In one of the better artist-brand pairings of the season, neo-soul icon Erykah Badu has been tapped by Givenchy to model for their spring campaign. Riccardo Tisci, the fashion house head, is no stranger to working with music artists—recall, for one, the elaborate artwork he designed for Watch the Throne—but this move is a next-level matching of sensibilities, especially because the Afrocentric artist was a muse to Givenchy’s spring collection, a mash-up of African and Japanese aesthetics. “She's one of the most stylish women I've met in my life,” Tisici said, talking to Style.com. “Already now it’s been three seasons that I’ve been using people that express something—they are great artists, or beautiful women, or stylish women, or models that I really believe in. It’s kind of a family portfolio.”
In light of Barneys New York’s recent racial profiling and fashion activist Bethann Hardison’s diversity coalition, Tisci’s longtime history of using a diverse group of models is notable. “There was a lot of talk this season in fashion,” Tisci added, referencing the diversity coalition. “Me, I was one of the persons who ended up not being touched by this. I discovered Joan Smalls, I discovered Maria [Borges]. I discovered a lot of black girls, and I’ve been always supporting them. For me, I grew up in a family and I grew up in a culture, an education, that we all are the same.”
