‘WHY I’M HOLDING A # BLACKMIRROR UP TO THE FASHION INDUSTRY’
LA model Deddeh Howard’s campaign went viral when she recreated some of fashion’s most iconic ads to highlight their lack of diversity
A YEAR AGO, Deddeh Howard was flicking through a magazine when she noticed that none of the adverts featured black models. ‘That’s when it hit me really hard,’ she says. ‘I was like, “Wait, what’s going on?” Walking down the street, I noticed there was barely any diversity on billboards.’
The 27-year-old model’s realisation sparked an idea that went viral last week, casting a light on the fashion industry’s reluctance to embrace BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) models. For her project Black Mirror (nothing to do with Charlie Brooker’s TV show), Deddeh recreated famous recent advertising campaigns that featured white models – including Kate Moss, Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner – but put herself in their place.
Deddeh was born in Liberia and moved to the US a decade ago, where she experienced rejections from many leading modelling agencies. ‘I went to almost every one of them,’ she says. ‘They were comparing me to the two or three black girls they have, when they have 100 white girls. They were like, “We love you, but we’re just full, we have so many girls that look like you.”’
Realising that the few black models on agencies’ books were seen as enough to be representative ‘really affected me’, she says. ‘I just stopped trying. It was really bad.’
Instead, she began training as a medic, qualified as a yoga instructor and started her own fashion blog. But when she realised the fashion world wasn’t changing, she enlisted her photographer boyfriend, Raffael Dickreuter, to create the Black Mirror project. ‘He’s white and he saw the lack of diversity and how much it was affecting me. He said, “You should do this, it’s going to free you if you speak your mind.”’
Recreating major campaigns on a student’s timetable and budget was far from easy. ‘It all came from my own pocket, so it was very low budget,’ she says. ‘Most of these photos were done at night after six hours of school.’
They also made a point of using minimal retouching to highlight how much goes on in post-production.
Her hope in creating the stunning series of shots was to show that fashion should be for everyone, regardless of their race, and inspire the next generation of aspiring models.
‘I’m not one of the biggest models in the world, but I just think it’s time to speak out about diversity,’ she says. ‘Fashion should not be black or white.’
Since unveiling the project, Deddeh has been bombarded with offers from agencies clamouring to represent her. But it’s the response from other minority models that has given her the most satisfaction.
‘I’ve had so many messages from black and Asian models sharing their experiences and saying I’ve inspired them,’ she says. ‘It feels like something is starting to happen, which is really exciting.’