Monday September 14, 2020
Model Iman
The 65-year-old model believes the industry needs to embrace diversity and has called for more "transparency" and "accountability" as a means of reaching that ambition.
Iman - who was born in Mogadishu, Somalia -said: "Personally, I think a real change happens by bringing people - people of black and brown - into the decision-making of fashion.
"That's where real change happens, not just by saying, 'OK, we will do this.' And then there is no transparency, no accountability."Iman is also keen to be "part of that change" in the coming months and years.
She told WWD: "I want to say that the rage is justifiable. The anger is justifiable.
"But I don't want us to use it to ruin our joy and our existence, and be stuck in a place of just being hurt. We want to be part of that change and change from within - not just having cosmetically changed."
Meanwhile, Naomi Campbell previously claimed that minority groups need "to have our proper place" in the industry.
The 50-year-old model is eager to see significant changes at a boardroom level.
She said in July: "For me what Black Lives Matter stands for is so much more than police brutality, the reach is from here to the continent of Africa.
"It matters in the jobs that you get. We need to have our proper place and seat at the table of the boards. I've been saying that for a long time. It's not just when things come up and you scramble and say, 'Let's get this person and that person.' It shouldn't be that way.
"I worked with Bethann Hardison on the Diversity Coalition, we did that to protect our girls in the industry of fashion. But why is it now that the jobs that do come up, it's a 'diversity role'?
"Because I also feel like they're overqualified for that too. But then you also feel like if I don't take that 'diversity job' - whatever title it is - then I'm not doing something for my people, so it's a Catch-22 in a way."