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Leomie Anderson says the glam team at a recent fashion show didn't know how to do hair or makeup on Black models

Nov 3, 2021, 23:12 IST
Insider
Leomie Anderson walks the runway during Christian Cowan's fashion show on September 10, 2021. Sean Zanni/Getty Images
  • Model Leomie Anderson recently posted a TikTok about being a Black model during fashion week.
  • She said artists didn't know how to work with Black models during a recent Christian Cowan show.
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Leomie Anderson is calling out the fashion industry for failing Black models during runway shows.

The former Victoria's Secret Angel posted a TikTok on October 24 that detailed her experience walking in a recent Christian Cowan fashion show. It's since been viewed more than 568,000 times.

Representatives for Anderson and Christian Cowan did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

In her TikTok video, Anderson showed "the realities of being a Black model during fashion week." In one of the video's first clips, the model says she asked those working on set "who could do Black makeup."

She then shows herself getting her makeup done with text over the video that reads, "Why do I look like I work in the mines?"

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"I told him this wasn't my color," Anderson wrote in the video, seemingly about her lipstick. "He is TRASH."

She's then seen getting her hair done by a variety of different stylists. Across the clips, the model wrote, "Ouch girl, you're hurting me," and, "Was told to wash my hair. No one dried it until last minute."

According to Anderson, the "white leader" of the makeup artists attempted to fix her makeup to no avail.

"Good try girl, but I felt ugly af," Anderson said in her TikTok. "Redid my whole face in 10 minutes. Can't go out. Sad."

Leomie Anderson walks the runway during Christian Cowan's fashion show on September 10, 2021. Sean Zanni/Getty Images

Anderson eventually walked the runway in a black feathered gown and matching gloves. But as the model said in her TikTok video, she "wanted to go home" by the time she hit the stage.

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"Please hire more Black hair and makeup artists so we don't have to go through this," she wrote.

Anderson also posted the video on Twitter, and added that "being a Black model is doing other people's jobs and not being paid for the extra work looool."

Anderson has spoken out on the lack of skilled makeup artists on numerous occasions via Twitter. In 2020, she shared two photos of herself walking the runway, in which her face makeup looked gray.

"Another sad day in the life of Leomie vs. the makeup artist. Why does my face look like a black and white photo??????" the model wrote.

Other Black women in the fashion and entertainment industries have also shared similar stories.

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Tyra Banks said in 2018 that she almost lost her job with Victoria's Secret when a hairdresser didn't know how to style Black hair, and Monique Coleman told Insider that her "High School Musical" character wore headbands for the same reason.

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