A black model’s campaign to promote diversity in fashion

Deddeh Howard is a 27-year-old African model and fashion blogger. Raised in Liberia and currently living in Los Angeles, Howard believes the fashion world is skewed towards a ‘white’ sense of beauty, and she’s looking to change that.

Together with her photographer boyfriend Raffael Dickreuter, Howard has begun recreating some of the most famous modelling campaigns in the industry in order to protest against the lack of diversity in the fashion world. Titled ‘Black Mirror’, the series has Howard recreating photoshoots from the likes of Dolce & Gabbana, Victoria’s Secret, Gucci, Chanel, and more.

“I thought it was perfect because we are mirroring two images,” she said in an interview to BuzzFeed News. “When you [black women] look in the mirror you question—This could be me, why is this not me?” Howard says the campaign, which was three months in the making, was inspired by the discrimination she faced as a model. “Agencies would often tell me, ‘We like your look but there’s a black girl already’. It shouldn’t be limited to just one black girl; there can be more than one! It’s as if they are ashamed to represent diversity.”

Howard says she’s using Black Mirror to send a message to the industry that, models of colour, especially black women, are just as beautiful as anyone else and should play more than a token role in their campaigns.