If the fashion industry were to peer into the mirror it would prefer to see a white face staring back, claims Naomi Campbell, the world's best-known black supermodel.

In an interview this week coinciding with New York fashion week, Naomi has aimed a delicate kick at an industry which has labelled her both the "black Bardot" and the "black panther", but which she claims still prefers blondes.

Carefully avoiding using the word "racism", the supermodel described the "narrow-mindedness" she has encountered in her 11-year modelling career. "You've got to understand, this" business is about selling, and blonde and blue-eyed girls are what sells," she said.

The supermodel, who has just landed a campaign contract with Ralph Lauren and Polo Sport, claimed there was prejudice in the fashion industry and that she was surrounded by people who wanted to portray her as a wild beast, "a typical stereotype".

"I feel I have to speak out. By talking about it I might embarrass people, make them more aware.

Her remarks elicited a sympathetic if guarded, response from the industry. Most agreed black models found it nearly impossible to land the plum contracts - magazine fronts and exclusive cosmetic deals.

However, when it came to blame, designers pointed the finger at magazines, magazines at modelling agencies, agencies at the advertisers and everyone at society in general.

Putting it bluntly, Jean Paul Gaultier's spokesman said: "When you put black girls on the cover of a magazine, sales drop by 20 per cent." This figure is privately accepted by most fashion magazines.

Gaultier recently staged a show using 12 black models in protest at France's tough immigration laws, but his spokesman says most designers are content to use black models only to show ethnic designs.

"I would not say the fashion industry is racist, it's the world which is racist. It is people who buy fashion and people who buy magazines and they seem to prefer the white woman.

Campbell claimed she was pushed off the front cover of American Vogue last May and replaced by blonde-haired, blue-eyed Niki Taylor. "They put my picture on the inside cover, when I'd originally been told it would be the cover... I felt it would have been better not to use my picture at all."

American Vogue dismissed the story as "old news", but in the last two years the magazine has not used any black models on its front cover.

Elle's deputy editor, Cathryn Brown, says Campbell's colour is irrelevant. In the last year she has been featured on two Elle covers, including the magazine's best-ever selling issue last September.

However, she concedes that Campbell has a general point. "It is harder to get black models than white and in the past black models have been discriminated against. The most coveted contract is a make-up contract whose products tend to be aimed at pale skins."

Campbell's agency, London-based Elite Premier, has 100 girls on its books. Five are black. The agency refused to comment on Campbell's remarks.

Select modelling agency also declined to be drawn into the debate, but Storm, which has 10 black models out of 100, believes the situation is changing. Its spokeswoman says advertisers are less interested in colour than personality.

Campbell's censure of an industry which has made her a millionaire is greeted with a degree of surprise by black fashion magazines.

Jean Simpson, of Pride, a London-based black fashion magazine, said Campbell was correct to take a stand. "Yes, there is racism in the fashion industry, but for the last 10 years Naomi Campbell has benefited by being one of the few visible black faces on the fashion pages."