British model Jourdan Dunn took to Twitter over the weekend to complain that she was dropped from the Christian Dior Couture runway show at Paris Fashion Week because of her large bust line.
Dunn, 22, claimed that the fashion house cut her at the last minute because her chest is too big for its clothes. Dior is notorious for its waif-like models whose tiny waists and small busts promote an unrealistic body image, experts say.
Dior's selection of models has been criticized before. Earlier this year, casting director James Scully, who works with Tom Ford and Jason Wu, commented on the lack of diversity in the lineup.
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"Some of the biggest names who move fashion to the forefront, like Dior, get a
'D-minus' on ethnic diversity," he told BuzzFeed. "I feel the Dior cast is just so pointedly white that it feels deliberate. I watch that show and it bothers me — I almost can't even concentrate on the clothes because of the cast. And recently they're changing from a very diverse, worldwide, multicultural cast to just a very Germanic-looking white girl."
Dunn, who is African-American, said she has encountered the discrimination firsthand. In a March interview with
The Edit, Dunn recalled how she was once turned away from castings because the client "didn’t want any more black girls."
But some fashion industry insiders say each designer has the right to be selective in their model choices.
"In the end of the day, they are selling clothes and they are projecting an image and it’s their prerogative,"
Erin Busbee, the owner of Busbee Style, a fashion consulting company, told ABC News. "It is their right to say, 'She is not right for us.'"
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