The luxury end of the fashion spectrum isn’t exactly known for championing diversity when it comes to beauty ideals, but could we be on the brink of real change? Kind of …
ONE OF THE MOST TALKED ABOUT models in the fashion world right now currently sports a mouthful of silver braces, insists on wearing a hijab and can only boast 107,000 Instagram followers (chicken feed to the Kendalls and the Gigis of this world). Nineteen year-old Halima Aden’s breakout moment took place on February 15 at Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 5 show during New York fashion week, when the Somali-Minnesotan, who was born in a Kenyan refugee camp, walked the runway in a floor-length fur coat and black headscarf. Her strict standards of modesty mean she’ll only wear conservative looks that comply with her beliefs, but that doesn’t seem to worry her fairy godmother, renowned stylist Carine Roitfeld, who cast Aden in Yeezy, enlisted photographer Mario Sorrenti to shoot her for the cover of the 10th edition of CR Fashion Book and featured her in the 17-page makeup portfolio for BAZAAR this month (see “Boldly Beautiful” on page 92). IMG Models signed Aden at breakneck speed, and a week later she was walking in the Alberta Ferretti and Max Mara shows during Milan fashion week.
Fashion designers have long used the runway as a soapbox from which to espouse their political views, but if there was ever a season when they felt the need to react, this recent fashion month, amid the marginalisation of minorities under US President Donald Trump’s policies, was it. Aden has undeniably become a poster child for diversity, but the term has undergone a redefinition: it now encompasses more than just skin colour.
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