Who Magazine has been forced to issue an apology for publishing a photo of the wrong model alongside an interview with Australian supermodel Adut Akech.
The interview, which featured commentary from Adut on race and identity, was accompanied by an image of a completely different model, Flavia Lazarus. Lazarus happens to also be a person of colour in the modelling industry, but the pair look noticeably different. So, there is no real excuse for the mix up.
Adut, 19, is the face of this year’s Melbourne Fashion Week, and is a prominent model in Australia and overseas.
Despite Who apologising to her directly, the 19-year-old took to Instagram to discuss the issue and what it means for women of colour everywhere.
“This would’ve not happened to a white model,” she said in the lengthy caption.
She also mentioned that this isn’t the first time she’s been mistaken for someone else during her modelling career, which really says a lot about our ignorance on the issue.
Not to mention, Adut is a huge name in the modelling industry. I mean, she attended this year’s MET Gala, and you don’t just see every model in the world at the fucking MET, do you?
“I’ve been called by the name of another models who happens to be of the same ethnicity, I find it very ignorant, rude and disrespectful towards both of us simply because we know that this doesn’t happen with white models,” Akech said.
According to a Sydney Morning Herald article, the public relations company OPR is to blame for the mistake. They allegedly supplied Who with a file of images of Flavia instead of Adut, which meant the wrong image was used.
Regardless of who is technically at fault, it appears from Adut’s comments that this isn’t exactly a once-off problem. And frankly, when you’re the face of Melbourne Fashion Week, you’d want to hope that a magazine that’s interviewing you can at least pick you out of a lineup of people.
She concluded the lengthy post with a plea for greater awareness about diversity and education in the fashion world. Adut claims that Australia and the rest of the industry has “a lot of work to do” and must “do better” when it comes to the treatment and recognition of people of colour.
The 19-year-old model and her family fled South Sudan for Kenya, before eventually coming to Australia as refugees in 2008. Since then, she’s walked runways for Saint Laurent, Valentino and Chanel and is now considered one of the world’s most sought-after models.
To overcome adversity and go from growing up in a refugee camp, to being one of the world’s most popular supermodels is a huge achievement and it fucking sucks to see something like this happen to her.