Sabrina Dhowre Elba believes there is "way more work" to be done in tackling diversity in the fashion industry.

Sabrina Dhowre Elba and Idris Elba

Sabrina Dhowre Elba and Idris Elba

The 31-year-old model - who is married to actor Idris Elba - thinks there has been a "massive improvement" since she was growing up and had few catwalk stars to look up to, but she still doesn't think enough has been done to promote people of colour on the runway.

She said: "When I was growing up, you had Naomi [Campbell], Tyra [Banks] and Iman. So you'd think, 'OK, maybe I could be one of three.' That was it!

"Even now, while there has obviously been a massive improvement, there's 100% way more work to do."

And Sabrina also called for a push to celebrate different body types because few people on the catwalk share her natural curvy shape.

She added to Grazia magazine: "But also, people talk about Ashley Graham and what she's done for plus-size models but I would love to see that movement work for women of colour. Not only am I looking at these models and thinking, 'They don't look like me in terms of my skin colour', but they don't look like me in terms of body shape either.

"I'm an African woman. I've got curves, sorry!"

Sabrina slammed sample size-garments as another "form of discrimination" because they are designed to fit certain body types and shapes.

She continued: "People need to start looking at sample sizes as a form of discrimination, not only in terms of weight but in terms of skin colour.

"You're ruling out certain women from certain places who just don't have that body type. What is that doing for the industry?"


Tagged in