Black model Jourdan Dunn's rapid rise to the top of her profession has merely served to highlight the lack of ethnic diversity on catwalks around the world

Alice Wyllie examines how the question of colour has emerged as fashion's latest controversy

YOUNG, beautiful and successful, 19-year-old supermodel Jourdan Dunn evidently has it all. This year she earned the distinction of being the first black model in ten years to appear in a Prada catwalk show – the previous one being the megastar Naomi Campbell. During the spring/summer 2008 international fashion weeks, Dunn popped up in an incredible 75 shows, including Louis Vuitton and Valentino, and last week she was crowned model of the year at the British Fashion Awards.

It's been an incredible year for this feline beauty, yet her rapid rise to fame has mainly served to shine the spotlight on the fact that so few black models enjoy similar success. In fact, when I pick five fashion shows from the spring/summer 2009 shows at random, two of those shows (Chloe and Antonio Berardi) don't feature any black models at all. Lanvin features three, Louis Vuitton two (one of whom was Dunn) and Miu Miu just one: Jourdan Dunn.

Over the past year, fashion's apparent whitewashed status has become the new size zero debate, with a number of prominent figures in the fashion industry speaking out about the dearth of ethnic-minority models on the catwalks, in publicity campaigns and in fashion magazines. Sarah Doukas, the managing director of Dunn's modelling agency Storm has said that when she started out 20 years ago there was plenty of diversity in fashion – not so now.

Horror stories float around the industry of casting briefs requesting "no ethnics", designers describing black models as "too strong" for their clothes or simply saying that black people don't suit their clothes.

Alison Bruce, a director at Glasgow-based The Look Agency is keen to represent black models: "We have a few black models and I don't find them any less popular with clients than any other models," she says. "In fact Vicky Boateng, Vanessa Kanbi and Beverley Armstrong, all gorgeous black women, are three of our most popular models at the moment.

"There is definitely an issue with the lack of black faces in the industry and I do think it's of note that even the big-name black supermodels aren't really booked for beauty campaigns. However, I really don't believe it's an issue in Scotland."

British photographer Nick Knight has described the fashion industry as being "steeped in racism"; Vivienne Westwood has tried to persuade magazines to adopt a quota system for ethnic-minority models and designer Katherine Hamnett has been very outspoken on the issue, saying: "The catwalks are full of white dogs. Cosmetic companies don't like black models – the racist bitches. I have no idea why, when it's obvious that black girls are just so genuinely much more beautiful than Caucasians, who have clearly got the short straw. Black girls have much better body shapes and it's such a shame. I just think there should be a bit more of a balance."

American supermodel Tyra Banks, who shot to fame at the same time as Naomi Campbell and now presents the hit television programme America's Next Top Model, has spoken of being turned away at castings because they 'already have one black girl', and Naomi Campbell has said that black models "are being sidelined by the major modelling agencies", adding that "women of colour are not a trend".

It's an issue that Dunn herself has raised. At London Fashion Week in February, she said: "London's not a white city, so why should our catwalks be so white?" A bold question from a person not yet out of her teens, but then by all accounts, Dunn is an exceptional young woman.

Famously discovered in a west London branch of Primark in 2006, Dunn has now appeared on the covers of British Vogue, Italian Vogue, Pop and i-D, and starred in advertising campaigns for Benetton, Gap and Topshop. Her heart-shaped face, wide-set eyes and flawless skin have helped to catapult her to the top of her industry and she has become the new poster girl for aspiring black models.

Doukas has described Dunn as a "trailblazer", an odd word considering the black supermodels who have come before her, from Naomi Campbell in the 1980s to Alek Wek in the 90s. However, the fashion industry seems to be going backwards: today ethnic minorities are so under-represented on the catwalks that Dunn is blazing something of a trail.

During the 70s, 80s and early 90s, the supermodel was athletic, womanly, provocative and sexual, an aesthetic that fitted perfectly with Tyra Banks's curves, Naomi Campbell's thighs and Iman's Amazonian proportions. Beauty was about voluptuous lips and sensual curves.

Today, where the accepted aesthetic is thin, androgynous, boyish, child-like and blonde, black beauty doesn't fit quite so easily. Naomi Campbell reportedly said she could no longer get on the cover of British Vogue, while Ivan Bart, the vice-president of IMG models, has said that "that the rules have become stricter. When I first started in the business, a beautiful model of any colour could be on (a magazine] cover."

But could there be more to it than simple trends in beauty? The common excuse is that it all comes down to money and the claim that black women don't shift products, be it handbags or hand cream. Some have described them as not appealing to fashion's aspirational notions, others have said that beauty sells and that – unfortunately – our conventional perception of beauty is very white. Magazine editors have said that as much as they'd like to use ethnic women on their covers, when they do, their title suffers from a dip in sales.

However, this argument was recently quashed by Italian Vogue's July "black issue", which featured exclusively black models and sold out everywhere. It was in such high demand that an extra 40,000 copies were printed (the magazine's monthly circulation is 109,000) and copies were selling for up to £50 on eBay.

Jourdan Dunn graced the cover, and by the looks of things will be returning. Franca Sozzani, the magazine's editor, puts it simply: "Now that I have seen the reaction, I want to put more (black models] in the magazine."

So black models are bankable, after all. You wouldn't think it when you consider that Forbes magazine's 2007 list of the top-earning 15 models in the world featured only one black woman, the Ethiopian model Liya Kebede. British Vogue's editor Alexandra Shulman claims that the number of black women featured in her magazine is "absolutely on a par with the whole population", but the fact remains that of more than 100 shows held during the 2007/08 fashion weeks in London, Paris, Milan and New York, more than a third did not feature a single black model.

A sobering statistic when you consider that of London's 8 million-strong population, 800,000 people are Afro-Caribbean, a proportion not dissimilar to other fashion capitals such as New York and Paris.

What's terrifying about the under-representation of black women in this very specific industry is that it speaks volumes about our perceptions of beauty, power, wealth and status.

Traditionally in most cultures, lighter skin has been considered more desirable, symbolising all of the above. Perhaps in the 21st century nothing much has changed.

However, while the cynical among us might suggest Dunn's recent accolade at the British Fashion Awards may be something of a token gesture, an attempt to appease those who've thrown accusations of racism at the fashion industry, perhaps it heralds a new era in beauty and fashion. Perhaps it's the first step towards making black the new black.