In the past, people were always used to putting fashion in certain specific scenes, such as the shows in Paris and the street styles in Milan. However, fashion is like weeds that break through various settings and grow arbitrarily in different places.
Try to look back on human life, see how people went to different countries and meet different people by accident. It is clear that changes in fashion is the inevitable result of the advance of human civilization and is also a mirror of social progress.
Mentioning fashion models, what is the first image that flashes into your mind?
Is it a fair-skinned young lady? Or a slender thin girl? Do you remember that most of the image of the models on the runway was often inseparable from the characteristics of white, thin, and beautiful?
There can only be one black model among the ten supermodels, which was the latent rules of the former fashion circle. Meanwhile, those plump ‘marshmallow girls’ with rounded body are excluded from the mainstream fashion market.
Nonetheless, this phenomenon has transformed significantly in the past decade. With the continuous development of feminist spirit, the reduction in racial prejudice, the revolution of aesthetic concepts, and the improving health perspectives, many factors have caused the vibrant fashion world with an emphasis on diversity.
Nowadays, the expression of beauty is more diverse, everyone can find a trace closer to themselves on the fashion show: swarthy, plump, muscular, elderly, etc.
A black African model takes action to promote fashion diversity
Sometimes exterior conditions may limit your own development, however, as long as you have great courage and dare to break through the narrowness of the outside judgment, you can also let yourself shine.
Today I would like to recommend you the story of Deddeh Howard (DD), an African model and blogger. Because of the skin colour issue, DD once repeatedly failed the interviews. In order to prove herself, she re-created a series of advertising photographs of world-famous models from brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and more. The stunning photos quickly spread and then attracted a lot of netizens.
DD wrote in her Facebook:
“Not to long ago it happened to me that I would walk into various fashion model agencies and I would immediately be compared to that one or two black model that they had on the roster. Even though I was told by those agencies that I have an amazing look and wish they could represent me, they already have a black model. Besides having an abundance of white models. It seemed as if one or two black models on the roster are enough to represent us all.”
She was always troubled by this, especially since we have to admit that black girls were rarely seen in certain amazing fashion photos.
DD was determined to prove that black women can also be charming in fashion, so she asked her partner Raffael to help take the “Black Mirror” series of photos and then upload online. Putting photos together, making sure photos would look as close to identical as possible from clothes and accessories to the poses and expressions on her face, investing a lot of time.
Finally, hard work pays off, she enjoys the process of fighting for diversity and hopes her project can appeal to the fashion world to be more tolerant. Her aim is to inspire others to pursue their dreams, supply the voice of black skin and design some inspiring activities for her race.
When there is darkness, dare to be the first to shine a light!
Diversity, representativeness and visibility play an important role in shaping confidence and self-acceptance in the real world. It is true that there are too many injustices and discriminations nowadays, but as long as everyone keeps breaking through yourself in life and defending the rights you should have, the outside world will naturally make way for you.
As a result, I suggest that you first face and affirm yourself, and then make efforts to win the respect and applause from others.
The fashion industry is using various actions to deliver us a message: the appearance of any person in this society can become the expression and interpretation of ‘beauty’. Regardless of whether the model is racially diverse or gender tolerant, numerous advances have revealed the diversified future of our fashion world.
The answer to ‘what is beauty’ or ‘what is fashion’ is not so important, because everyone in the world is unique.