Watch Out World, She's Dior Now: Yara Shahidi Is the Legendary French Design House's Newest Face

If you were wondering what Grown-ish and Black-ish star Yara Shahidi will be getting into next—that is, other than continuing to double-major in Social Studies and African-American Studies at Harvard—apparently, she’ll be slipping into something by Christian Dior. The 21-year-old actress, executive producer and activist is now also the French luxury house’s newest global brand ambassador, becoming the face of both its women’s fashion and cosmetics, “representing the designs created by Dior women’s creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, and Dior image director of makeup, Peter Philips,” according to Women’s Wear Daily.

Shahidi joins Travis Scott among the label’s new contingent of young Black luminaries. Last week, it was announced that the Grammy-nominated rapper-designer had been tapped by Dior’s new menswear designer Kim Jones to collaborate on the label’s Spring 2022 men’s collection, “the first full Dior collection ever created with a musician for the house,” as Dior told WWD. Previously, the Cactus Jack creator had modeled the house’s 2020 “Air Dior” collaboration with Jordan Brand.

Shahidi’s relationship with the label follows a similar trajectory. Though her first and most recent design collaboration was a capsule collection for Adidas that debuted in May, in March the actress appeared in the second installment of Dior Stands With Women for International Women’s Day 2021. Dior Stands With Women is “the female-led education and empowerment initiative created by the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project,” reports WWD, Theron being a longtime Dior ambassador.

In a March video for the initiative, Shahidi explained her passion for activism and how she experiences womanhood as being multilayered and global in scope. Perhaps giving us a tease of how she plans to bring that same energy into her new ambassadorship, she said, in part:

“What we know to be true is that so many young women aren’t given the space to be heard consistently, to feel as though people are genuinely taking the time to understand what they’re saying. And so, when I go in to fight for what I believe is right, or what I believe is crucial to a certain project, I think there are many times that women—and it’s only exacerbated if you are a woman of color—tow the line between being viewed as assertive and driven or aggressive. And it is important and requires constant conversation, even for me, to know that my being assertive, my being driven and my being committed is not something to ever be ashamed of.”