Only when you know who you are will you be able to find the courage to do what drives you-with integrity and grace.
Activism has to remain active. That's the trademark slogan and that's the mantra, because if your foot doesn't stay on the pedal, the car will stop.
A woman who has style doesn't necessarily need designers - designer wear. A woman who has style can put on any frock or dress or pant or whatever and still bring something to it.
That decision to use basically all white models, reveals a trait that is unbecoming to modern society. It can no longer be accepted...
We don't have a watchdog in fashion, we don't have HR to go to, so it is important to get that word out to someone whether it's an agent or someone like me and we should all come together and figure out what we can do.
That's a very privileged attitude and I think the ignorance is so strong there. When people say, "Oh please, I don't want to hear that conversation," it's because it makes them uncomfortable." But that's because they think it's all okay. If it was racist, I would move onto someone whose mind I could change, but it's mostly ignorance. So when someone says, "Oh, it doesn't matter," I not only make designers responsible but casting directors and modeling agencies for not pushing those other girls on to the designers.
I'd only started noticing that something had gone wrong when I got a call from Naomi [Campbell], she called me and said, "You gotta do something about it, it's really bad, they're not using any models of color."
People weren't meaning to be racist, but they didn't know. Action signals change, not intent. So when someone feels like they're not getting a fair shake, you gotta speak on it.
I was the first person that had been so kind to Iman Abdulmajid. As time went on, and she became successful, signed with an agency, when she had to make big decisions, she wouldn't always talk to an agent, she'd ask me. I'd give her good advice and she'd be on her way. When I had ideas to do things like the Black Girls Coalition, I would always talk to her, she always loved my ideas. She trusts me.
A friend of mine, Kim Hastreiter, who owns Paper Magazine, she told me, "When you left, it really changed things and you need to do something." So with the encouragement of others, I stayed around and watched, and I saw that all the girls before, such an enormous group of girls of color, all shades, it began to disappear.
That's why Black Lives Matter thinks I'm so great. The fact of the matter is that everything is consciousness. This conversation is important.
