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Actor Laura Harrier says modelling industry was ‘unapologetically racist’

‘I’m also very wary of celebrity activism’

Thursday 01 August 2019 12:59 BST

Laura Harrier attends the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)

Actor Laura Harrier has described the modelling industry as being "unapologetically racist", revealing that she struggled to book jobs as a teenager due to the colour of her skin.

The actor has starred in several blockbuster films including Spider-Man: Homecoming and BlacKkKlansman over the years but first started out her career as a model in New York City aged 18.

Opening up about her experience working in the fashion industry, the 29-year-old star told Marie Claire magazine: “Girls have so much more individuality now and different types of women are celebrated.

“When I was a model, it was literally just skinny white Russian girls, so nobody was booking me for jobs.”

The Chicago-born actor recalled going to casting calls at model agencies in Paris who would sign her but later say: “'Oh, we already have a black girl.'

Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments

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1/7Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments

Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments

Rykiel forever

Following the death of the designer in 2016, the brand paid tribute to her at its spring/summer 2017 runway show. Red-haired models stormed the catwalk wearing black jumpers with letters spelling the slogan “Rykiel Forever”. The collection, designed by the label's artistic director Julie de Libran, took inspiration from Rykiel’s early designs. Models wore hats and multi-coloured striped knitwear which was made famous by the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Audrey Hepburn during the 1960s and 1970s.

WireImage

Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments

Baring it all

In 2009, the brand teamed up with H&M to launch a one-off lingerie collection. The range’s Moulin Rouge-inspired runway show, which took place at the Grand Palais in Paris, saw model Lily Cole enter the venue on float with a gigantic horse head. Eschewing a traditional catwalk, models showed off the designs on swings, toasting each other under a moving chandelier, and rolling around on a float of satin-covered beds.

AFP/Getty Images

Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments

Fashion is politics

For the brand’s spring/summer 2009 show at Paris Fashion Week in 2008, the company showed its political allegiance and support for newly-elected US president Barack Obama. During the show, one model walked down the runway in a white knitted collegiate pullover with the word “Obama” emblazoned across the front. The look was styled with a matching skirt, white trainers, and a black embellished hat.

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Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments

Big hair, don’t care

During the Sonia Rykiel spring/summer show at Paris Fashion Week in 2008, the brand celebrated its 40th birthday and paid homage to Rykiel’s famous style. One model walked the runway in an oversized red crimped wig that cascaded past her hips. British fashion journalist Susannah Frankel described the designer’s hair in AnOther Magazine that year: 'Her instantly recognisable and quintessentially French flame-haired, alabaster-skinned, dramatically dressed appearance has captured the imagination of artists including Andy Warhol, Giacometti and Jean Cocteau.'

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Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments

Ethereal nightgowns

At the spring/summer 2008 show, Rykiel and her daughter, Nathalie, led the final procession of models. The group walked to the sound of Mick Jagger crooning “Paint It Black” wearing plush off-white nightgowns and rhinestone butterfly clips in their curly hair. Meanwhile, the designer and her daughter contrasted with the group in black outfits.

Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments

Crossing boundaries

Since the beginning of her eponymous brand, Rykiel has always blurred the lines between masculine and feminine notions in fashion. In 2007, the brand started designing menswear with a collection that featured striped sweaters in red, white and black, checked trousers, beanie hats, and tailored suits. In 2012, the designer told The Telegraph : ‘I was a tomboy – my mother always said I would never become a woman because I loved to dress like a boy.’

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Sonia Rykiel’s most memorable fashion moments

Statement sweaters

Famed for its statement knitwear, the brand saw model wear a black pullover with the words ‘Sonia Rykiel 175 Saint Germain’ at one of the brand’s runway shows in 1989. The words refer to the address of the label's flagship store which was opened in Paris in May 1968, the same month students took to the streets to protest against capitalism, consumerism and the old order.

Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

"It was just unapologetically racist,” she described the modelling industry. “Fortunately, I think that's changing."

Laura Harrier attends the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2019 in Los Angeles, California (Getty Images)

The actor also discussed the marriage between fashion and gender equality, stating: “I don’t think that one negates the other.

“You can be a woman, and love fashion and clothes, and that doesn’t mean you don’t care about big issues. I don’t understand why it’s like, ‘OK, you’re wearing a pretty dress, you’re not a feminist’.”

Harrier, who played an activist called Patrice in BlacKkKlansman, stated that she doesn’t consider herself an activist, rather a “human being with opinions”.

“I think there’s obviously more of a space for your voice to be heard and to be more in control of your voice because of social media – it has presented a whole new platform for people,” the star explained.

Laura Harrier attends the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)

"And using our voices feels natural to my entire generation. But I’m also very wary of celebrity activism. I don’t consider myself an activist.

“I’m a human being with opinions and morals, but it seems that as soon as you’re in the public eye and you’re somebody who does that, all of a sudden you are ‘an activist’. To me, activists are people who are standing on the front lines in Ferguson [Missouri].”

During the interview, Harrier also discussed the lack of racial diversity in film and how she wants to represent a diverse range of women.

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"I want to do romantic comedies and other films in which you don't see people who look like me; movies where you've never really seen people who don't look like Kate Hudson,” she said.

"I don't know what people's thought process was when they believed that audiences couldn't connect to seeing people of colour fall in love."

Read the full interview in the September issue of Marie Claire, out on Thursday 1 August.

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