For a brand that many would say lacks diversity, the luxury brand Gucci decided to make a mark in its history by using black models for its pre-fall ’17 campaign, Soul Scene. It is a norm that luxury brands tend to go for big names in the modeling agency whenever they have a campaign to run, well Alessandro Michele came up with one of his best creative idea of using potential black models for it’s pre-fall 17 campaign, also Souls Scene focused on black masculinity and dandyism.
Akua Shabaka, one of the models featured in the campaign, said she was in shock when she realised she had been cast for a Gucci campaign with all black models, she went ahead to say that she thought she would be the only black model in the cast, well she thought wrong.
The Soul Scene campaign showcased the style from the 60s in all its glory and was also took inspiration from England’s Underground Northern soul movement of the sixties.
It is no news that there has been a scarcity of mixed colour models on the runway by brands, but in recent times this is fast changing. Although Gucci took a bold step in using black models for its campaign, it has not been generally accepted by all blacks, it being described as exploiting the black culture and using it as a new trend. We say thumbs up to Gucci for this campaign as it reminds us of our roots but do you think otherwise? We await your response.
