New York Fashion Week is once again underway as runway photos and street style shoots flood the Internet. It has only been a few months since September’s NYFW, when veteran supermodels and magazine bigwigs like Bethann Hardison, Iman, and Andre Leon Talley called the industry on the carpet for failing to showcase diversity. And it seems like things have changed, as fashion houses worldwide are seeing the beauty in brown skin.
Models of color like Cindy Bruna, Malaika Firth, and Liya Kebede have infiltrated even the most exclusive fashion houses. But considering that there are literally continents full of people of color, one face per spread might not be enough. Still, it’s a start. Flip through to see which Black beauties are striking a pose in the spring/summer 2014 campaigns.
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Posts tagged as “Malaika Firth”
Prada, a label known for rarely casting models of color, has selected a black model for a new print campaign. For first time in 19 years, a woman of African decent will be a major face of the luxury fashion brand in a Fall/Winter 2013 advertisement.
Malaika Firth, a bi-racial black woman who is half Kenyan and British, was born in the Kenyan city of Mombasa and raised in the United Kingdom. The 19-year-old, who also boasts Ugandan, Swiss, and Seychellois ancestry, appears in the latest Prada seasonal ad series with 44-year-old supermodel Christy Turlington among other faces.
Fellow supermodel Naomi Campbell was the last black woman to be featured in a Prada ad campaign in 1994.
Firth told The Telegraph that she is “extremely proud and happy” to be following in the footsteps of the pioneering black supermodel. Naomi Campbell was one of the first black models to receive international recognition.