The All Women of Colour campaign
Beauty comes in every size, shape – and colour. So we applaud this new initiative to celebrate women of African, Asian, Mediterranean, European, Oriental and Arabic beauty… Beauty Bible says: About. Time. Too. We’ve seen some glorious ‘faces’ in magazines and on the catwalk, over the years – Iman, Naomi Campbell, Pat Cleveland, Tyra Banks – but there’s nothing like the representation in the media that we’d like.
So three cheers for Eryca Freemantle, ambassador and campaign supporter the All Women of Colour Campaign. A former model herself, Eryca became a make-up artist after a near-fatal car accident in which she received multiple scars to the face, loss of hair – and a near-amputation of her left leg. With that personal perspective, she’s since become a specialist in the area of corrective make-up, and is patron of VITSAF Vitiligo Support. (Vitiligo, of course, affects many woman of colour.)
We know – not least from our work with Centrepoint – that (with some notable exceptions) there are still precious few ranges offering darker shades of foundation, concealer and powder. Eryca’s campaign includes workshops and seminars for the beauty industry to empower them to work with all women of colour. The campaign’s goals also include ‘inspiring current and future generations of beauty experts to adopt a new mindset for how women of colour are viewed and catered for via professional beauty services – and their general portrayal in mainstream culture, through beauty…’
Today, we live in a melting pot. Happily. Isn’t it time that was reflected, in the pages of magazines, on TV shows – and on blogs…? So watch this space: we’ll be doing our darnedest.
For more about vitiligo and VITSAF, visit www.vitsaf.org or click here