In an effort to tackle the race problem within the modeling industry, July’s Italian Vogue will feature only black models, and present features relating only to black women in the arts and entertainment.
Italian Vogue’s editor, Franca Sozzani, said her decision was influenced by a protest group formed in New York to highlight the problem, as well as by Sen. Barack Obama’s success in the U.S. presidential primaries.
World famous photographer Steven Meisel shot the issue’s fashion spreads, which will cover about 100 pages and include such top black models as Tyra Banks, Iman, Naomi Campbell, Alek Wek, Liya Kebede, Pat Cleveland, Jourdan Dunn, Sessilee Lopez, Chanel Iman, Veronica Webb, and Karen Alexander.
Also included is Toccara Jones, a plus-sized model from Banks’ CW show “America’s Next Top Model” and frequent on air personality for BET.
“I thought, it’s ridiculous, this discrimination. It’s so crazy to live in such a narrow, narrow place. Age, weight, sexuality, race – every kind of prejudice,” Meisel told the New York Times.
He blamed designers, magazine editors and advertisers for the decline in the numbers of black women in fashion shows and the absence of black models on the covers of fashion magazines. “I have asked my advertising clients so many times, ‘Can we use a black girl?’ They say no.”
Vogue’s U.S. version is unlikely to follow in the footsteps of its Italian counterpart, but as a gesture, July’s stateside issue will run an article about the lack of black models.
Information from the New York Times contributed to this report.
