LONDON, U.K (AMA)- New African Woman’s October/November 2015 edition is out. This edition’s cover girl is former Kenyan athlete-turned-top model and one-time Vivienne Westood muse – Ajuma Nasanyana. In our exclusive interview she, like some of her peers in the industry – questions the lack of representation of black models on global catwalks and the lack of diversity in the beauty industry.
With the Fashion Month in full swing across the major fashion capitals, her views are timely. Nasanyana is, of course, not the first to voice such sentiments. In July her peer and NAW Issue 29 cover girl, Sudanese model Nykhor Paul, caused a storm when she penned an open letter and posted it on her Instagram page shaming the beauty industry’s treatment, or lack thereof, of dark-skinned models.
Dismantling the perceived “ideal beauty standard” and the yardstick used to define it, she says:
“As more and more girls of my skin tone come into the industry, who are confident in their beautiful dark skin, the acceptance of the saying ‘Black is beautiful’ is finally becoming a real. I do not feel like the blackest girl in the world anymore”.
African Media Agency.
