Model and Muslim-rights activist Halima Aden is featured on four Vogue Arabia May 2022 covers. Aden is styled by Amine Jreissati in images by Youssef Oubahou [IG].

Vogue Arabia EIC Manuel Arnault writes the interview: Halima Aden on Her Three-Year Hiatus from the Industry, Inhumane Working Conditions of Models, and Muslim Representation. I have read the entire interview and for the mostpart, Aden seems frozen in time.

Even in 2022, Halima was giving the same new interviews to media that shared her story of walking out of the fashion industry in 2020. AOC checks on her about every 90 days. Aden brings that identical voice to this Vogue Arabia May 2023 interview — but after therapy, which she cites as being very beneficial for her.

Is the fashion industry still rife with “inhumane working conditions for models”? I don’t know, but the New-York based Model Alliance four days ago posted on IG that the ‘Fashion Workers Act’, represents the culmination of the Model Alliance’s work over the last decade.

The Master of Diplomacy

In AOC’s opinion, Manuel Arnault probably has the most delicate and politically-fraught EIC role in fashion media. He walks that tightrope with an impressive maturity and diplomacy that I certainly don’t possess.

Arnault impressed me today, because he has taken up the topic of the Cleopatra Netflix series. Hence the paragraph that preceds this one. I bow down, Manuel Arnault.