As her way of fighting back against the lack of diversity in the fashion industry, 27-year-old model, med student, and fashion blogger Dede Howard re-created major campaigns that originally featured white models for a series called “Black Mirror.”
Shot by her boyfriend, photographer Raffael Dickreuter, the series is a response to discrimination that Howard has faced in her own career. “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 told BuzzFeed. “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.”
“In a time where black people too often are in the media for being underrepresented at important events such as the Oscars or make headlines for being targeted by the police I felt it was time to do something positive and inspiring about my race,” wrote Howard in her mission statement. “For too long the negativity seemed to take over in the public eye.”
