Erykah Badu named new face of Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci calls her an "icon"

Erykah Badu has always been known for being ahead of the curve, musically and fashion wise, so it was no surprise when she was recently named the new face of Givenchy.

Riccardo Tisci seems excited to work with the songstress too. Tisci recently spoke with Style.com about the new collection and spoke very highly of Ms. Badu, calling her an icon and "one of the most stylish women he's ever met in his life."

Erykah may just be the perfect fit for Tisci's campaign. He says the Spring 2014 collection will feature a mash-up of African and Japanese influences.

Tisci even revealed some of the strategies used for his campaign.

"What I want to do with my advertising campaign is spread the love," he explained. "Already now it's been three seasons that I've been using people that express something-they are great artists, or beautiful women, or stylish women, or models that I really believe in. It's kind of a family portfolio."

Sounds good, right? Tisci's campaign is already making history, too. It's the first campaign of its kind to exclusively use women of color.

Tisci opened up about that in his interview with Style.com as well. Here's what he had to say:

"There was a lot of talk this season in fashion [about designers not promoting diversity]. I was one of the persons who ended up not being touched by this. I discovered Joan Smalls, I discovered Maria [Borges]. I've always been supporting them. For me, I grew up in a family and I grew up in a culture, an education, that we are all the same."

Hopefully more fashion houses will follow his lead.