The Feminists of Fashion
Happy International Women’s Day ! March 8th is the official day that celebrates Women, but most importantly Women’s Rights all around the world. In honor of this day, we wanted to talk about all the women that have had an impact in the world of fashion, regarding womanhood and feminism. It is also an article that features  women around the world who have worked hard in their careers. These women have proved that everything is possible. 
This is a dedication to women. To all the women, businesswomen, mothers, teachers, doctors, models, engineers, lawyers, but most importantly all the fighters for Women’s Rights of the World. 

-Meghan Markle
The retired American actress, who’s now the duchess of Sussex since her wedding to Prince Harry, has always dressed with a particular class and elegance. Daughter of single African-American mother, and having actually been divorced from her first husband, Meghan Markle did break some barriers: not a lot about her did fit the usual Royal Family Brides. She is an icon and a model for all the hardworking women coming from different backgrounds, and is especially a role-model and hope to all the African-American women who are victims of racism and discrimination. She’s also a real icon of fashion, starting from her wedding: she truly was at the epitome of elegance in a Givenchy gown (designed by another great woman in fashion, Clare Waight Keller, creative director of Givenchy), and almost every day since as the duchess of Sussex.

-Adwoa Aboah
Adwoa Aboah is the daughter of british/ghanaian parents who work in the fashion industry. Adwoa has modeled for many brands like Marc Jacobs, Burberry or Versus (Versace) and has appeared on the cover of Vogue UK, US, Italia and Poland.

Furthermore, Adowa is an activist who uses her profits as a model to finance her foundation called Gurls Talk. This online community addresses issues like mental health, which Adowa has suffered from herself. According to Adowa, Gurls Talk is a safe space for girls from all around the world to share and talk about many topics that define what it’s really like to be a girl in the 21st century.

– Rei Kawakubo
Rei Kawakubo is a Japanese fashion designer based in Japan and Paris. She established her own label Comme Des Garçons in 1973. She has influenced the fashion world in many ways, being one of the original avant-garde designers. Her designs were originally branded as “post-atomic” by critics.

She is much more than design, having been called the architect of fashion. She will always be a major source of creativity in the Fashion industry and a role-model to all aspiring women designers.

-Pat McGrath
Pat McGrath is a well-known makeup artist, she’s behind most of the makeup creativity and designs during fashion week.

She’s also behind the creativity of everything that’s linked to cosmetics of the biggest brands. She’s been named most influential make up artist by Vogue Magazine, and is now a self-made beauty billionaire, having created her own line, Pat McGrath Labs.

McGrath’s mother loves makeup and transmitted this passion to her daughter when she was younger. Pat was born in England to a Jamaican single mother.
– Halima Aden
Halima Aden is the first hijab-wearing model signed to IMG Models. Halima was born in a refugee-camp in Kenya, since her family was fleeing the civil war in Somalia. She moved alongside her sister and mother to the United States when she was 6 years old, and became a USA citizen at the age of 13.  She is the first Miss Minnesota USA candidate to wear a burkini and a hijab, and went as far as semi-finalist in the competition.  She now proudly represents muslim girls all around the world and wants to fight against islamophobia and false judgements regarding her culture and religion. She appeared on the covers of many magazines like Allure or Vogue Arabia, and has also partnered with Unicef.

-Tamara Mellon
Tamara Mellon co-founded Jimmy Choo in 1995. Despite that fact, it was found that she wasn’t payed as much as her men colleagues for the same job position.

For this reason, and because she was being so neglected, Tamara dared to leave the company that she had co-founded and taken care of for 16 years. She then founded her own label Tamara Mellon, and now addresses the Equal Pay issue publicly. The new Tamara brand also focuses on working on how employees are being treated by the companies they work for. She demands customer transparency as well, and basically fights for equal pay in the industry of fashion.

On Equal Pay day, she offers her customer a 20 percent sale off her products to represent the pay gap between men and women. She’s also behind the campaign Friends with Benefits, which is about encouraging maternity policies like fertility treatments and maternity leave.
-Marine Serre
Marine Serre is a 25-year-old French designer who was a young tennis player before entering Fashion. After losing the tennis competition Roland Garros, she chose to go to an arts school being given that she’s found a profound love for vintage clothing and a particular skill to style it.

She’s worked for big fashion houses like Dior, Margiela or McQueen, and was a junior designer for Balenciaga. She’s won the the LVMH Prize in 2017.  She’s also particularly known for mixing  sportswear with couture or ready-to-wear and tailoring.
-Cameron Russell
Cameron Russell is a successful british model. She’s walked for Chanel, Balmain and has done campaigns for brands like Prada. She has also been apart of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show.

However, she now uses her privilege and platform to address major issues like the sexual harassment in the fashion industry, as well as political issues and the environment. You may have watched her 2012 TED Talk named ‘Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model’ which has gained major success all over social media.

She’s the one that brought the #MeToo movement to fashion by asking her colleagues to witness what they’ve gone through in the industry. Not long after that, multiple photographers lost their career because of the truth surfacing and the accusations that had been made against them by many models in the industry.  She’s also led an environmental purpose with all her fellow model colleagues on a climate change march in 2015.
-Sara Ziff
Sara Ziff is the founder and executive director of Model Alliance, a non-profit organization that fights for women’s and workers’ rights in the fashion industry. They want to protect models from sexual harassment. Sara Ziff is also a model and has appeared on many fashion campaigns like Prada, Chanel, Dior and more.

She’s worked for children’s rights and protection in the fashion industry for all models under 18, and has collaborated with the non-profit organization Save the Children that works for the improvement of children’s rights in under-developing countries. She was awarded by the National Organization of Women in 2013 for fighting the improvement of young girls’ life in New York City.

-Céline Semaan
Céline Semaan is a lebanese Designer, Advocate, Writer and Founder of Slow Factory, a 100% eco-friendly shop, and The Library Sustainable Fashion Archive.

Her work has been featured in Teen Vogue, September’s issue of Vogue US, the New York Times, and more. She focuses on accessibility  and sustainability in the Fashion industry, as well as the empowerment of arab women all over the world. She started the hashtag #ArabGirlMagic to help fight against white supremacy. Slow Factory’s “women who inspire us” collection is a collection of sustainable scarves with the illustrations of many important women in history like Katherine Johnson.
-Aaron Philip
Aaron Philip was signed with Elite Models Management this year. Born in Antigua, her family was back then forced into a homeless shelter because of financial difficulties because of all the expensive medical bills: Aaron was diagnosed with cerebral palsy which requires her to live in a wheel-hair. However, they’re now living In the Bronx.

She’s a revolution in the fashion world because she’s breaking all the stereotypes of beauty in the industry. Being a disabled black transgender woman, she gives hope to all the dreamers in the world and proves that anything can happen with the right determination and courage. She is the real future of fashion. 


Artémis Magazine wishes you a Happy Women’s day, and supports womanhood and feminism all around the world, in hope of improving women’s rights and equal rights.

Credits:

https://www.wmagazine.com/story/meghan-markle-wedding-dress-givenchy-clare-waight-keller, https://www.express.co.uk/pictures/royal/19202/Meghan-Markle-pictures-best-outfits-fashion-pictures, vogue.co.uk, gurlstalk.com, https://www.carmenbusquets.com/journal/post/rei-kawakubo, https://www.thecut.com/2016/03/erotic-punk-decadence-of-reikawakubo.html, https://www.allure.com/story/pat-mcgrath-self-made-billionaire-success, https://www.vfiles.com/news/happy-birthday-pat-the-best-pat-mcgrath-makeup-looks-found-on-vfiles, https://www.mysalaam.com/en/story/hijabi-model-halima-aden-on-her-journey-from-refugee-camp-to-runway/SALAAM11122017053143, https://www.mydomaine.com/tamara-mellon-career-advice, https://www.tamaramellon.com/collections/pumps, https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/lvmh-prize-winner-marine-serre-on-the-future-and-leaving-balenciaga, https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/victorias-secret-angel-cameron-russell-advises-against-modelling, ted.com, https://gotham-magazine.com/why-sara-ziff-founded-model-alliance, https://generalassemb.ly/instructors/celine-semaan-vernon/6620, https://www.them.us/story/aaron-philip-signed-to-modeling-agency

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