Last May, Boateng told Refinery29 that when he started his career, race was not something that he initially wanted to address. “You wouldn’t talk about [race],” Boateng, now age 51, said, recalling the press surrounding his first Givenchy collection in Paris. Though he made history as the first Black creative director at a legacy fashion house, he didn’t focus on identity politics. “There was a certain political correctness. You wouldn’t want to bring emphasis [to the fact that someone is Black]. Now, you do,” he added, attributing this shift in global mindset to Barack Obama’s two-term presidency.