Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing is a huge proponent of more diversity in the fashion industry. The incredibly successful designer has spoken out about the issue before and compared Rihanna to supermodels of the past for the way she's changing body norms. Now, Olivier talks about how fashion doesn't belong to white people and the lightening of models in campaigns in an interview with Out.
Rousteing uses fragrance ads as an example of a lack of Black women in fashion. "Look at perfume campaigns. You never see black girls, and if you do, they use Photoshop so much that they almost look white. It’s just wrong​." Rousteing says he's received a lot of positive feedback for using a diverse cast of models in his campaigns. "People post on my Instagram that they are so happy to see black boys and black girls. I’m happy that they see it and don’t think that fashion belongs to white people."Â
It's a known fact that the fashion industry is lacking in diversity. It's a huge deal when Vogue puts a model of colors on its September issue because it's so rare. Plenty of models, including Chanel Iman, have even talked about the racism they've experienced in the fashion industry. In reality, these should be the norm.Â
You can read the rest of the interview here.
[via Out Magazine]
