WHY HAS IT TAKEN PRADA 21 YEARS TO LET A BLACK WOMAN OPEN ONE OF IT'S SHOWS?
- SISTERHOOD
- Mar 5, 2018
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 6, 2018
History was made with Prada as first black model opens Milan Fashion Week, photograph: CC
By Naomi May
05.03.18
As Prada unveiled its AW18 collection at Milan Fashion Week, history was made.
For the first time since Naomi Campbell in 1997, a woman of colour opened a show for the Italian fashion house. 19-year-old, Instagram-famous Sudanese Anok Yai is the model in question here.
Diversity-wise, things appear to be looking up for the fashion industry. During London’s most recent Fashion Week, the British Fashion Council estimated that diversity on the catwalk had risen closer to the London population average of 40%.
So yes, the figures seem to be improving. And yes, the fashion industry is certainly more diverse than any newsroom I’ve ever encountered. But my question is this: why is it taking fashion houses so long to embrace WoC on the runway?
It took one whole decade after Naomi Campbell’s debut appearance in 1997 to get another black model to even appear in a Prada show (Jourdan Dunn in this instance.) It seems bizarre that there is even a difference between the impact a white model and a black model can have. Do clothes really hang differently on models of different ethnicities? Do colours really look that abrasive to the eye on models of different races? Like it or not, the clothed-bodies which are paraded down catwalks become an ideal of beauty, and that is not without consequence when diversity figures are so low.
Similarly to how Black Panther has become something of an aspirational beacon for young black people across the world to finally see themselves reflected in a predominantly black cast with a black superhero lead, it’s vital that fashion too begins to reflect this shift in the zeitgeist. There’s a societal thirst for more diversity in popular culture (which now includes fashion) that needs quenching.
Bravo, Prada, but please don’t make us wait another decade.
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