Stylist Jason Bolden calls out French luxury brand Celine’s Black Lives Matter post; Diet Prada lends support

Celine shared a post supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and celebrity stylist, Jason Bolden was quick to respond. Find out more

By Priyanka Mody

Updated on Jun 05, 2020 | 11:15 AM IST | 3.4M

Most Americans are outraged by the racism and police violence on George Floyd that led to fatal consequences. Cities across the USA are filled with protestors supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement. Amid all this, social media websites are also getting filled up with the BLM movement with people showing their support towards it.

One such brand raising it’s voice is the French luxury brand, Celine. On its official Instagram page was a picture shared with a black background that read, ‘Celine stands against all forms of discrimination, oppression and racism. Tomorrow’s world will not exist without equality for all.’ They used the same quote in the captions and concluded the post with the trending hashtag - Black Lives Matter.

Soon after celebrity stylist, Jason Bolden commented saying, ‘@celine wait really, you guys do not dress any black celebs unless they have a white stylist. FACTS’

The infamous fashion watchdog, Diet Prada was quick to come to support the stylist and with a post that not only supported Celine but also called out the Creative Director, Hedi Slimane on how the ratio of black models opposed to the white ones was so less. DP also proved their point with numbers and percentage of black models to the white ones in most of his shows.

Celebrity stylist @JasonBolden called out French luxury brand @Celine for performative #BlackLivesMatter solidarity. Bolden, who dresses some of Hollywood’s brightest Black talents like Cynthia Erivo, Taraji P Henson, Janet Mock, and Yara Shahidi, commented the LVMH-owned brand’s post, stating that they don’t dress Black celebrities unless they have a white stylist. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ @HediSlimane , Celine’s creative director and the man responsible for axing Phoebe Philo’s beloved É, has been a subject of conversation among the industry before for his apparent aversion to Black models. In case you didn’t know, we crunched some numbers for you from all his runway shows thus far: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Spring 2019: 6% (6 out of 96 exits) Fall 2019 Men’s: 8% (5 out of 66 exits) Fall 2019 Womenswear: 12% (7 out of 59 exits) Spring 2020 Menswear: 6% (3 out of 51 exits) Spring 2020 Womenswear: 9% (6 out of 64 exits) Fall 2020: 9% (10 out of 111 exits) • #blm #celine #lvmh #hedislimane

Discussing the same on their stories, DP also threw light on the fact that no black model was featured on their Instagram page for over a year hinting racism.

When further tapped on the stories, the watchdog also posted a screenshotted comment targeting the whole LVMH group. The comment read, ‘@lvmh need to approach this throughout their corporation with all their brands. Having @fenty under their wing does not mean they have a pass. - otherwise more generally i think so many are over @hedislimane and his @celine - can’t he just create his own brand where he can present his limited concept of being human?’