Actress and social activist Yara Shahidi is telling Grazia why she hopes Britain’s young women are gearing up to vote in next week’s election. ‘It’s a really crucial way of engaging with your government on a regular basis and making it known that you expect your voice to be heard,’ she says. It’s a message she’s spent years spreading in the USA, setting up Eighteen x 18 in 2018 – an initiative designed to help empower young people to cast their vote. ‘Information usually isn’t marketed or targeted towards young women, first time voters, or young people in general so I think the act of being involved is really important,’ she says of her impetus. ‘Because when you vote the assumption is – or my hope is – it’s because you’ve been following what’s been happening and you’ve developed whatever opinion you have for yourself. For me voting has been a gateway to understanding what I care about, what policies matter, as well as what else I can be doing.’
That this kind of conversation is happening perched on gilt chairs in the Grand Palais in Paris, after Chanel’s latest Metiers d’Art show, might seem incongruous. But then again, Karl Lagerfeld was renowned for choosing ambassadors who channel the spirit of the house’s founder Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel – outspoken and radical in their own way. So it makes sense that Yara joined the fold in 2018. The child actress initially rose to fame thanks to her role, aged 14, in cult US TV show Black-ish. Deciding to use her platform, Yara set up a mentoring scheme with the aim of raising young people out of poverty – work that Michelle Obama recognised by writing her recommendation letter to Harvard University, where she’s still studying today.
I don’t think anyone’s not interested; I think we’re all very aware of how politics will deeply affect us especially into our young adulthood
Virginie Viard’s first Metiers d’Art show was enough of a draw to drag Yara away from her studies for the evening though. After watching a show designed to highlight the house’s history in Paris – not least by building a set that was a painstakingly faithful recreation of Coco’s Rue Cambon apartment – Yara spoke of feeling proud to be part of Chanel, a house with ‘a history of empowering the woman in whatever shape.’
‘I also love to see the collision of modernity and tradition: it’s really special to see a show that has its heritage as well as the future of the brand all in one, which is what I think we’re witnessing here in that we’re in her apartment so to speak,’ she added of the show, in which Virginie re-visited classic Chanel tropes (think two-tone, tweed, bows and lashings of pearls) but presenting them with a new twist. (The tie-dye tweed suit, for example, was inspired by the lining of a 1960 pink jacket that Gabrielle herself had sent down the catwalk.) ‘It’s evident in the work that we’ve seen already just how beautifully she’s continuing in Karl’s legacy, in Chanel’s legacy, as well as continuing to move the brand forward,’ Yara said of the Virginie, who was Karl’s right hand woman for more than 30 years and took over the helm after his death in February.
Talking of progress, Yara is hopeful about that of her generation. ‘I don’t think anyone’s not interested; I think we’re all very aware of how politics will deeply affect us especially into our young adulthood,’ she says. ‘But I think it’s a matter of resources and that this is a daunting space. I’m still endlessly confused, I know everyone is, so I think it’s important to dive in and have an expectation that you won’t know everything and that’s ok as long as you’re interested in knowing it.’
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