Deddeh Howard, a Liberian-born model and fashion blogger living in Los Angeles, has questioned the lack of diversity in fashion campaigns through a series of powerful images.
The 27-year-old collaborated with her photographer boyfriend Raffael Dickreuter to recreate some of the world’s most iconic fashion campaigns. And the results are truly inspiring.
The photographic series entitled ‘Black Mirror’ features campaign shots from brands including Victoria’s Secret and Calvin Klein. A large majority of the shots include white models such as Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Kate Moss.
Deddeh told BuzzFeed that the images are a ‘call for diversity’ as she revealed, “Agencies would often tell me, ‘We like your look but there’s a black girl already’. It shouldn’t be limited to just one black girl; there can be more than one!”
She continued: “It’s as if they [agencies] are ashamed to represent diversity. It’s very painful and it made me feel insecure and bad of myself.”
Deddeh and her boyfriend worked hard to accurately replicate the images, going so far as to spending two months on sourcing a motorbike identical to the one featured in Gigi’s Guess campaign.
But the results were worth it as she told BuzzFeed, “I’m very grateful people feel the same that I do, people are telling me that I’m an inspiration to them and it feels unreal. We should keep fighting for what we believe in.”