Better lives blog 2

The lectures had a heavy theme of diversity and inclusivity. After learning about these it has become apparent that more people need to prioritise these within their practise, myself included. The lack of diversity in the fashion industry is astounding and although certain companies are improving, the rest of us need to contribute too. 

As a creative director I would address this via my casting, whilst being mindful not to turn it into tokenism. I think the key to diverse casting is just casting who you think would fit the idea, without any bias or pre-decided idea in mind.

Furthermore, with diverse casting comes a diverse hair, makeup and styling team. For example, if you have cast a woman with afro hair then the hair stylist would need the appropriate tools and experience with afro hair whilst the makeup artist would need to have the correct shades of makeup. It’s shocking how many companies don’t currently provide these basics as I intend to. For instance, I have a friend called Wisdom who’s quite a successful model, he’s walked for Missoni with Bella Hadid and is currently all over Times Square for Levi’s. However, when he went to model for ASOS last year, the hair stylist started tugging at his afro with her bare hands, she didn’t even have an afro comb. This is completely outrageous and to further emphasise it, imagine how ridiculous it would be if a professional hair stylist tried to brush your hair with their hands. I do not want to be like ASOS, and I hope no one else does, we want to be the antithesis of unaccommodating.