The latest designer to make headlines with their casting choices is Kanye West who put a hijab-wearing Somali-American model on the New York catwalk to reveal the more adult-like Season 5 Yeezy collection.
Born in a refugee camp, Halima Aden, is currently a freshman at Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota. Earlier she became the first woman in a hijab to compete in a Miss Minnesota beauty pageant in a hijab.
The nineteen-year-old made her runway debut in front of Kim Kardashian and Vogue's Anna Wintour sitting in the front row, though West himself didn't emerge to greet the crowd during the presentation's conclusion.
Aden in a conversation with Vogue said that so far her experiences have been positive,
“My goal is to send a message to Muslim women and young women everywhere that it's okay to break stereotypes and be yourself.”
West's Season Four show last September featured fainting models and melting shoes, held outside Roosevelt's Island, so for this round, the Season Five show on Wednesday, held indoors at NYC's Pier 59, he featured a fraction of the looks of his earlier collection, sticking to a time frame of under fifteen minutes.