback shoes. The owner was worried I'd get covered in paint so he decided I could be the one to take the buttons to the designers.' It would be true to say she never looked back. Hardison worked her way up through an industry that back then was focused on a few streets in midtown Manhattan. She was an assistant for a dress company, which meant she was secretary, receptionist and book-keeper. Finally two Jewish women who ran a salon allowed her to be the first black saleswoman in the Garment District. The idea of a white woman with money to spend being shown the collection in the showroom by a black woman was unheard of.Hardison's hair was cropped short, as it is now. She was also very skinny. 'Boy was I skinny! Big eyes. I looked like I was from Biafra.' Her unusual look came to the attention of some of the designers she met at work. 'I wasn't a pretty girl but there was something about me that attracted them.' Her debut as a model was in the early Seventies for a designer called Chester Weinberg. The audience, made up of industry buyers, was wholly white. 'They looked stunned. I looked like a little African girl. There were a few other girls of colour but they had a sort of bounce about them. I was just straight.' By the third outfit the uproar was so loud, she could barely get to the end of the room. 'I was dying inside. I wanted to walk right through the door onto the subway and go home. But somehow I kept my head up and it became a point of defiance. I wouldn't let them see how much they hurt me. That became my style. They had never seen anyone who looked like me but that defiance changed the way models could look.'It wasn't long before black models were in demand. 'They called us the black stallions. Black or white it didn't matter. It was a great time because it was so creative and stylish and bohemian. You didn't have to have lots of money to be at the party.' Sensibly - and Hardison, you come to realise, has a very sensible head on those shoulders - she never gave up her day job. By this time she was working as a design assistant. She knew everyone from the Studio 54 crowd to Truman Capote, Jerry Hall to Woody Allen, but, as she says: 'There wasn't a lot of bullcrap then. All you had to do was have interesting dinner-party conversation.'A man once told her she was too busy to be committed to a relationship and, though she was married twice, neither marriage lasted long. In the Eighties she decided to start her own modelling agency. She found premises in the then unfashionable SoHo area of New York. 'As a black businesswoman you can't believe anyone is taking you seriously because you have no one before you who has done what you are doing. It's like walking down the Yellow Brick Road before it's been laid.' She would run the agency for 21 years and set up a pressure group called Black Girls' Coalition with Iman. By the time she sold up there may not have been parity between white and black models but she imagined she'd done enough.The industry changed with the influx of Eastern-European models. Bewitching-looking women: tall, translucent, angular, with flinty cheekbones and piercing eyes. 'They flooded the market,' says Carole White, who owns Premier Model Management. 'They are beautiful, but it is a bland beauty. It's a certain look. We can all spot it.' As a reaction to the reign of the supermodels, labels like Jil Sander and Prada wanted anonymous faces. 'It was almost as though they were revolted by what they had created,' says Michael Gross, the author of Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. According to Hardison: 'The model was reduced to a coathanger.' Of 200 models on White's books, only seven are black or Asian women and she says they have to work twice as hard to get the jobs. White thinks that fashion has become dominated by a white aesthetic that goes beyond the designers. 'Photographers used to be apprenticed for five years. They would learn about lighting and printing,' she explains. 'The thing is that now they probably use digital cameras and don't know how to light a black girl. It's the same with make-up artists. Black make-up artists like Pat McGrath work magic on white models but you don't see it the other way around. It's probably ignorance, and they are probably frightened. They just don't know how to do it.' There is an unspoken presumption that white readers want white models, white women only want to see an image of themselves on the catwalks. It's what academics call 'the white hegemony' and it's so casual if you're white you don't even notice it. But might the pundits be talking down to their consumers?'Editors say customers won't have it, it won't sell,' says Barbara Summers, a black model in the Seventies and the author of Black and Beautiful and Open the Unusual Door. 'But it's self-defeating. They're projecting their own failure and using black people to make the excuse. It's just cowardice. The irony is that the industry is shrinking in the current financial crisis. It can't grow again if it stays stuck in these past ideas. You can't expand your customer base if you only make products for white girls.' The result, according to Rebecca Carroll, is black teenage girls growing up thinking that they're not admired, a sense that goes beyond what they see in the mirror. 'It's painful,' she says. 'No one likes to be excluded and they grow up thinking they don't exist, therefore people don't care.'Even if one goes along with the view that Italian Vogue was, as Enninful says, 'historic and monumental', look through this month's bunch of British monthly glossies and you'd be hard pressed to find any black images. Editors often maintain that the number of black models they include proportionately matches the population. However, in this month's British glossies, the main fashion spreads are universally white. When you do see black models in magazines the same tropes are repeated again and again, says Zoe Whitley. She is a curator and visiting fellow at Sussex University, whose MA thesis was about blackness in Vogue. In mainstream magazines there is traditionally a proliferation of leopard-print and other animalistic symbols. Certain postures are popular - crawling, leaping in the air and smiling. There are lots of accessories and jewellery and colours that deliberately show up the contrast between fabric and skin - vivid reds, turquoise, white. 'The stories can be stunning,' says Whitley, 'but you don't often get a sense that you'd see a black model in a story about tweed, or a muted palette.' The alternative is to create an atmosphere of exoticism by putting a white model in a foreign environment like an African country or India. 'She becomes exotic and they don't even have to resort to using a black model.'Whitley has a theory that, when a black image is used on the front of a glossy magazine it is often in February, traditionally the lowest-selling month anyway. 'The poor sales become a self-fulfilling prophesy.' As a young woman growing up in Washington and Los Angeles, her family would rush out to buy any magazine with a black person on the front. They imagined they could boost sales single-handed.The lack of black images prompts some commentators to wonder whether magazines are interested in black readers at all. Fashion is a business and like all businesses it goes where it thinks the money is. 'This is a commercial industry,' says Michael Gross, 'run by a bunch of old people. Their job is not to change the world, it is to sell frocks. It's not racism. It's not even unconscious racism. It's an utter cluelessness about the real world.'There is a view, though, that if Senator Barack Obama does win on Tuesday, the response will be profound, even on cosseted, inward-looking Planet Fashion. Michelle Obama has wowed the industry with her fashion instincts. She's already reinvented the way a potential First Lady can dress. She might soon be the most sought-after woman on any glossy magazine front cover anywhere in the world. True, she's not a model but it could mark a sea change. 'It will be a wake-up call,' says Gross. 'The reaction in the fashion business will be a blatant and almost laughable attempt to catch up. Such is this craven industry and such is the way they behave.'CatwalkFashionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Black. Beautiful. Barely seen | Life and style | The Observer {...} Louise France meets the woman leading the fight against racism on the catwalk {...}
Published: November 2, 2008, 12:03 am - Indexed: November 2, 2008, 10:47 am - Page Size: 93KB
Category: Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > News and Media

]]> Regional > Europe > United Kingdom > News and Media {MOVIES > REVIEWS} - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/movies/reviews/the-boy-in-the-striped-pajamas-20081040846.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/movies/reviews/the-boy-in-the-striped-pajamas-20081040846.htm Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:13:54 GMT Starring: David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Asa Butterfield Review: You may not buy into actors playing Nazis with high-toned Brit accents, but the power of this Holocaust tale sneaks up and floors you. Writer-director Mark Herman has adapted John Boyne's novel with admirable restraint. Eight-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) isn't pleased when he and older sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) are forced to leave their friends in Berlin and settle in a remote area where Bruno's commandant father (David Thewlis) has been stationed. The kids and their mother (Vera Farmiga) believe the fence they see outside their window encloses a farm, not a concentration camp. Bruno even ventures out of bounds and meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), the boy in striped pajamas behind the fence. They develop a dangerous, covert friendship with devastating results. Delicate... Rating: 3 Stars Rollingstone.Com The Boy in the Striped Pajamas {new window}   Www.Rollingstone.Com - Starring: David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Asa Butterfield Review: You may not buy into actors playing Nazis with high-toned Brit accents, but the power of this Holocaust tale sneaks up and floors you. Writer-director Mark Herman has adapted John Boyne's novel with admirable restraint. Eight-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) isn't pleased when he and older sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) are forced to leave their friends in Berlin and settle in a remote area where Bruno's commandant father (David Thewlis) has been stationed. The kids and their mother (Vera Farmiga) believe the fence they see outside their window encloses a farm, not a concentration camp. Bruno even ventures out of bounds and meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), the boy in striped pajamas behind the fence. They develop a dangerous, covert friendship with devastating results. Delicate... Rating: 3 Stars
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas : Review : Rolling Stone {...} You may not buy into actors playing Nazis with high-toned Brit accents, but the power of this Holoca... {...}
Published: October 31, 2008, 3:13 pm - Indexed: November 7, 2008, 9:54 am - Page Size: 38KB
Category: Arts > Movies > Reviews

]]> Arts > Movies > Reviews {RESOURCES > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Venus & Zvonareva win Doha spots http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/resources/news-and-media/venus-zvonareva-win-doha-spots-20081065829.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/resources/news-and-media/venus-zvonareva-win-doha-spots-20081065829.htm Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:38:02 GMT Vera Zvonareva and Venus Williams claim the final two places in the season-ending WTA Championships. News.Bbc.Co.Uk Venus & Zvonareva win Doha spots {new window}   News.Bbc.Co.Uk - Vera Zvonareva and Venus Williams claim the final two places in the season-ending WTA Championships.
BBC SPORT | Tennis | Venus & Zvonareva win Doha spots {...}
Published: October 24, 2008, 11:38 pm - Indexed: October 25, 2008, 11:27 am - Page Size: 31KB
Category: Sports > Resources > News and Media

]]> Sports > Resources > News and Media {RESOURCES > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Jankovic battles past Dushevina http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/resources/news-and-media/jankovic-battles-past-dushevina-2008108698.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/resources/news-and-media/jankovic-battles-past-dushevina-2008108698.htm Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:07:14 GMT World number one Jelena Jankovic beats Russia's Vera Dushevina 7-6 6-3 6-2 to reach the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals in Moscow. News.Bbc.Co.Uk Jankovic battles past Dushevina {new window}   News.Bbc.Co.Uk - World number one Jelena Jankovic beats Russia's Vera Dushevina 7-6 6-3 6-2 to reach the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals in Moscow.
BBC SPORT | Tennis | Jankovic battles past Dushevina {...}
Published: October 9, 2008, 6:07 pm - Indexed: October 10, 2008, 12:39 pm - Page Size: 36KB
Category: Sports > Resources > News and Media

]]> Sports > Resources > News and Media {MOVIES > REVIEWS} - Happy-Go-Lucky http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/movies/reviews/happy-go-lucky-2008106129.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/arts/movies/reviews/happy-go-lucky-2008106129.htm Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:13:09 GMT Starring: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan Review: Get ready for Sally Hawkins, a dynamo of an actress who will have her way with you in Happy-Go-Lucky, leaving you enchanted, enraged to the point of madness and utterly dazzled. No list of the year's best performances should be made without her. You should know right off that this is a Mike Leigh movie. It's a cheerier piece of business than you might expect from the British provocateur behind Naked, Secrets & Lies and Vera Drake, but nonetheless a movie driven by character. Leigh, brought up in a Jewish immigrant family, has been called a poet of the working class. His scripts come out of improvisation, from what the actors come up with during rehearsals. More praise, then, to Hawkins, who put her heart into the persistent smile and bruised soul of Poppy, a London elementary-school... Rating: 3.5 Stars Rollingstone.Com Happy-Go-Lucky {new window}   Www.Rollingstone.Com - Starring: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan Review: Get ready for Sally Hawkins, a dynamo of an actress who will have her way with you in Happy-Go-Lucky, leaving you enchanted, enraged to the point of madness and utterly dazzled. No list of the year's best performances should be made without her. You should know right off that this is a Mike Leigh movie. It's a cheerier piece of business than you might expect from the British provocateur behind Naked, Secrets & Lies and Vera Drake, but nonetheless a movie driven by character. Leigh, brought up in a Jewish immigrant family, has been called a poet of the working class. His scripts come out of improvisation, from what the actors come up with during rehearsals. More praise, then, to Hawkins, who put her heart into the persistent smile and bruised soul of Poppy, a London elementary-school... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Happy-Go-Lucky : Review : Rolling Stone {...} Get ready for Sally Hawkins, a dynamo of an actress who will have her way with you in Happy-Go-Lucky... {...}
Published: October 2, 2008, 6:13 pm - Indexed: October 10, 2008, 12:09 pm - Page Size: 38KB
Category: Arts > Movies > Reviews

]]> Arts > Movies > Reviews {NORTH AMERICA > RENTALS} - ROOM AVAILABLE IN 3 BEDROOM SOMA APT (SOMA / south beach) $700 http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/room-available-in-3-bedroom-soma-apt-soma-south-beach-20080947126.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/room-available-in-3-bedroom-soma-apt-soma-south-beach-20080947126.htm Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:17:05 GMT About the Place: We just moved in, and have one room available in our 3 bedroom apt in SOMA. Besides a great location, we have a washer/dryer, a deck, great sunny backyard with a garden (apples, limes, lemons, avocados, aloe, orchids, tomatoes, etc.), a spacious living room, nice big kitchen, one shared bathroom and a storage space below the apartment. Move in Oct 1st, deposit $500. About Us: Late 20s, creative, artsy, music enthusiasts, photography, cooking, camping, anything outdoors actually. We're both from the Midwest originally and moved from the beaches of SoCal where we have lived for the past 6 years. We like to go out for good beer and wine and/or stay in and have a mellow night. One male, getting a Masters in Photography at Academy of Art University, big on the music scene (going to live shows, playing, singing, photographing artists, etc.) you will be his subject on photo shoots.. just an FYI. One female, Casting Director and aspiring writer, big into board games (especially Clue and Scrabble) and game shows (been on Fear Factor, and will be on Wheel of Fortune in three weeks). About You: 20s, responsible, clean, creative, likes to cook or at least do the dishes if we feed you, up for hanging out with us, grabbing a drink, watching movies, having arts n crafts nights, etc. Of course you pay on time and be respectful of our stuff...and finally we'd like you to genuinely like it here. Contribute, decorate, be creative! Move in Oct 1st. Artist is a huge plus, but by no means required. Send us a little bio on yourself including a photo, and tell us why you want to join us/would fit in. If you have a website/venue showing your work (read: are an artist), we would love to check it out. Thanks and good luck! Sfbay.Craigslist.Org ROOM AVAILABLE IN 3 BEDROOM SOMA APT (SOMA / south beach) $700 {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - About the Place: We just moved in, and have one room available in our 3 bedroom apt in SOMA. Besides a great location, we have a washer/dryer, a deck, great sunny backyard with a garden (apples, limes, lemons, avocados, aloe, orchids, tomatoes, etc.), a spacious living room, nice big kitchen, one shared bathroom and a storage space below the apartment. Move in Oct 1st, deposit $500. About Us: Late 20s, creative, artsy, music enthusiasts, photography, cooking, camping, anything outdoors actually. We're both from the Midwest originally and moved from the beaches of SoCal where we have lived for the past 6 years. We like to go out for good beer and wine and/or stay in and have a mellow night. One male, getting a Masters in Photography at Academy of Art University, big on the music scene (going to live shows, playing, singing, photographing artists, etc.) you will be his subject on photo shoots.. just an FYI. One female, Casting Director and aspiring writer, big into board games (especially Clue and Scrabble) and game shows (been on Fear Factor, and will be on Wheel of Fortune in three weeks). About You: 20s, responsible, clean, creative, likes to cook or at least do the dishes if we feed you, up for hanging out with us, grabbing a drink, watching movies, having arts n crafts nights, etc. Of course you pay on time and be respectful of our stuff...and finally we'd like you to genuinely like it here. Contribute, decorate, be creative! Move in Oct 1st. Artist is a huge plus, but by no means required. Send us a little bio on yourself including a photo, and tell us why you want to join us/would fit in. If you have a website/venue showing your work (read: are an artist), we would love to check it out. Thanks and good luck!
ROOM AVAILABLE IN 3 BEDROOM SOMA APT {...}
Published: September 19, 2008, 8:17 am - Indexed: September 19, 2008, 10:01 am - Page Size: 6KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals {NEWS} - Ivanovic survives US Open scare http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/ivanovic-survives-us-open-scare-20080888828.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/ivanovic-survives-us-open-scare-20080888828.htm Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:54:44 GMT Top seed Ana Ivanovic overcomes Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-1 4-6 6-4 in the first round of the US Open. News.Bbc.Co.Uk Ivanovic survives US Open scare {new window}   News.Bbc.Co.Uk - Top seed Ana Ivanovic overcomes Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-1 4-6 6-4 in the first round of the US Open.
BBC SPORT | Tennis | Ivanovic survives US Open scare {...}
Published: August 26, 2008, 6:54 pm - Indexed: August 26, 2008, 9:53 pm - Page Size: 31KB
Category: News

]]> News {RESOURCES > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Top seed Ivanovic survives scare to reach round two http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/resources/news-and-media/top-seed-ivanovic-survives-scare-to-reach-round-20080855529.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/sports/resources/news-and-media/top-seed-ivanovic-survives-scare-to-reach-round-20080855529.htm Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:30:24 GMT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top seed Ana Ivanovic survived a scare at the U.S. Open on Tuesday before scraping past Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-1 4-6 6-4 in the first round. Reuters.Com Top seed Ivanovic survives scare to reach round two {new window}   Www.Reuters.Com - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top seed Ana Ivanovic survived a scare at the U.S. Open on Tuesday before scraping past Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-1 4-6 6-4 in the first round.
An Error has occured | Reuters.com {...}
Published: August 26, 2008, 6:30 pm - Indexed: August 26, 2008, 9:10 pm - Page Size: 11KB
Category: Sports > Resources > News and Media

]]> Sports > Resources > News and Media