Sudanese-Born, Howard U Discovered Anok Yai Opens Prada Show As 1st Model of Color in 20 Years

It's been over 20 years since a model of color opened the Prada show in Milan. Sudanese model, 19-year-old Anok Yai ended that black beauty drought on Thursday night. 

Teen Vogue highlights Prada's lack of runway diversity, with The Guardian pointing out that between Naomi's 1997 opening the show runway walk and Jourdan Dunn being cast in 2008, the highly influential Miuccia Prada didn't feature one black model on her runway. 

We first wrote about Anok Yai and her discovery at a Howard University fundraising even last fall, when she appeared in Prada's Black Nylon S/S 2018 campaign. 

Last month Yai walked the Prada Menswear 2018 Menswear runway. We hope that the tide has turned on casting models of color in fashion industry events and advertising.  This season's Fall 2018 shows at New York Fashion Week marked the most racially diverse of all time—with women of color accounting for 37.3% of all castings. In the age of digital media, most young people won't tolerate a lily white fashion landscape anymore.

Just imagine turning the attention of those incredible Parkland, Florida students away from gun control and on to racism. They are intellectual, media masters, calling BS on beliefs and practices w/o raising their voices one decibel. Call us IMPRESSED!