ブラジルのランウェー、モデルの半数に有色人種

【サンパウロＡＦＰ＝時事】アフリカ系ブラジル人のモデル、シャーリー・ピッタさんとグロリア・マリア・フォンセカ・シケイラさんは、子どもの頃からファッションショーに出るのを夢見ていた。ブラジルのファッション業界に従事する有色人種の割合は国全体のそれよりずっと低く、つい最近まで業界は、夢のまた夢のような場所だった。（写真はモデルのシャーリー・ピッタさん）
　しかし今年、サンパウロ・ファッションウィーク（ＳＰＦＷ）で二人は夢をかなえた。時代の変化のあらわれだ。
　ＳＰＦＷは業界有数のイベントの一つ。参加するブランドには今年、モデルの少なくとも半数以上に有色人種を起用する要件が導入された。黒人や先住民の権利活動家らの呼びかけの中での決定だった。
　２１歳のピッタさんは「自分が美しい人だと、自分が存在する人だとわかるのに長い時間がかかりました。テレビではいつも自分ではないものを目にしていたから」と語る。
　ピッタさんは自分の髪を恥ずかしく思い、「小さい頃は頭にタオルを巻いていた」という。
　「こういうことを話題にするのは大事なこと。私たちの子どもたちは大きくなった時、サラサラのロングヘアにはならないからです。それは問題ではない、それは美しいものなのだということを知っておかないと」
　ブラジルでは、白人の所得は有色人種と比較して平均７４％高いが、人種的不平等についての全国的な議論が始まったのは、比較的最近のことだ。
　１７歳のシケイラさんは背が高く痩せていて、髪形はボリュームのあるアフロだ。ファッション界で未来が開けるかもしれないと気づくには、長い時間がかかった。
　シケイラさんは、スーパーモデルのジゼル・ブンチェンの出身国であるブラジルを多様性の国と見なしている。シケイラさんはブラジルに、多様性の肯定的な面を受け入れてほしいと考えている。
　「人々は時々、自分は人と違うから劣っていると感じて、自分ではない基準に合わせようとします。人と違うということが唯一無二であると気づいていないのです」とシケイラさん。
　ピッタさんは、ファッション業界が転換期を迎えたと考えている。「私たちは突破口を開きつつあります。私は過去について考えながらそこにとどまるつもりはありません。私たちは前進しています」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/11/27-12:13）

Afro-Brazilian models Shirley Pitta and Gloria Maria Fonseca Siqueira had dreamed of the catwalk since they were girls, but in a Brazilian fashion world much whiter than the country itself, it remained a far-away fantasy until recently.
In a sign of changing times in Brazil and elsewhere, the pair saw their dreams come true at this year's Sao Paulo Fashion Week.
SPFW, one of the industry's premier events, this year implemented a requirement for at least half of every label's models to be people of color, in a move hailed by black and indigenous rights activists.
It took me a long time to see myself as a beautiful person, a person who exists. Because on television, I always saw things I wasn't, says Pitta, 21, whose portfolio already includes work for leading fashion magazines Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire.
She calls herself a black favela girl from the Northeast, referring to the slums of Brazil's most impoverished region.
Her modern-day Cinderella story has captured as much attention as her striking appearance.
Before she was discovered in 2018, she spent her days selling grilled kebabs outside the zoo in her hometown, Salvador.
We were there every day, including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. We got there in the morning and we worked into the night, she told AFP in between gigs at SPFW, as Brazil prepared to celebrate Black Consciousness Day on Friday.
With her short hair, high cheekbones and piercing gaze, Pitta exudes a confidence she says does not come as easily at it might appear.
When I was little I used to wrap towels around my head, ashamed of the way her hair looked, she says.
It's important to talk about these things, because our children won't have long, straight hair when they grow up, and they need to know that's not a problem. It's something beautiful.
In Brazil, the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery -- in 1888 -- around 55 percent of the population identifies as black or mixed-race.
But although whites earn 74 percent more than people of color on average, a national debate on racial inequality has only begun relatively recently.
The conversation was perhaps delayed by a long-held idea among the Brazilian elite that the country was a racial democracy protected from racism by the fact that most people have some black or indigenous ancestry.
So it was a sign of radical change when SPFW, which was held remotely this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, required more inclusive casting.
That opened the doors to Pitta and 17-year-old Siqueira.
- 'I'll never make it' -
Tall and thin, with an exuberant afro, Siqueira says it took her a long time to realize she could have a future in the fashion world, despite people telling her she had potential as a model.
I'll never make it, she remembers thinking when she saw the model catalogue at Ford Models, one of the industry's top agencies, as a 15-year-old.
Now, she gives interviews from the agency's headquarters in Sao Paulo.
I wasn't confident. I thought I wasn't beautiful enough, she says.
But now I know I can travel the world through this.
The youngest of seven children from a lower-middle-class family, Siqueira grew up admiring models like Naomi Campbell and Adut Akech.
She sees Brazil, home to supermodel Gisele Bundchen, as a country of diversity, something she would like to see it embrace for its positive aspects.
Sometimes people feel like they're less because they're different, and they try to fit a standard that isn't them. They don't realize that being different is unique, she says.
Pitta sees the industry at a turning point.
We're breaking through. I'm not going to sit there thinking about the past. We're moving forward, she says.