Supermodel Adut Akech hits out at ‘ignorant, rude and disrespectful’ error in Who magazine
Adelaide supermodel Adut Akech has doubled down on her criticism of a “racist” magazine picture error — as the second model involved in the furore revealed that it brought her to tears.
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Supermodel Adut Akech says Australia has “a lot of work to do” to address racism after Who magazine published a photo of another black model, Flavia Lazarus, incorrectly identifying it as her.
Interviewed for her role as the face of Melbourne Fashion Week, the Adelaide-raised 19-year-old now regarded as the world’s top supermodel called out the magazine on Instagram, where she has more than 497,000 followers.
“It is racist but obviously I know it was not intentional,” Adut said after arriving in Melbourne on Monday.
“It was a mistake. But it does come across … you wouldn’t mix up two white models’ names or use another white girl.”
Lazarus also slammed the error, saying it was “so embarrassing” and had brought her to tears.
“We don’t have the same head shape, we don’t look the same except that we have the same skin colour and a shaved head,” she said.
“I felt bad for (Adut), she has worked her butt off.
“It makes you feel invisible that you could do all this work but you won’t be remembered.”
Lazarus said the mistake was a symptom of a bigger issue in the industry, in which she sometimes felt she was hired as a “token black girl”.
“It is a racial issue, this wouldn’t happen to a white girl,” she said.
In her Instagram post, Adut wrote: “In the interview I spoke about how people view refugees and people’s attitude to colour in general. With the article they published a large photo saying it was me. But it was of another black girl.
“This has upset me, has made me angry, it has made me feel very disrespected and to me is unacceptable and inexcusable under any circumstances. Not only do I personally feel insulted and disrespected but I feel like my entire race has been disrespected too and it is why I feel it is important that I address this issue.”
Adut said Who confusing Lazarus, who appears in a Melbourne Fashion Week campaign, with her was a “big deal” because she had talked about racism in the interview.
“By this happening I feel like it defeated the purpose of what I stand for and spoke about. It goes to show that people are very ignorant and narrow-minded that they think every black girl or African people looks the same,” she said.
“I feel as though this would’ve not happened to a white model.”
A Who spokesperson apologised for the error and said the agency that set up the interview had supplied them with an incorrect photo.
“Who spoke directly with Adut to explain how the error occurred and have sincerely apologised. We also apologise to Flavia Lazarus for the misprint,” the spokesperson said.
“Our intention was to share Adut’s inspiring story and highlight her achievements. We are committed to increasing the diversity in the pages of Who ... hopefully the result of our misprint will be more people talking about this issue in the industry and tackling it head-on.”
Melbourne City Council’s public relations agency, OPR, said that it had “mistakenly sent a file of images to Who magazine which resulted in an incorrect image being used”.
“The error was administrative and unintentional and we sincerely apologise,” it said.
Adut said she did not want to “bash” Who but wanted the incident to be a “wake up call”.
“Big publications need to make sure that they fact check things before publishing them especially when its real stories and interviews and not just some made up rumours. To those who work at shows and shoots it’s important that you don’t mix up model’s names. Australia you’ve a lot of work to do and you’ve got to do better and that goes to the rest of the industry.”
Adut, who came to Australia as a child refugee from Africa, is ranked the No. 1 model in the world by influential industry website models.com.
She made history as the first black model to be the face of a fragrance for high-end fashion house, starring in Valentino’s Born in Roma campaign.
An advocate for refugees who is working with the UN, she is also one of the 15 influential women chosen by Meghan Markle to appear on the cover of British Vogue’s “Forces for Change” September issue.
