LIFE: Blacks in fashion: The rundown

Here's a brief recap of Bethann Hardison's two-hour long panel discussion on the dearth of blacks in fashion.

Who attended: Iman, Naomi Campbell, Liya Kebede, Alva Chin, Andre Leon Talley, Tracy Reese, Robin Givhan (Washington Post), Teri Agins (Wall Street Journal), Kyle Hagler (IMG), Constance White (eBay), James Scully (casting agent), Claude Grunitzky (TRACE) among many others.

A few soundbites:

Naomi Campbell on how it's necessary to break the rules in order to penetrate the color barriers in fashion: "Very few people know that I got my French Vogue cover because I asked. But if you ask you look like a b*tch. But Yves Saint Laurent told them that he would pull their advertising if they did not give me the cover."

Alva Chin: "It's up to the young, aspiring models to stand strong and not give up."

Bethann Hardison: "I've talked to so many young models who say, ' my agent told me this isn't the season for black girls. I guess it's just not our time. The designer didn't ask for any black girls.' But if the agents are waiting to be asked before sending them out, we're never going to get anywhere."

Constance White: "It's important to note that we're, meaning black Americans, aren't really represented among the decision makers. We saw an increase in Asian models on the runway with the rise of all of these Asian designers. We don't have very many working black designers."

Liya Kebede: "You can blame the agents but really the onus is on the designers. If the designers says they don't want black girls, that's it. So they're the ones who really need to be held accountable."

The next step: Bethann will be holding a larger panel discussion open to the public at the New York Public Library on the same topic in early October.