Another public figure is calling out Pakistan’s ‘gora complex’. Fashion designer, Zara Shahjahan called out demeaning beauty standards.
Basically, the designer called out Netizens for mean comments about the Mexican models she hired for her campaign after trouble bringing her Pakistani models to Turkey.
“Let’s talk about these pictures. So I had a shoot in Turkey. My team left a day earlier and the day me and the model had to leave, Turkey announced 15 days of quarantine. We were left with no choice but to hire models from there,” she explained.
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Since she wanted to feature models that looked brown, she hired two women from Mexico.
“I tried to find girls who look South Asian and finally found these two very stunning Mexican models who flew from LA for the campaign. We were very happy, the campaign look really beautiful and we launched, but what happened after is quite disturbing.”
‘Why do we want the models to be white and sultry,’ Zara Shahjahan on fake beauty standards
The designer outlined how the models’ brown skin had people making comments such as ‘they look like maids’. In a country where genetically people should be brown, why the white beauty standard?
“These pictures started getting a lot of hate. ‘They look like maids’ is one comment which disturbed me the most.”
Disturbed by the comments Zara Shahjahan called out the problematic beauty standard. These people surely can’t ignore beautiful brown and dark-skinned women like Erykah Badu, Padma Luxmi, Rashida Jones, Naomi Campbell, Diana Ross, etc.
Not to mention all the stunning Latin ladies we love and follow like Joan Smalls, Rosario Dawson, Eva Longoria, Eva Mendes, JLo, etc all of who are brown idols. Who says people of color can’t be beautiful or sultry?
“Are we these people? Why do we want the models to be white and sultry?” Zara questioned.
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The designer was grateful to loyal customers that have come to appreciate her for casting brown faces and hitting back at colonial beauty standards.
“Thankgod for my loyal customers who know my brand and the collection was sold out but I don’t seem to get the irritation of a lot of women to these two pictures.”
