Balmain Strives for Model Diversity in New Ads: Features Cara Delevingne, Ysaunny Brito and More
One of the biggest problems the fashion industry faces today the lack of representation from non-white races. Altough some strides have been made to correct this problem, it is still something that plagues the industry, so for his new ads, designer Olivier Rousteing decided to feature more models of color.
His new fall campaign is fronted by Binx Walton, Cara Delevingne, Jourdan Dunn, Ysaunny Brito, Issa Lish and Kayla Scott, notes Style.com. The images were taken by Mario Sorrenti, and the safari-inspired collection was styled by Love Magazine's Katie Grand.
Rousteing explained why Grand was the perfect choice for styling.
"She can break all the rules, and that's what I really, really love from her," he said. "It was really a strong decision for me and for Balmain, because we never had a campaign with so many girls and expressing this kind of vision. Katie understood from the beginning, and she translated that with the casting and with the looks that we shot."
The only trouble for Rousteing when it came to shooting the ads with Grand was her accent. He said that as a French person, he already has trouble understanding American accents, so Grand's English accent was even harder for him to comprehend.
"So when you have a strong accent from England, it's like, sometimes I tell Katie, 'I'm sorry, I don't understand,'" he shared. "Sometimes [she talks] and I'm just quiet an entire minute. She'll look at me and say, 'You don't understand, right?' And I'm like, 'No.'"
Despite the communication issues, the ads turned out to be very striking, with models to which a bigger group of people can relate. It's not new for Rousteing, who is French and black, however; he has previously used Rihanna for his ads.
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