Naomi Campbell on Racism in the Fashion Industry: "There Is Still an Issue of Ignorance"

Nick Knight interviews Naomi Campbell about the current state of race in the fashion industry.

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Complex Original

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In a new video by SHOWstudio, Nick Knight sits down with Naomi Campbell to discuss the model's experience in the industry. During the interview Campbell discusses the important issue of race in fashion, and the struggles of models of color.

"There is still an issue of ignorance in our fashion world," say says. "I don't even like to use the word racism, I find it to be the word of you're ignorant and I call it more territorialism, where they just don't want to budge...They don't want to change to be more open-minded and book a beautiful girl regardless of her creed and color."

Campbell then goes on to discuss Balance Diversity, an initiative she helped found with Iman and Bethann Hardison to bring more diversity to casting. She throws out recent statistics for models of color, saying that during the 2014 shows they only representing 6.8 percent, with Asians at 7.9 percent. She points out that even though it has improved, many designers have stopped using diverse models.

"We are not a trend, it shouldn't have to be this way...I didn't work 28 years for this to be a trend," she said.

 

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