Lupita Nyong'o-Lancome model deal challenges beauty ideals

Lupita Nyong’o’s Oscar-winning performance didn’t just push the limits of cinematographic excellence, but also expanded horizons for women off the screen.

French cosmetics house Lancôme has tapped Nyong’o as the new face for the brand – its first black model in a traditionally white industry.

After the announcement Friday, Nyong'o said in a news release that she was proud to represent Lancôme, adding that "beauty should not be dictated, but should instead be an expression of a woman's freedom to be herself.”

The cosmetics deal fits into a wider message that Nyong’o, a 31-year-old Kenyan-Mexican actress, has said she hopes her Oscar win will send to women across the world. “When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid,” she told the audience in her acceptance speech last month, when she won the best supporting actress Academy Award for her role in the film “12 Years a Slave.”

Bethann Hardison, a prominent fashion activist with the Diversity Coalition, told Al Jazeera she is cautiously optimistic about Nyong’o’s move. “I pray that Lancôme uses her appropriately,” she said, adding that other brands have tapped dark-skinned women before, “and they didn’t use them very much.”

Hardison, a former model herself who recalled people being “shocked” by her appearance as a black model on stage in the 1960s, said advocacy efforts affected gradual change in what she called a "racist" industry. On the significance of Nyong’o’s deal, Hardison said: “Everyone relates to her because she’s so cute and stylish. I think that’s wonderful. I think it does send a clear energy, like a wave, in the industry and beyond, when people see people that are integrated culturally.”

Hardison’s series of letters to four major fashion houses in New York, London, Paris and Milan spurred some to take action last year when she accused their directors and many well-known designers of racism. “In October (last year), they had four girls in Paris on the runway. That’s more than zero,” she said, in a reference to the number of “models of color” some designers featured.

“All I’m praying for is permanency,” she said. “Don’t let it be a trend.”

In a sign of cautious optimism, Hardison said Anna Wintour – editor-in-chief of Vogue and a powerful fashion guru – has been very supportive of using black models in the magazine’s latest issues.

Essence Magazine lauded Nyong'o with a Black Women in Hollywood Breakthrough Performance Award in March. In her acceptance speech at the event, she read a passage from a letter of a young fan, who thanked the actress for “saving” her from using skin-bleaching cream in an all-to-familiar refrain of adolescent insecurity.

“I think you’re really lucky to be this black but yet this successful in Hollywood overnight. I was just about to buy Dencia’s Whiteniches cream to lighten my skin, when you appeared on the world map and saved me,” Nyong’o read from the letter.

“I remember a time when I too felt unbeautiful,” she added. “I turned on the TV and only saw pale skin. I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin,” leading to feelings of self-loathing that she said grew worse when she was a teenager. But then Alek Wek entered the modeling scene, becoming a black role model who made Nyong'o feel “more seen, and more appreciated.”   

“I couldn’t believe that people were embracing a woman, that looked so much like me, as beautiful. My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome,” she said. “It was perplexing.” In a final word of advice, Nyong’o concluded: “I hope that my presence on your screens an in magazine may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey.”

Wek was the first African model to appear on the cover of Elle in the late 1990s, and has garnered praise from women such as Oprah Winfrey by speaking out against traditional beauty ideals. Beauty brands such as Estee Lauder, Cover Girl and Olay have since used black and Hispanic women to market their products, but the industry remains largely white. 

In 2008, L’Oreal – which currently owns Lancôme - caused outrage with a campaign that some women’s rights advocates said “whitewashed” Beyoncé by making her appear lighter than she is in real life.

During New York Fashion week's latest edition last September, prominent women’s blog Jezebel found nearly 80 percent of runway models were white – a number that has remained constant for the past six seasons. About 10 percent are black, while Hispanic and Asian models account for respectively 2 and 8 percent, according to Jezebel, which looked at the diversity of the selection of runway models at one of the world’s most important fashion events. Major brands such as Calvin Klein, Lacoste and Theyskens' Theory used almost exclusively white casts.