In a shock announcement, Australian department store David Jones has reportedly parted ways with their face of 5 years, Miranda Kerr. The Australian models contract was not renewed, with the decision reportedly a mutual one.
Kerr’s replacement is one of our favourite Australian models – Jessica Gomes. Gomes has been a ‘supporting’ ambassador under Kerr for David Jones in the last few years, and it is amazing that they have chosen Gomes who is half Singaporean-Chinese and half Portuguese. Especially given that she was reportedly told by a fashion designer that David Jones “would never hire an Asian girl to be an ambassador”.
Ouch.
But Gomes persevered and found fame outside of Australian shores, particularly in South Korea, where the blonde-haired and/or blue-eyed girls were given magazine covers, editorials and advertising campaigns over her.
“I feel like things are changing, ethnic beauty is more sought after, and because we’re so close to Asia, it’s becoming a melting pot – people are looking at that beauty as something they can relate to,” Gomes recently told the SMH.
Gomes has been busy in Australia recently, having driven in the Mazda6 Celebrity Race during the Australia Formula 1 Grand Prix and then walked the runway in the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Opening Show, sponsored by David Jones, along with the department stores other multicultural ambassador Samantha Harris.
We applaud the decision to appoint Jessica Gomes as the face of David Jones, Australia is an ethnically diverse place and hopefully this is just the start of more culturally diverse ad campaigns with models who also don’t look like they need a good feed. As China’s influence and power in the world of fashion grows, hopefully the industry will grow along with it and become more accepting of mixed raced faces (and then maybe even 100% Asian faces).
