Liya Kebede Fronts Zimmermann Spring 2021 Campaign, Lensed by Benny Horne
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Liya Kebede Fronts Zimmermann Spring 2021 Campaign, Lensed by Benny Horne
Top model Liya Kebede and photographer Benny Horne [IG] team up again for Zimmermann brand. In these new images for Zimmermann’s Spring 2021 Collection, Kebede and Horne are in St. Barts, with Romy Frydman styling the activist and Lemlem brand philanthropist
Googling to see if Kebede’s Ethiopian manufacturing studio had contributed in any way to the Zimmermann collection — as they did with Valentino’s Moncler Genius extravaganza — the answer appears to be ‘no’.
But there IS a major controversy that broke out two weeks ago around a traditional “embroidery of artisans from the Oaxaca region of Mexico. The patterns are used in costumes worn for cultural festivals, with different colours and trims signifying different geographical or ancestral groups,” writes the Sydney Morning Herald.
AOC will dig further into this story, as we have no doubt that the actual dress design with the embroidery would easily pass a US copyright challenge. In this case, the argument is that Zimmermann was wrong to use the Oaxaca-region motif in any way without acknowledgement and financial compensation. Stay tuned as we clarify the various positions around this always evolving topic of cultural appropriation.
