Chanel Iman & Jourdann Dunn are the most demanded models of color in today’s fashion shows | Wire.

BET raises awareness to the lack of Black Models in the fashion industry tonight with the BET News Special: Fashion Blackout:

BET News takes an inside look at one of fashion’s industry’s lasting weaknesses: The lack of Black models at major fashion shows and ad campaigns. Across the globe, as the runways fade to white, we have to ask ourselves, “Has Black become unfashionable?”

Top Black style-makers will pull no punches as they expose their industry’s dirty little secret: racism by some of the top names in fashion. Bethann Hardison, Naomi Campbell, Andre Leon Talley, Tracy Reese Liya Kebede, Iman and others give the lowdown on the lack of Black images in high fashion.

According to Targetmarket News.com Black women in the United States spend more than $20 billion on apparel each year. However, the runways, magazine spreads and the image/beauty industry at large is increasingly ignoring their buying power and their existence, choosing instead to market an eastern-European form of beauty as the standard. At the spring 2008 collections at Fashion Week in September 2007 in New York, the runways were dominated by white faces. In fact, Black faces were more absent from the runways than some fashion insiders have seen since the ‘60s. READ MORE

Vogue Italia plans to push the change, releasing its July issue with only non-white models. Be sure to catch BET’s special tonight @ 8:30 p.m ET/PT when they go behind the scenes of New York fashion Week…

And speaking of Vogue magazine, here is the current June cover of French Vogue which features model/actress Noemie Lenoir. Noemie is a gorgeous successful black model who has been in Victoria’s Secret, Gap and Loreal ads.

LL Cool J for Sears | WWD

LL Cool J hopes to build his name in fashion, with a release of shop-in-shops in Sears department stores. The shops will be located in the Juniors area, next to the likes of Southpole, Levi’s, Personal Identity and Joe Boxer:

The collection will retail on the higher end of its mix in juniors — from $22 for a graphic T-shirt to $50 for a pair of jeans.

Evidence of LL Cool J’s involvement is evident throughout — from an embroidered tattoo on the back of a jacket to song lyrics printed on a T-shirt. By holiday, the collection will grow in number of stockkeeping units, extend into 600 doors and launch accessories, Neger said. With LL Cool J’s wide appeal, Neger said he can envision the brand extending into new categories ranging from bedding to fitness equipment. SOURCE

Mary J. Blige’s watch design

Mary J Blige gets into jewelry design a little bit, joining other celebrities in designing limited edition Ernst Benz watchs to benefit Chrysalis, the nonprofit association that helps men and women transition from poverty:

The collection, dubbed Time for Change, will offer a numbered series of 24 watches per designer in honor of Chrysalis’ 24th anniversary. Renderings of the watches will be unveiled on May 31 at the 7th Annual Chrysalis Butterfly Ball in Los Angeles on Saturday. Fifty percent of the proceeds from each watch sold — which range from $4,000 to $22,000 — will go to Chrysalis. Several watches also will be auctioned off on eBay in June, while the remainder will hit stores in the fall. SOURCE