Ellie Goldstein, an 18-year-old model from Ilford in Essex, who is suffering from Down syndrome, just chosen by Gucci Beauty in her first modeling assignment. As per a release for the campaign, Goldstein starred in the new Gucci L’Obscur Mascara campaign with four other models too. It was in collaboration with the Photo Vogue Festival. It is a project that strengthens the company’s overall goals of “supporting emerging talents and promoting the theme of unconventional and non-stereotypical beauty”.
Gucci’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, explains the concept behind the mascara and said, “I designed L’Obscur mascara for an authentic person who uses makeup to tell their story of freedom, in their way”.
A project collaborated with Gucci and Vogue Italia’s named #theguccibeautyglitch” started in January 2020 on Instagram for this beauty campaign. A photographer David PD Hyde was selected to shoot Goldstein along with the four other models — Jahmal Baptiste, Enam, Kadro Vahersalu, and Ruoyi Yi. All these models were selected by Hyde and artist Catherine Sevel from over 6,000 photos posted on Instagram.
When Gucci posted this picture on its Instagram feed in June, it has become the most popular photo on the account with over 800,000 likes. After garnering such a huge number of likes on the picture Goldstein wrote in the comment section of the post, “I love this. Thank you for this amazing opportunity and a fabulous day shooting”.
In this era of racism and discrimination (which is not seen often, but it is there), this gesture of Gucci is really worth an appreciation. More power to such initiatives and spirit all around the globe.
