Season after season, more models of different ethnicities, sizes, ages, and abilities appear on the runways, among other things that set them apart from what has long been the fashion standard.
From hot new labels like Hanifa, to fashion editorials and established maisons like Valentino, everyone is casting a wider net when it comes to who debuts the latest creations to the consumer public.
Here, WWD highlights five different models that are helping to change the look of the runway.
Achieng Agutu
The self-proclaimed “queen of seductive confidence,” Kenyan influencer Achieng Agutu is breaking barriers as a curvy model, making her runway debut this June at the Hanifa Spring 2022 ready-to-wear show, and in July for the brand’s black owned swimwear. Matte Collection Show at Miami Swim Week.
With more than 471,000 Instagram followers, Agutu inspires her fans through Instagram video monologues that focus on empowering women to become their most confident, stylish and healthy selves. Even before modeling, Agutu secured partnerships for social media campaigns with brands such as Valentino, Beyoncé’s Ivy Park, Marc Jacobs and Moët.
Emira D’Spain
Content creator and model Emira D’spain is already heating up the industry, making history in February by becoming the first black transgender woman to work with Victoria’s Secret. The influencer, with more than 1 million followers on TikTok, teamed up with the underwear brand to promote social content for Valentine’s Day, posting a video, titled, “A single girl’s guide to the perfect Valentine’s Day Valentine”, showing people how to enjoy the holiday without a partner.
In June, D’spain collaborated with skincare brand Clinique on its first NFT cosmetics collection called “#MetaverseLikeUs,” an initiative aimed at bringing more underrepresented groups into the metaverse.
Alaato Jaztper
Standing at a stunning 5’9″, Sudanese model Alaato Jazyper Michael is already making strides, walking runway shows for famous fashion houses including Saint Laurent, Loewe, Fendi and Chanel.
According to her Instagram page, she is represented by Fuse Management.
In July, the model opened up for Valentino’s fall 2002 fashion show, writing in an Instagram caption addressed to the maison’s creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, “Dear @pppiccioli, thank you for giving me this space. and position to open your spectacular show. This was a golden moment for me and I appreciate you.” This fashion week, Jazyper Michael also opened for Fendi, walked in the Schiaparelli show and did her first show for Chanel.
Advanced Awak Mamuor
Signed by Elite Model Management, Mamuor Awak Majeng who hails from Sudan is already securing runway spots for designer labels including Balenciaga, Givenchy and Dries Van Noten.
Majeng, who calls himself “elite boy” according to his Instagram bio, is using his visibility to shed light on issues in Africa, posting on Instagram on July 1 about the deaths of migrants on the border between Morocco and Spain and encouraging his followers in other countries. posts to help refugees, the homeless and those who are hungry.
Rosanna Ovales Robles
Dominican model Rosanna Ovales Robles has just burst onto the modeling scene, making her runway debut in March of this year in Valentino’s fall 2022 ready-to-wear collection in Paris, the celebrated and much pictured “Pink PP”.
She is signed to IMG Models internationally and Sokrates Model Management in the Dominican Republic and has also walked for Givenchy for the label’s fall 2022 rtw collection.
Aaron Rose Philip
Aaron Rose Phillip is an Antiguan-American model whose presence is huge – both in meaning and in spirit. Phillip became the first black, transgender model with a disability to be represented by a major modeling agency in 2018 when she signed with Elite Model Management at the age of 17.
Now signed by Milk Model Management, Phillip made her New York Fashion Week debut at Moschino’s Spring 2022 show. Phillip has also appeared in campaigns for Collina Strada and Sephora.
“As a child with a disability, I’ve always had to advocate my whole life…to get the things I wanted,” she told WWD at her Diversity Forum in March. “Me being who I was, being young and disabled and young and trans, I really wanted to be able to find myself in the world. I realized how much I loved fashion.…I never saw myself in these faces in the magazines and books I loved so much.” She said she wondered how fashion could be so reductive and said, “With that question in mind, that was my catalyst for entering the fashion industry.”
