Erykah Badu Named The Face Of Givenchy Spring 2014 Campaign

Givenchy has tapped none other than neo-soul singer Erykah Badu to be the latest face of the label's Mert & Marcus shot Spring 2014 campaign.

Designer Ricardo Tisci has said to have been a fan of Badu's for a long time, though had never worked with her before. In an interview with he admitted her image in the back of his mind while designing the French label's most recent collection.

'Erykah, she's an icon-come on!' Tisci told the online publication. '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. What I want to do with my advertising campaign is spread the love. Already now it's been three seasons that I've been using people that express something, they are great artists, or beautiful women, or stylish women, or models that I really believe in. It's kind of a family portfolio.'

Badu's gig comes off the heels of the industry's much buzzed about controversy surrounding brands not including women of color in their campaigns. Heated debate stirred up within the fashion community after Bethanny Hardison and former model Iman expressed their concerns about discrimination on the runways and called out certain casting directors and fashion houses for being prejudice in an issue of The New York Times.

Tisci however has always seemed to embrace diversity with his models, notoriously hiring girls of color such as Joan Smalls and Maria Borges according to The Huffington Post. Tisci is hoping that his latest campaign with Badu will continue to encourage other leading brands in the industry to diversify their campaigns.

'I've always been supporting them. For me, I grew up in a family and I grew up in a culture, an education, that we are all the same,' he said. '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.'

Tisci made the announcement with a photo on the brand's official Instrgram account.

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