How the afro returned to the catwalk – and why it matters

For 15 years – or 30 runway seasons in fashion speak – Prada had no black models on its catwalks. After the 1990s, a decade of fashion in which the clothes were being overshadowed by the larger than life supermodels wearing them, Miuccia Prada took control of matters by hiring a seemingly endless stream of white, eastern European models. Then came Jourdan Dunn in 2008, followed by a growing list of black, Asian and Hispanic models, including Malaika Firth, Prada’s first black campaign star in 19 years. It’s a known fact within the fashion world that where Prada goes, the rest of the industry follows. And so the very same brand that ushered in an era that shut out non-white models helped bring models of colour back in.

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