*25-year-old South Sudanese model Nykhor Paul is the latest in a growing list of Black models to speak out about the homogeneous fashion industry.
Paul wrote a heated post on her Instagram criticizing “white people in the fashion world” – specifically makeup artists who lack the skills and talent to work with dark skin.
Nykhor, who has appeared in shows for Vivienne Westwood, Balenciaga, Calvin Klein and Rick Owens, blasted the unprofessional makeup artists who “try to make her feel bad” about her skin color because they are unprepared. She asks …
“Why do I have to bring my own makeup to a professional show when all the other white girls don’t have to do anything but show up?”
She added: “Just because you only book a few of us doesn’t mean you have the right to make us look ratchet. I’m tired of complaining about not getting book as a black model and I’m definitely super tired of apologizing for my blackness!!!!”
Read the full open letter below.
Paul, who won the models.com Humanitarian Award this spring for her foundation We Are Nilotic, (which works to bring awareness to the crisis in South Sudan), is not the first, nor the last, Black model to speak out about the homogeneous fashion industry.
Supermodel Jourdan Dunn once dealt with a makeup artist who refused to work with her because of her skin color. In addition, fashion icon Beverly Johnson was confronted with racial ignorance early in her career, which resulted in her arriving and at photoshoots with her hair already done and her make-up bag in tow.
We’re glad Black models continue to speak up and loud about the industry’s tendency to recoil at the sight of blackness. Perhaps one day their voices will inspire designers, photographers and makeup artists to see race as an asset rather than an inconvenience.
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