Balmain Dresses Stars Of ‘My Profession Is Not Black’ @ Cannes Film Festival

Authors of the book “Noire N’est Pas Mon Métier” (My Profession Is Not Black) attended the documentary ‘s premiere during Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday (May 16).

This doc shows what 16 actresses, including its director Aïssa Maïga, have faced as women of colour working in France’s film industry, from sexism to racism.

This is the second moment of solidarity we have seen at this festival following the protested the festival’s lack of female representation just days before
Olivier Rousteing, the first black head designer of Balmain, was honoured to dress all the women in custom pieces from his Fall 2018 collection.

In an interview with Vogue before the premiere, Olivier said, “I was adopted by a white family. People used to ask my parents how they could adopt a black kid and they would call me a bastard to my face, so I’ve seen racism; I’ve experienced it,” going on to explain that he not only experienced racism as a child but later in his career in fashion, too. He went on to say, “Fashion is all about being modern, but sometimes, it’s not so avant-garde. I think if I were white, some of my design choices might have been taken in a different way. It’s easy for the industry to judge, and some of my choices, let’s say, would have been judged in a different way.”

The designs worn by each actress were all different as he wanted to portray that “being sexy and being glamorous is not for one kind of body type or personality. All of these women are different and some wanted to be very sexy and others wanted to be more covered up. It was about what they wanted and all I asked of them was, ‘What is the gown of your dreams?’”

What a beautiful story, man and group of women.

We salute them all.

Credit: Getty

FTC Disclaimer: Keep in mind that I may receive commissions when you click links and make purchases. However, this does not impact my reviews.