Who is Leomie Anderson? Model Exposes NYFW: Not Hiring ‘Black Makeup Artists’
2 min read
A TikTok exposing the New York Fashion Week’s lack of inclusivity is gathering a lot of attention on the social media platform. Why Leomie Anderson is viral let’s check out.
Who is Leomie Anderson?
Leomie Anderson started modelling at the young age of 17 for Marc Jacobs. She is also a woman right’s activist and the first British-black woman to be a Victoria’s Secret Angels. The Renowned British model, fashion designer and activist posted a video saying that she had to do other people’s jobs. She addresses the fact that even after these many years the industry still lacks resources for black models. The 28-year-old model talks about her struggle as a black woman and that there were no makeup artists who could do her makeup according to her skin colour. The makeup artist present at the venue left her looking “clapped” and like “she works in the mines”. Leomie also wrote in her TikTok that due to this reason she always carries her makeup kit which indicated the fact that this incident is not one of a kind.
In the video, she shows how she did her makeup and hair and said, “The white leader tried to fix the makeup. Good try girl but I felt ugly af. Redid my whole face in 10 minutes. Can’t go out sad.”
Has happened to other people before-
Many women came forward on Twitter talking about a similar experience that they had while working in the fashion industry.
One woman, @jadasimonew said,“ I was the only black girl on set for this mv. everyone else got pink ponytail extensions while I got a fucking scarf wrapped around my bun. it’s giving hate crime.”
Another woman, @joylynFN wrote on Twitter,“ Girrlll this happened to me too many times! But this one here had me in tears! Chile they dashed silver highlight on my face (these were Mac makeup artists) had me looking like the tin man!!! The worst part is they’ll be gassing it saying it looks good when we both know it doesn’t!”
The backlash NYFW received-
The video received almost 267 thousand views on TikTok and two million on Twitter. Along with the views, came the backlashing against NYFW. People are coming forward saying that the fashion industry still does not give enough recognition to people of colour. The hairstylists provided do not know how to style textured and thick hair that generally black people have. They do not even carry makeup that suits dark skin. It is now time to hold the fashion industry accountable for this use.
