This Photo Just Made Fashion History (2024)

For the first time in 46 years, Dior Homme, the menswear division of Dior, has a black male as the face of their company: rapper A$AP Rocky.

Kris Van Assche, artistic director for Dior Homme, posted the above photo from the shoot with A$AP Rocky on his Instagram. Dior also posted the image, referring to the rapper as, "embodying the empowered masculinity of today's urban dandy," which kind of makes you think...

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But OK.

It could be that the traditional face of beauty is starting to change.

A$AP Rocky is not the first spokesperson of color for Dior. The fashion house signed Rihanna as the first person of color for the face of their womenswear collection and collaborated on a line of sunglasses titled "Rihanna."

In March of 2016, Chanel named Willow Smith their new ambassador.

But there is still a long way to go.

Fashionista's "Diversity Report" for magazine covers in 2015 showed a slight improvement in representation of women of color from 2014.

In 2015, 27 out of 136 models/celebrities on magazine covers were not white, which is up from 27 of 137 in 2014. The difference is only 19.7 percent to 19.8 percent.

And although Willow Smith may be Chanel's ambassador, it's Kristen Stewart who's the face of their official campaign.

Similarly, though Charlize Theron is the spokesperson for Dior's perfume J'Adore, judging by her presence on Dior's official Instagram page, you would think she was their womenswear spokesperson, considering that there are nine photos of her campaign and four red carpet photos of the actress compared to two official Rihanna sunglasses campaign images and two candid photos of the artist.

But Dior's latest spokespeople are a solid start, and credit should be given where progress occurs.

[H/T Teen Vogue]