[21] - Christelle Bakima | The truth about Black Models in the Fashion Industry | Fashion Career Stories with Lucas SILVA EDWAR

Fashion Career Lab

Today, I have the great pleasure to receive Christelle BAKIMA

She is a fashion professional working in PR for one the french fashion tech company: ARIANEE.

If you haven’t heard about them, I highly recommend to check it out an discover what are they doing regarding the new generation of customer relationship, using web 3 and NFT.

However today, my conversation with Christelle won’t be about her role over there.

Today we are going to talk about her first book, Corps Noirs, which could be translated in english as “Black Bodies”. Before I tell you all about it, let me tell you about its origin story. It all started by a simple question:

How many black women have been on the covers of fashion magazine in the last 15 years ?

And from that question, an entire journey started for Christelle.

First, it became her master thesis for the IFM where she graduated 3 year ago.

And with the support of friends and family, it became an entire book.

From that question, Christelle started to investigate the reality to be a black model in the fashion industry! the history, the stereotype, the prejudice and also the human cost.

Through this book, Christelle shine a light on, what we could call the dark of the industry.

However, this book goes way beyond that.

It’s first and foremost, the questions of a young professional trying to make sense of what she sees, discovers and experience. This book, it’s also really intimate, full of personal anecdotes and stories.

For me, it was an opportunity to ask myself more questions, to increase my awareness and to open my eyes on some of the realities of our industry.

In this episode, you will learn about :

• The origin story of the book
• How Christelle decided to think about this book as art book
• What Aya Nakamura is telling us about the status quo of the fashion industry regarding black bodies
• The reality of being a black model and the prejudice that they experience
• The type of questions you could start asking yourself in order to make things evolve
• The role of your family in the journey to find yourself
• The importance to experiment and to learn from a large diversity of experience
• How to network using generosity and vulnerability
• Why allowing yourself to doubt and try things out is the best advice you could follow

This episode is dense, and full of gems.

My recommendation, take your time to listen to it and to self reflect.

And if you want to buy the book, only available in French, you can find it on Amazon, la Fnac and the major books stores in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

If you want to learn more about Christelle follow here on LinkedIn at Christelle BAKIMA

And with no further ado, please enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Christelle BAKIMA

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