It's always hard to say what role race plays in Fashion – certainly a lot less than it used to – but whether you're of the camp that race is all but forgotten or still a lingering bias, it's hard not to get excited over up and coming fashion model Malaika Firth, the black and beautiful Prada campaign star and first since Naomi Campbell all the way back in 1994.

Amanda Murphy wasn’t Prada’s only breakout model this season. A gorgeous 19-year-old Brit is being hailed as “the next Naomi Campbell.”

It’s quite a declaration, and while Malaika Firth may not actually look much like the iconic supermodel, the comparison makes sense–Firth is the first black model to star in a Prada campaign (she also walked in the fall 2013 show) since Campbell in 1994.

Firth, who was born in Kenya and raised in the UK, is of course flattered by the comparisons, but considers herself neither black nor white, exclusively. (Read More)