The glitz and glamour of the Golden Globes may have been this Sunday’s hottest topic, but L’Oreal became a talking point when their new brand ambassador, transgender model Hari Nef, appeared in the ad campaign ‘Your Skin Your Story’ which debuted at the awards.
Promoting 33 shades of their True Match foundation, the Philadelphia-born model – whose runway debut was at New York Fashion Week in 2015 – features in the campaign alongside women and men of different sizes and ethnicities.
‘I'm in the new @Lorealmakeup campaign,’ Hari said on Instagram, ‘and that's pretty wild to me.’ Showing off her own ‘true match’ (shade W1 fyi) in a second post, she added: ‘I love a nude beat for daytime to night.’
L’Oreal’s Deputy General Manager, Tim Coolican, has made it clear that the brand is committed to valuing diversity: ‘L'Oréal Paris is a brand fuelled by a mission to empower everyone to own and embrace their individual beauty and intrinsic worth,’ he said of the campaign. ‘By featuring a diverse blend of individuals and illustrating their individual skin stories, our new True Match campaign celebrates the power and beauty of feeling comfortable in your own skin,’ he said.
Lara Stone, Xiao Wen Ju and Darnell Bernard also feature in ‘Your Skin Your Story’, alongside Blake Lively, who took to Instagram to convey her thoughts on the campaign: ‘“Because I’m worth it” is an iconic belief that resonates with so many, for good reason,’ she wrote.
‘Now more than ever that simple phrase is a powerful reminder to us all, as woman are coming together, rising up, and standing for their value. We are worth it. We are different shapes and sizes. We are different colors. We are beautiful inside and out. We are kind. We are brave. We are vulnerable. We are flawed. We are perfect. We are worth it. And we each have a story to tell,’ Blake continued.
L’Oreal’s campaign follows news that CoverGirl signed their first male ambassador, James Charles, in October last year, and Maybelline introduced the new face of their brand, Manny Gutierrez, earlier this month.
Whilst this isn’t the first time a cosmetic company has featured a transgender model in a campaign, we look forward to others following suit. Times are a-changin’ – and about time too!
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