Naomi Campbell opens online Paris Couture Week, stresses upon diversity in fashion
Los Angeles: Supermodel Naomi Campbell on Monday opened the first digital Paris Haute Couture Week with a powerful speech demanding urgent actions to make fashion industry diverse and inclusive.
In an Instagram live, the fashion icon stressed on the need of acting on the "powerful sense of urgency" that "has been spoken out aloud around the world with the Black Lives Matter movement", which started in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minnesota.
The fight for diversity and for equality has been a long journey in society and in the fashion industry. Today, in 2020, we still have a long way to go and the time has come to collectively call the fashion world to task regarding inequality in our work spaces and in our industry, Campbell said.
"This is a call for action that we are making as we hope that this is a conversation that is starting now and will last as long as is needed. It is up to us, it is up to you to start enforcing inclusion of the multitude of identities that compose our countries, she added.
Calling Paris "fashion's central stage and its leader", the supermodel said this couture week should be the beginning of change.
"The time has come to build a more equitable industry with a good form of cheques and balances. It is now more than ever compulsory to include them in a permanent way and not a transient one.
It is time to have regular and sustainable conversations with minorities of each country and culture, who are already invisible actors of this mega industry. It starts now in France."
Paris Haute Couture and men's fashion weeks have been combined for the online version, with labels making films to showcase their collection instead of putting out an extravagant runway shows. The decision was taken amid the coronavirus outbreak across the globe.
The three-day-event, which runs through July 8, will see industry giants like Christian Dior, Giambattist Valli, Chanel, Alexandre Vauthier, Maison Margiela and Valentino unveiling their couture range.
