Model With Down Syndrome Takes The High Fashion World By Storm
A lack of representation across the fashion and entertainment industries still persists—and there aren’t just disparities between race and gender in this regard. The disabled population has a hard time breaking into acting or modeling because mega-agencies won’t sign them. Zebedee Management is giving people who are differently abled a chance at success.
Zoe Proctor and Laura Johnson founded Zebedee Management in 2017 with no knowledge of the industry; they simply saw an opportunity to give people with disabilities their time to shine. According to Refinery29, fashion and beauty campaigns only feature about 0.02% people with disabilities. That’s a number that Proctor and Johnson hope grows within the next few years.
“I would like that 0.02% statistic to turn to 21%,” Johnson said to Refinery29. Twenty-one percent of the United Kingdom’s population lives with a disability, so it would only make sense that the numbers reflect the people. By the end of 2017, their business had some momentum and they believed they could actually make a change within the modeling industry. We’ll cut to the chase—they’ve done some impressive things!
Zebedee booked an entire River Island campaign with their models and have contracts with H&M, Marks & Spencer, Primark and Boden. Their biggest booking to date is with Gucci Beauty. An eighteen-year-old model named Ellie Goldstein, who has Down syndrome, now stands as the face of a Gucci campaign, plus the post introducing her to the masses now has the most likes on any of Gucci’s platforms! Her dreams are certainly coming true, and it’s all thanks to Zebedee.
“I signed with Zebedee because they only have models on their books with disabilities or hidden disabilities, and this was important to me,” Goldstein told Refinery29. “Maybe I could show that having Down syndrome wouldn’t stop my dreams.” Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele told Vogue Italia that he “designed L’Obscur mascara for an authentic person who uses makeup to tell their story of freedom, in their way.” We think Goldstein is the perfect model for the product.
Zebedee represents people with visible and invisible disabilities. For instance, there’s Renee Bryant-Mulcare, who has paraplegia and uses a wheelchair. She is happy to represent other young girls that look like her because she never saw anyone modeling in a wheelchair.
“I never saw anybody that looked like me—in the media or fashion industry,” Bryant-Mulcare told Refinery29. “So, to have a whole agency that is based on embracing those who have disabilities, I think is truly amazing.”
The standard modeling agencies filter out people with disabilities by asking applicants about their education, an obstacle which Kathleen Humberstone encountered when her mother Denise was helping her break into the industry. Then, they found Zebedee and Kathleen’s life changed.
“I knew Zoe and Laura had their hearts in the right place and that their daring enterprise was not so much about money, but about representation of people like my daughter,” said Denise Humberstone to Refinery29.
Young people with disabilities are far too often pushed to the side in a number of many different industries. A company like Zebedee believes that not only is every body beautiful, but that everyone should have a chance to pursue their biggest dreams.