All Black Issue

(Chanel Iman Left, & Jourdan Dunn Right, In Vera Wang Glass Jeweled Necklaces)

The hot topic for us fashion people is the ever lasting issue of "Is Fashion Racist".
Rising African-American models Chanel Iman(Above Left) & Jourdan Dunn(Above Right) appeared in the July 2008 issue of American Vogue where an article on this exact topic was addressed.

"In an industry that has long championed individuality, what's happened to diversity?" asked Vicki Woods of American Vogue. At shows across the world people ask "Where's the excitement? Where's the individuality and personality?". We cannot blame designers for the "blonde leading the blonde"look on the runways, agencies are not getting enough black models, so that leaves the designers to choose from blank faced blonde's.

(Arlenis Sosa in Donna Karen Silk Dress, Twiga Bracelets & Christian Louboutin Sandals)

Fashion has trends in clothing, as they do in models. We had our supermodel era think Naomi, Linda & Christy, then our Brazilian era think Gisele, And of course our European era, and now we welcome the Black era, Say hello to three of our new Supermodels. Arlenis Sosa(Above), a stunning freshman, and one of American Vogues new it Models was first introduced and featured in their article on racism in the fashion world, and is rumored to be featured in their biggest issue of the year their September issue.

(Left Page,Chanel Iman & Jourdun Dunn in Donna Karan silk dresses, & Oscar de la Renta boots. Right Page, Arlenis Sosa in a Subversive Necklace.

Chanel Iman(Above Left), who has been in the industry for nearly 3 years, has already achieved what takes models years to accomplish, She graced the May 2007 cover of American Vogue with nine other of the worlds new Supermodels. Jourdun Dunn(Above Left Beside Chanel Iman) is already favoured by Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell & Andre Leon Talley an American Vogue Editor. She was booked for many shows this season which included Prada, which is absolutley mind boggling, the last black girl to be featured in a Prada show was Naomi in 1997.

Vogue Italia went so far to address the issue that they dedicated their whole July 2008 issue towards the problem. The issue entitled "The All Black Issue" features Models of all ages and sizes, but just one colour, black. So who scored the cover? Liya Kebede, Seesilee Lopez, Jourdan Dunn and Naomi Campbell all scored their own cover in this ground breaking issue.
(Liya Kebede, Seesilee Lopez, Jourdan Dunn & Naomi Campbell)

Steven Meisel, one of the most influential photographers in fashion, has photographed over 100 pages of just Black Models. While other pages of the magazine feature topics which are related to black women in the arts and entertainment.
Hopefully the industry can start introducing black models onto their runway. You can be sure to see more black models in magazines now, considering every major fashion magazine does indeed look up to Vogue and what they do.

Other black models who were photographed for Vogue Italia include Alek Wek, Alva Chin, Arlenis Sosa , Chanel Iman, Gail O’Neil, Iman, Karen Alexander, Tyra Banks, Veronica Webb, and Yasmin Warsame.

The July 2008 issue of Italian Vogue will be on European newsstands next Thursday and international stands in the following weeks.