Naomi Campbell has spoken encouragingly about diversity in fashion, saying the industry is "getting better" at booking models regardless of their skin colour.
The Streatham-born model has long been a trailblazer for diversity in the industry, becoming the first black model to appear on the cover of French Vogue in 1988, and the first black model to grace the cover of American Vogue's hallowed September Issue the following year.
She has also consistently used her voice to encourage designers and fashion brands to cast as inclusively as possible. Though The Fashion Spot reported in February of this year that Fall 2016 was fashion's "most diverse season in recent history," the statistics still showed a substantial imbalance: in 120 shows tallied, 68.1% of model castings were white, and just 31.9% were nonwhite.
"I’m very optimistic about diversity because I know I’m never going to shut up about it until the girls get better," Campbell told the New York Times on Wednesday night at New York Fashion Week, which runs until the 15th of September. "It’s getting better, I think. I think this is going to be a good season. It’s just a feeling. There’s no count yet. But I feel it’s going to be a good season. I think things have to evolve and I think that it’s different things for different folks."
Campbell also emphasised the important of honing of your craft, an approach that has helped her to build a formidable 30-year career in the industry. "At the end of the day, it’s good to have the foundation of knowing how to be a model," she told the New York Times. "We’re hoping diversity will give the model a chance no matter what. But that comes once she’s booked."