For the July issue they photographed all black models for the issue. It seems to be the total opposite of all other fashion magazines who refuse to use black models. All the models are black and even the topics in the magazine are to appeal to a black audience and the black female consumer that spends billions a year in an industry that doesn't even acknowledge our existence when most of the trends are taken from our culture. We are and have been some fly and fashionable individuals from the cool in the sixties ,to the dip in the step in the seventies, and the hip hop arrival of the eighties , and the Afrocentric nineties, to a culmination of all in the the years passed. This issue of Italian Vogue will be on European newsstands next Thursday and in the United States a few weeks later. The model on the cover is Liya Kebede. Naomi Campbell, Sessilee Lopez and Jourdan Dunn are on the pullout cover. They had trouble picking what model to use i.e a pull out cover. Other models featured are Veronica Webb, Tyra Banks, and Toccara.
Here are some quotes from the photographer on the set:
“I thought, it’s ridiculous, this discrimination,” said Mr. Meisel. “It’s so crazy to live in such a narrow, narrow place. Age, weight, sexuality, race — every kind of prejudice.”
“Perhaps the designers, perhaps the magazine editors,” he said. “They are the powerful people. And the advertisers. I have asked my advertising clients so many times, ‘Can we use a black girl?’ They say no.” The concern is that consumers will resist the product, he said. “It all comes down to money."
“Perhaps the designers, perhaps the magazine editors,” he said. “They are the powerful people. And the advertisers. I have asked my advertising clients so many times, ‘Can we use a black girl?’ They say no.” The concern is that consumers will resist the product, he said. “It all comes down to money."
Interesting comments. Hopefully other magazines will follow suit because we spend too much money not to be represented. Everyone go out and get a copy of the mag because this is a milestone for not just African Americans but all minorities . Hooray Italian Vogue and we think America is so diversified makes me think not....
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