Naomi Campbell opens Paris Fashion Week with diversity speech

Supermodel Naomi Campbell opened the first-ever digital Paris Couture Week on Monday with a powerful speech calling for "equality and diversity" in the fashion industry.

The 50-year-old supermodel spoke via video link, saying that "the time has come to collectively call the fashion world to task regarding inequality" in the workspace as well as the industry.

"Action without vision is only passing time. Vision without action is merely daydreaming, but vision with action can change the world," she quoted Nelson Mandela, while talking about how the Black Lives Matter movement has become a momentum for permanent changes to promote diversity, inclusiveness and equality.

Campbell said it was "a call for action" to make in Paris, and expressed hope that the conversation could last for as long as it is needed.

"It is up to us, it is up to you to start enforcing inclusion of the multitude of identities that compose our countries. The time has come to build a more equitable industry with a good form of checks and balances," said the supermodel.

Campbell said it is necessary to include minorities from different countries and cultures in regular and sustainable conversations.

Paris Fashion Week was moved online for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with haute couture and men's fashion weeks rolled into one. Fashion labels made films to showcase their clothes.

On the first day, fashion brands including Dior and Giambattista Valli presented their designs. Maison Schiaparelli has also shown creative director Daniel Roseberry's sketching of an "Imaginary Collection," since it has no new collection this season.

"Everything has changed, but imagination, and the drive to create, has never been more relevant, or more profound. This collection is a tribute to that impulse to create," Roseberry said. "Someday very soon, I will venture back to Paris and hand these styles off to the atelier. We will make a portion of these and take them around the world to share with our valued clients and stylists."

(Cover image: File of Naomi Campbell attending the screening of "BlacKkKlansman" during the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2018 in Cannes, France. /CFP)

(CGTN)