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Israel: Breaking the �Blonde Monopoly�
Nadav Hillebrand
Her first several contracts, starting in 2001, revealed an unmistakable theme: chocolate advertisements, a magazine coffee ad, public relations pamphlets for a health insurance fund in which she posed with other Israelis from diverse backgrounds, ads for a range of carpets with African designs.
Esti Mamu, who came to Israel from Ethiopia as a 10-year-old in 1991, was in demand as much for her color as for her looks. Betty Rockaway, the agent who first signed her in 1999, has said she thought to herself, on first setting eyes on the slender Mamu, "King Solomon married such a person." And her agency, Image in Tel Aviv, was delightedly marketing her in that vein, hailing her in its publicity material for "bringing new chocolate to the eyes of Israel."
Only Mamu herself wasn't especially happy about the profiling. "I was getting photo opportunities, but they were quite small, and they were blatantly because of my skin color," she says today, sipping cappuccino in a back office at Image, bare-shouldered, lightly made-up, with her hair in an exuberant Afro cut.
The "Black Is Beautiful" mantra, central to the global success of international supermodels like Imam and Naomi Campbell, "took its time to reach these shores," agrees Shira Broyer, fashion editor for the Ha�aretz daily. Adds another industry insider, "Ethiopian models were generally used only when companies wanted to give a sense of how everyone in Israel is standing together."
The clearest proof for Mamu that she had yet to surmount the "token black" barrier was when she missed out in her bid to be one of a dozen Israeli models in last spring's major campaign here for Castro jeans. "I knew I'd made a good impression, and I really deserved to get that contract. When I didn't, it was pretty clear to me that my color had something to do with it." The company just didn't want a black woman for the overwhelmingly white Israeli market, she believes.
For Mamu, that failure was a moment of truth time. "I had to decide whether I was going to stick this out, and see if I could break through the color barrier, or go to university, and study toward an MBA." (She�d finished high school with a major in business.)
Mamu chose the former, and she�s been vindicated. That she�s Israel�s foremost Ethiopian model goes without saying these days. But she is now safely ensconced among Israel's leading models, white and black -- "certainly in the top 10, and getting hotter," according to Smadar Ganzi, fashion-show director and fashion editor at Ma�ariv. She led November's campaign -- in Israeli magazines and at fashion shows -- for Intima, a subsidiary of Golf clothing. And she�s won a contract to model jewelry here for the Brazilian-based H. Stern. While Mamu prefers not to talk about her earnings -- she allows only that "it�s fun to get free clothes all the time; my wardrobe is packed" -- top Israeli models can annually earn six-figure dollar incomes, say industry insiders.
And her overseas appeal is starting to spread, too. Two days before meeting with The Report, Mamu returned from a trip to Prague in which she finalized a contract with Kenvelo, a European clothing line, to launch a new collection in the Czech capital. There are more than 10 international models in the campaign, soon to get under way, but Mamu will be the main focus of a massive billboard campaign. "I know I was something of an oddity to the Europeans," she says. Not because she is black, though. "Because I am Ethiopian, Israeli and Jewish. That was a bit puzzling for them."
The only handicap to true supermodel stardom now, says Ganzi, has nothing to do with her color, but with her height. At 1.71 meters (five foot, six inches), Mamu is about six centimeters (two inches) shorter than the international norm.
Esti Mamu was born in the remote village of Chila, 200 kilometers north of Addis Ababa, the second youngest of eight siblings. The family came to Israel in the May 1991 Operation Solomon airlift, and settled at Mikhmoret, on the coast north of Netanyah. In 1993, they moved south to Kiryat Malakhi, where Mamu completed high school and her parents still live. In contrast to many others in the 85,000-strong Ethiopian immigrant community, the Mamus have settled in well. "My two older sisters are raising families, and the rest are all working," she says. "They�re doing fine."
Mamu says she was being told from her early teens that she should go into modeling. "People always said to me, �You�re so beautiful,�" she recalls with a little shake of her head, trying not to sound vain. The admiration evidently had an impact. At 18, through a mutual friend, she was introduced to Rockaway, who quickly signed her to Image, and a career was born.
She comes from what she describes as an Orthodox home, but says her parents were supportive from the start. "They are happy to see me succeed. It may be a little hard for them seeing me posing in underwear and seeing my body in various catalogs, but they never tried to prevent me from doing anything."
Although she was unhappy that the initial work was plainly for a black model, Mamu took it in the firm belief that she'd eventually smash the "blonde monopoly" at the top of Israeli modeling. "I was very confident of my time coming," she says.
Tamar Desta, head of public relations for the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews, a Jerusalem-based advocacy group, says admiringly that "what�s unique about Esti, and what has assured her of success, has been her refusal to settle for a brief, mediocre career and then fade away. She kept on plugging away, and now she�s made it."
So much so that she's becoming a mini-celebrity. The Ma�ariv youth magazine and the leading "La�Isha" women�s magazine have both interviewed her recently, and she's appeared on "In and Out," an entertainment news show on Channel 2.
Growing in self-assurance, Mamu answers some questions with what are clearly well-rehearsed answers, initially insisting blandly that she is "very happy with my recent success." But she is also prepared to dig a little deeper about the secret of it. "What happened was that it became clear that I was the only black model in it for the long haul. And I eventually reached a place where, strangely, I was controlling that market. And then, slowly, slowly, I started getting called to jobs because of my beauty and not just my color."
Now that she's broken through, Mamu says she hopes other Ethiopian models here will too. "I think Ethiopians are the most beautiful people in the world," she says earnestly. "There are countless girls who wish to and very much deserve to enter modeling. They are looking to me and my success for inspiration and guidance."
She speaks vaguely about wanting to set up a course at an Ethiopian community center in Rishon Letzion, where she now lives on her own, at which she would coach young girls on developing their portfolios and get their feet in the door of the modeling world.
At 22, does she think she still has time to become a global superstar, the next Naomi Campbell? Mamu isn't ruling anything out. "I�m a young woman who knows what she wants and goes after it," she says. "And modeling is my business."
May 5, 2003
Israel
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