Source: Jason Carter Rinaldi / Getty
South Sudanese Ford model Nykhor Paul, 25, took to her Instagram page to let the fashion world have it for its famous racist tendencies. Paul isn’t the first person to take the fashion world to task for not hiring Black models, but in her recent rant it’s clear that she must have been set off by one frustrating photo shoot too many.
Paul, who has worked for Vivienne Westwood and Balenciaga, among more, says she is tired of having to bring her makeup to photoshoots and that she’s tired of apologizing for her blackness. She basically wants fashion professionals to get with the program and acknowledge the same culture that many designers have the nerve to appropriate without proper credit in the first place. This is her full statement:
Dear white people in the fashion world! Please don’t take this the wrong way but it’s time you people get your shit right when it comes to our complexion! 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 wtf! Don’t try to make me feel bad because I am blue black its 2015 go to Mac, Bobbi Brown, Makeup forever, Iman cosmetic, black opal, even Lancôme and Clinique carried them plus so much more. there’s so much options our there for dark skin tones today. A good makeup artist would come prepare and do there research before coming to work because often time you know what to expect especially at a show! Stop apologizing it’s insulting and disrespectful to me and my race it doesn’t help, seriously! Make an effort at least! That goes for NYC, London, Milan, Paris and Cape Town plus everywhere else that have issues with black skin tones.
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!!!! Fashion is art, art is never racist it should be inclusive of all not only white people, shit we started fashion in Africa and you modernize and copy it! Why can’t we be part of fashion fully and equally?
That was a read, yaaaaaasss. Just so you know, 80% of the models who walked in the fall 2015 fashion week were White. I never understood the logic behind designers who will hire 10 White women who look alike, but will only hire one Black woman, because somehow, there can only be room for one. Yet these same designers will be the first to have their models in Bantu Knots, but call them “mini buns” (Google that if you think I’m lying), or in full on African-inspired gear with not a Black soul in site. That is so stupid, and racist, and I hope more people of color in the fashion world continue to take the industry to task until they do better.
Extremely dark models tend to have more flawless skin anyway, which means less makeup, less retouching. However, there’s a variety of brown shades that need more love period.
In other news, Nykhor Paul is also a humanitarian. Her foundation, We Are Nilotic works to bring awareness to the crisis in South Sudan.
Beautiful inside and out. She slays, and I love it!
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Sudanese Model Nykhor Paul: ‘Don’t Try To Make Me Feel Bad Because I’m Blue Black’ was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
