After hunting around SoHo, looking for the most wanted magazine on the rack these days, I finally got my hands on a copy of the hallowed Vogue Italia's Black Issue! I've got to say a major THANK YOU to the folks at my usual mag spot, The Campus News on W3rd, for giving me one of the only two copies they had in stock.
As was expected, the fashion editorials were fantastically shot by Stephen Meisel and features a quad cover with emerging ramp star Jourdan Dunn on the front flap, and with Naomi, Liya, and newbie Sessilee Lopez on the other three.
The pages overflowed with verified legends like Pat Cleveland, Alek Wek, Alva Chinn, Tyra Banks, Grace Jones, and Veronica Webb. Seeing that the industry is segueing into Fall 08 designs, most of the fashion stories were moody, edgy and, well, black.
After glossing over the somewhat impenetrable Italian text - my only brush with the language was during a runaway trip to Italy back in 06 - I noticed a sad irony about the issue and the effort behind it.
Page after page of black beauties, stunning editorials, artsy semi-nudes and sleek fashions couldn't overpower the milky white faces that paraded in almost all of the pricey advertisements for the powerhouse fashion brands that dominated Vogue Italia.
Even as the style heads pulled together this groundbreaking and landmark occurrence, the icky truth of the Fashion industry still reared its 'ugly-head' - when it comes down to booking time, the black models still struggle to get the jobs.
This isn't the first time the issue has been raised, but maybe this time, something will be done to bring about a change. Indeed, a change may be already churning: my jaw dropped to see a womanly, 'drop-dead sexy with just a slight touch of ghetto' Toccara from America's Next Top Model, doing her thing and vamping it up in her very own spread, right there alongside the thinnest of the thins...
LMN Harris.
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