However, several of the country’s top models have spoken out about prejudice and discrimination in the Indian fashion industry. They say India has an obsession with pale skin that dates back to British colonial rule.

Leading model and actress Dipannita Sharma said believes it will take many years for the prejudice to fade, “It’s not just the fashion industry, India per se is obsessed with white skin. We will take another hundred years to completelyget over it. The industry doesn’t openly agree that preferring foreign modelsover Indian models just for the skin tone is racism. It has some kind of fairness obsession.”

Indian supermodel Carol Gracias added “You never see a dark-skinned girl on TV ads and that’s where the lucrative work is. Everyone uses fair-skinned girls, people use skin-lighteners like ‘Fair and Lovely’. I don’t – maybe I would have been fair and lovely by now.”

But while Indian shows are becoming major events, the number of Indian models walking in them remains low.  And now India’s fashion models are claiming that when they do manage to land a job, they’re paid less than white models.

The model turned television host Carol Gracias notes that most top Indian models are paid around 500 to 600 pounds for shows, while Western models receive higher fees on average.  Meanwhile, the model/actress Dipannita Sharma points out that, “One could have understood, if it was about getting supermodels of international fame or to work in India [sic] but that’s not happening — it’s just they want fairer skin on the Indian ramps.”

It has also been reported that even the most successful Indian super models are only paid between £550-£600 per show -a tiny fraction of the cost western models are paid. I wish one day they will get equal paid.

You can say that Tryra came from broken home.  Born on December 4, 1973 in California, her parents divorced when she was six years old.  Some credits must go to her parents with the arrangement of having her stay with her mother on weekdays and with her father on weekends.

The arrangement seems to have worked just fine for her because she looked at it as having twice the fun.  She said she wound up having two birthday parties, two Christmas parties, and double the presents.  This is not the usual situation with divorced families. In any case at an early age Tyra was looking at the glass as being half full instead of half empty.

With her great looks and personality she experience being one of the popular girls in school only to become one of the freaky looking ones in high school and the butt of jokes when she started to grow very tall and lanky. She then used her height to her advantage by try her luck at modeling.

She faced rejections at first when apply at various modeling agencies until the world’s largest modeling agency Elite Model Management took her in. She went to Europe and became a hit super model in the early 90s. By mid 90s she was gaining weight and more curves, a no-no in the fashion model world.

This didn’t stop Tyra. She went back to the U.S. and did swimwear and lingerie modeling which appreciated the curves. She was one of the original Victoria’s Secret Angel models. She then used her successful modeling career and popularity to produce and host her own show “America’s Next Top Model”. It was a world-wide success and sealed her place as being an entrepreneur and not just another pretty face. This lady had brains, too.

She also produced and hosted the “Tyra Banks Show”.  She’s done movies, T.V. shows, singing, using her talents to as far as it would take her. She has her own fashion-related website, TypeF.com. and managed to take a course at Harvard University, no less.

Fashion model, entrepreneur, beauty and brains, that’s Tyra Banks.

Designer: Manish Arora

What am I babbling about?

Worry; plain old fashioned, nail-biting angst.

I will admit it’s somewhat the plight of the single woman who juggles all aspects of her life to panic once in a while.

There’s no big, strong man to fix everything, a myth if there ever was one. When I was growing up I was told I’d meet the man of my dreams who would take care of me and we’d live happily ever after.

Come to find out, I’m the man of my dreams, just in pumps and a little black dress.

When a model gets older, it doesn’t matter how great she may look for her age, her marketability changes. 35 year old carbon copies of me are getting jobs I used to get, and not that long ago either. It’s very disheartening to say the least.

Sometimes I find myself apologizing for being over 50. It’s really sick when you think about it. It’s not as if I’ve committed a crime.

Sometimes my agent will call and say, “Susannah, they think you’re in your 40s, so play along.”

Play along? It’s more like colluding over something that is just plain wrong not to mention ridiculous.

Someone once remarked to Gloria Steinem how great she looked for 50. “What’s 50 supposed to look like?” she snapped. Maybe it was 40, in any event you get the point.

She also said, ‘Most women are one man away from welfare.’

Oh God, why did I remember that?

A woman shouldn’t be penalized for aging yet they’d euthanize us if they could get it passed through The House.

In any event, I’m concerned over money, maintaining heath insurance and keeping myself looking spiffy. A woman’s upkeep is costly as you very well can imagine.

I’m not about to give up anything either. A friend suggested I forgo the waxer, a frivolity as far as she’s concerned which explains that mustache.

I’m sorry, that is truly out of the question; being hairy is not an option. I’m going down fighting and that includes smooth legs.

I’ve often heard it said, worry is not preparation and half the stuff you worry about never happens anyway. I guess there’s lots of truth in both theories but alas, I’m losing sleep just the same.

I woke up this morning with tiny valises under my eyes. My neighbor Polly who saw me in the hall asked if, by any chance, I had Chinese food for dinner. Now that was subtle.

No Polly, you arrogant, nosy, I wish you’d move mean bitch. I’m just in need of some sleep and about 10,000 dollars.

I figure if I had that stashed somewhere I’d feel a whole lot better plus I’d be on my way to the Gucci sale that started today.

“What about Lent. You gave up shopping remember?”

“Don’t you have anything better to do? Besides, I said IF I had 10,000.”

You know who really lives in the moment? Animals. They can certainly teach us a thing or 2 about enjoying the present. Wouldn’t you like to be excited over a walk in the park and a coupla biscuits? Wonder if Anthony the Pit Bull’s home. He might have a suggestion for me.

Maybe we could chase a few squirrels together. What am I saying?

Will you excuse me?

I think a nap may be in order.

SB

greggcestaro.com Local Mod Ashley needed a Rhianna styled shoot for her portfolio and Bday Party Blowout Promo Poster.  Self-styled based on Pop Art, we shot in studio using white background with crosslit rear spot lighting and soft box to the left for full figure three dimensional lighting which seemed best.  Shooting clean from the start makes post easy, as cutting out and burning and saturation bumps are so similar.   I like the overall feel and symetery of her poses and form, espeicailly in the line up shot.  This style is good for Fine Art, Athletic, Swimwear, or any other body form imagery. Kinda the same as being backlit by the sun with soft reflected white light from the side.

greggcestaro.com   After running into each other out in the Austin scene for a while now, finally working with this classic model was very cool. Actually, my first shoot with Lydia of WilhelminaBrown was an in the moment street shot at a Ron King mixer, the wintery fur-lined headshot the best, I think.  It’s mostly available backlight from a street light, light painting with a video light, just behind the white logo panel backdrop of the red carpet event I was shooting. This second series we did was with JR Salon. We started with the above flowery hair shot. Clean make-up and combed out renaissance curls, lying on white, with morning sun diffused through a translucent shower curtain, then some post on saturation, yields an elegant shot.  The second concept was done on black, styled after an elegant masquerade, pretty heiress reveal moment kinda thing. Evening wear, more dramatic make-up, and an elegant side sweep of loose curls.  This was primarily a one-light situation, 800 watt seconds, soft box to the right high, f32 range on the camera. A lot of pics came from the series, with looks ranging from Taylor Swift to Madonna, as the shoot progressed. Thats whats most interesting about getting into a groove, when the person you know in front of you can transform into different people right in the lens.  Then we did some pin-up styles in a vintage nautical short shorts and black bikini top, and a “Julia” braided wrap-around crown with flower highlight.  There were many shots that came from this series, some still in post, but I feel this is one of the better ones.  This was all made easy with 30′s styled pin-up lighting arrangement, to give it an instant Vargas Pin-up look, with very little post save the details and saturation.  The final series from the all day shoot was swimwear. Unfortunately, my portable studio light pooped out at the first shot and kinda changed the program from sculpted balanced flashlighting to sunlit backlit and reflected available light editorials done at “Floridaesque” Laguna Gloria in Austin, Tx.

I like ‘em alot fer sure, but the swimwear concept deserves a revisit with the all important  portable studio light up and running, so I can get a more Victoria Secret styled looks, although, the candid, vintage softer looks captures her well.  Nevertheless, a talented model makes shooting easier and I look forward to working with her again and seeing her career progress.

Candice Swanepoel ranked #18 by Models.com, best know for Victoria’s Secret fame.

Daphne Groeneveld ranked #8

Aline Webber ranked #33

Hanne Gaby Odiele ranked #27

American model Sessilee Lopez

Frida Gustavsson ranked #17

Jourdan Dunn ranked #13

American model Andie Arthur

Sui He ranked #19

Juju Ivanyuk and Anabela Belikova

Xiao Wen Ju ranked #50

Daiane Conterato

Irina Kulikova

Joan Smalls ranked #4

Colinne Michaelis

I wish I had another blog of the male hotties from Fashion Week….but unfortunately I didn’t see any! I guess just the timing of the shows–and the days I attended didn’t work out. Too bad. So let me just add a photo of my favorite male model of all time….

RUL

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