Erykah Badu is part of the new talent to join the Givenchy 2014 campaign with designs inspired by African and Japanese cultures. Designer Riccardo Tisci knew immediately that Badu was the person for the job. “She’s one of the most stylish women I’ve met in my life. She’s got such a good sense of proportion, of colors,” Tisci said during a recent phone interview with Style.com.

Tisci decided to promote only women of color (Erykah Badu, Maria Borges, Riley, and Asia Chow) for this new campaign. According to People the designer released the following statement. “My family portfolio concept is carrying on. This season, I decided to invite my dream icon, the respected Erykah Badu, to my stage, as well as the young beauty Asia Chow, talent of tomorrow. And my new discoveries: Black goddesses Maria Borges and Riley and model Dominik Bauer. I am very happy, we did our job while spending good family time.”

The designer spoke about wanting to create a modeling platform that is representative of the general population instead of merely depicting one group. “There was a lot of talk this season in fashion. Me, I was one of the persons who ended up not being touched by this. I discovered Joan Smalls, I discovered Maria [Borges]. I discovered a lot of black girls, and I’ve been always supporting them. For me, I grew up in a family and I grew up in a culture, an education, that we all are the same.” Tisci said before adding, “It’s 2013. Everybody’s being so cool about Instagram, about Facebook, any media, everybody’s being so open. At the end of the day, why are not so many black girls or Latin girls in shows? When you have an American president who is black! When I see this happening, it’s quite sad, I think. People can be so avant-garde, so advanced, but actually not, because people are still making differences between skin color.”

[Image Via Wikimedia Commons and Courtesy of Najmudeen]