0:00 I couldn't find clothing in my nude shade. I just thought it would be a great look. It wasn't anything too deep. And when I started Googling, I couldn't find anything. And then the second part of that which is a bit deeper as I started thinking about, well, why isn't there anything in a nude shade for my color? And how can when I google new to everything is page. 0:19 You've heard racism and sexism, but what about shadism? For the women involved in the world of fashion, it is a real problem. Communities are banding together to educate and change the public. I met with Nicole Lukas Richardson founder of Good Form. 0:40 So shadism been recognized as an interracial discriminatory practice, but it's also outside of that we've seen that a lot in marketings we would see a lot of more, quote unquote, multicultural brand campaigns. But the women of colour were either Latin or light skinned black woman and lighter eyes, Hazel or a very light brown eye with a tint of blonde in the hair. Or you were seeing the very heavily pigmented black woman that was thinner. That was somewhat a glamorized version of the stereotypes of what an African woman would look like. It's not necessarily saying that one particular group of people are superior to the next it's more like within that group of people these are our ideals of beauty. I've recently started a company called Good Form a digital platform that brings apparel, makeup, accessories, in new shades for people of all colors. We want to start building a community. We like being part of the conversation around shaders and colorism and that thought process but also because we want feedback from our market. And I really wanted a company to start something that put people who have always been secondary or tertiary consumers at the forefront. 1:56 Danica Haber spoke to me about her experiences of shadism them right before judging at a casting event. 3:15 I'm in FSN 706, which is the fashion event planning course at Ryerson. And I'm the styling and collections lead. I'm working with a bridal wear brand called Lovers Land, showcasing their newest bridal wear collection. Our client wants diversity, so we're looking for models of all ethnicities, all genders. As long as they're comfortable in gowns and lingerie, we want to stray away from the whole tall blonde white girl because right now no shade, but like they don't have that much diversity in there. So introducing that to them will be like a huge deal for their brand. I'm from the Philippines. In the Philippines, even though there were a lot of Marino's, which is brown girls, there was still a stigma of being lighter is better because we were westernized and like colonized for a long time. And so that kind of just stayed within that culture. Even though I was living in the Philippines basically my entire life, I still didn't feel represented. When big fashion houses are starting to hire more people of color, it obviously makes me feel good about myself. 3:16 I am black I identify as black, African Canadian, I've experienced both sides of shade ism, I'm one of the darker ones on my mom's side of the family. So I get the don't play in the sun too long or make sure you're right where the right colors. But then on my father's side of the family I wanted the fairer ones. So then I get a lot of, oh, you don't want to date a certain type of person because they're too dark for you. I never took it as an insidious comment or hurtful comment. It was just to the people who said it's something that was ingrained in their mindset. But does it worm your way into your subconscious thinking and then consequently into your outward activity and decision making? Definitely. And I've made an effort in the last few years, amongst other isms that I've been faced with to be mindful of the decisions that I'm making and the thoughts and feelings that feed into those decisions. 4:09 Tokenism is spoken among many fashionistas. I asked Nicole and Danica, is there enough diversity in high end fashion? 4:17 In terms of high end brands? No. I mean, there's still a bit of tokenism happening. And by that, I mean, there's the one obviously Asian there's the one obviously person of color, but the majority are still wavy, tall, white women. I think I do see more diversity overall. The unfortunate part of that diversity, particularly with women of color, it's a caricature diversity. So you see extreme hip to waist ratios, extreme lip to face with ratios, characteristics of certain women of color, for sure, that have been noted over time, but not of all women of color. It's not necessarily authentic diversity. Hopefully, it changes because tokenism is still such a huge part of the fashion industry. I think they just need to hire realistic people, they should just break down that wall of this is the type of girl that we want. This is the only type of girl that we want. If you have more diversity, you're not just targeting one type of person anymore, you're targeting more people just because they see themselves being represented. 5:26 Once the realization is made amongst businesses that people of color do have substantially significant purchasing dollars that they are influential in the space. I mean, black women are the number one influencers on Instagram in terms of style choices, but there's still the stereotype that you know, people of color don't have the purchasing power that people who are typically of European descent do. 5:51 Shadeism is wrong. You need to recognize that it's time for change to stamp out the stigma and the shade of it all. In Toronto, I'm Aaliyah Harris.