Being politically conscious is top model's latest trend

There was a time when to be a model and a generational icon was enough to appear on the headlines of the major magazines and run on the main catwalks of the fashion week, well that time is not now anymore.

Over the last few decades, there has been a gradual increase in top-models that have decided to use their influence and their image to become a spokesperson for the most diverse environmental causes, exploiting their prominent position in spreading awareness. In the 1990s, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford anticipated the times lining up against the use of fur and taking part in a controversial PETA campaign called We'd rather go naked than wear fur but, in the age of social media, is happening something new.

If in the 1990s, whether it was for a lawsuit or a case, it could be a cause of crashes and layoffs, today being a socially active model seems to be the new trend.

This tendency seems to have originated in 2013 when, during a TedTalks, model Cameron Russell has openly accused the lack of diversity in the fashion industry by stating that its success as a model is due to "a genetic inheritance of racial oppression", opening the first true dialogue on fashion inclusion.

Starting from that moment on, more and more personalities in the field have started expanding and focusing on topics such as gender, representation, mental health, and inclusion, bringing them from the pages of niche newspapers to the heart of the fashion system. This is a shift in the balance of powers: social media has offered these personalities a platform through which to express themselves and to be heard.

 

But who are the models that are actually defining the decade we are living in?

 

Mark these names:

#1  Adwoa Aboah

Cover girl of the latest i-D magazine, selected by Dazed & Confused as one of the 100 people shaping future, founder of the Gurls Talk organization, Adwoa Aboah has created a space where young women can express themselves freely.

 

#2 Ebonee Devis

Davis is an abituè of the Ted Talks conferences, during which she sensitizes the public towards the issue of racial gap and discrimination in the fashion industry.

#3 Halima Aden 

First model ever to walk a catwalk with a hijab and muse of Kanye West, Aden fights to show that her religion is not the one depicted by American politics and that being Muslim is not an impediment for young women to express themselves.

 

#4  Slick Woods 

Cover Girl of i-D and models among the most sought-after, Woods' own image is a hymn to diversity and freedom of expression.

 

#5 Gigi Hadid e Bella Hadid

American of Palestinian origin, the two sisters are the most sought-after models of the moment. Declared "proud to be Muslim", they actively took part in the protest campaigns against the immigration ban imposed by President Trump.

#6 Emily Ratajkowski

Famous primarily for her underwear shootings, Emily is actually a feminist and an activist for both women's rights and sexual liberation. 

This is a drastic change of course within the industry as well as the mirror of a phenomenon that is largely in place in the surrounding world: more and more young women are taking part in the so-called "fourth wave" of contemporary feminism, a symbol of a socially aware woman politically active in the definition of the narrative that pertains to her.

This is the birth of a new female archetype.