Yesterday, The Guardian profiled Lorde Inc. a modeling agency for black and non-black people of color. In a piece Lorde’s founder Nafisa Kaptownwala wrote for Space Matters, she explores her motivation for founding the modeling agency:
It’s important to know that this wasn’t something that I was pursuing because I felt like it gave my work an edge. I often find that stylists choose to work with models of color or cast non-conventional models for a sort of edge, that spice factor. I started casting models of color, models that look like my friends and I, because it’s a social injustice that we don’t see more of these faces more often.
The dearth of diversity is an issue that the fashion world seems to acknowledge, but has made almost no progress towards any real change and Lorde Inc is definitely a refreshing step in the right direction. But, as Kaptownwala tells the Guardian, "There’s still not a massive demand because this is still a radical idea and people in fashion are not really ready for it,” she went on further, “How does that make me feel? In general I think, as a person of colour, you internalise. Creating this agency is a way to channel those feelings." While Lorde Inc. mainly services a niche demand within the industry, the greater goal and aim of the agency and its founder is not only to provide employment to models of color, but to also:
...make a point that People of Color are people too. We’re not a monolith, your fetish, your type. And not only did I want to draw attention to how beautiful we are, I wanted to make a point that we shouldn’t need to have to keep fighting to prove that.
We're here for that.
