L’Oreal brings diversity to Champs-Élysées runway as Helen Mirren and Jane Fonda lead the show

Whilst most fashion runways are stoic affairs, the crowds gathered and cheered for the cross-generation selection of models

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Actress Jane Fonda gestures a peace sign as she walks for L'Oreal Spring/Summer 2018 ready-to-wear fashion collection presented in Paris. Photo: AP

Published: 12:33am, 5 Oct 2017Updated: 12:33am, 5 Oct 2017

Big fashion moments are few and far between, but this fashion week, it was make up giant L’Oreal providing one of them by staging an epic fashion show, featuring 18 designers and 70 vibrant different make-up looks.

Actor Helen Mirren walks a giant catwalk on the Champs Elysees at L'Oreal’s Paris Fashion Week. Photo: Reuters

Actress Helen Mirren, 71, and Jane Fonda, 79, both took to the runway alongside model of the moment Adwoa Aboah, as well as modelling stars Doutzen Kroes, Irina Shayk, Bianca Balti, Grace Bol and Maria Borges.

Angolan model Maria Borges on the catwalk set up on the Champs-Elysees. Photo: AFP

The lack of diversity on runways has been a reoccurring issue at global fashion weeks lately, but this season, many brands, including L’Oreal, have stepped up their game to include a more generous mix of different kinds of beauty, with models of different ethnicities and ages taking to catwalks.

Model Adwoa Aboah walks on the Champs Elysees catwalk at L'Oreal’s Paris Fashion Week. Photo: Reuters

Whilst most fashion runways are stoic affairs, the crowds gathered and cheered as a cross-generation selection of models took to a lengthy runway all the way down the famous Champs-Élysées shopping street, which was closed by the government just for the occasion.