16076: You Da Iman.

  

British Vogue features Iman on its cover—and includes an interview titled, “‘I’m Done With The Seat At The Table. Let’s Just Dismantle The Whole Table’: Iman On The Need To Reset Fashion’s Agenda.”

 

Nuff said. Go read the interview.

13540: BHM 2017—Vogue.

Okay, it’s technically not a Black History Month moment, but the Vogue “diversity cover” controversy is worth spotlighting. Plus, it seems like Vogue produced a second-rate knock off of the iconic “Black Girls Rule” theme from Trace magazine.

12728: Exclusivity Is In Vogue.

Okay, The Faces of Fashion: Vogue Model was released in 2010, but MultiCultClassics just discovered it. The book features photographs of the world’s most beautiful, iconic women and covers over 90 years of stylish history. However, Iman and Naomi Campbell are the only Black women appearing in the 350+ pages. Why, it’s like a duplicate of Cannes.

9214: Slaves Of Fashion.

From The New York Daily News…

Vogue Italy slammed for ‘slave earrings’ post on website; piece hypes huge hoops as ‘slave styles’

By Philip Caulfield, Daily News Staff Writer

Angry readers are slamming Vogue Italy with charges of racism for running a feature on its Website promoting “slave earrings.”

The article, published on Vogue.it on Aug. 5, hyped the trend of glamorously oversized circular earrings and featured a photo of a runway model sporting a pair of hubcap-sized hoops.

“Jewelry has always flirted with circular shapes, especially for use in making earrings. The most classic models are the slave and creole styles in gold hoops,” the typo-riddled blurb said.

“If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of color who were brought to the southern Unites States during the slave trade, the latest interpretation is pure freedom.”

The controversial piece ran under the title “Slave earrings,” and called them “a classic always in evolution.”

Although the piece was live for more than two weeks, fashion blogs and social media sites erupted on Sunday and Monday with charges that Vogue Italia was glamorizing slavery.

“Thanks for the heads up on the slave earrings in Vogue. Clearly written by an ignorant air head who is totally vacuous,” one angry reader tweeted.

“There is absolutely nothing fashionable about the history of enslaved Africans,” a Vogue commenter wrote.

“Oh brainless Vogue…” another reader tweeted.

Vogue Italia’s editors apologized for the piece, saying the writer’s intention was lost in translation.

“We apologize for the inconvenience. It is a matter of really bad translation from Italian into English,” editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani told Britain’s Telegraph. “The Italian word, which defines those kind of earrings, should instead be translated into “ethnical style earrings.”

The title of the piece, which is still live, was changed to “Ethnic earrings.”

The blurb still references the slave trade, but the word “slave” was removed.

5603: Vogue Adds Color.

From The New York Times…

Conspicuous by Their Presence

By CATHY HORYN

RACIAL prejudice in the fashion industry has long persisted because of tokenism and lookism. “We already have our black girl,” says a designer to a fashion-show casting agent, declining to see others. Or: “She doesn’t have the right look.” Laziness, paranoia and pedantry may also have something to do with the failure to hire black models for shows and magazine features in any meaningful number, but, hey, that’s just a guess.

A decade ago the thing to deplore was the stereotyping of black models by dressing them in African-inspired clothes (or the Asian girls in kimonos). This at least gave work to minority models, but it also encouraged a Western view of African culture of the many-bangles-many-beads variety.

O.K., so fashion ain’t deep. It looks into a mirror and sees … itself. The irony in fashion is that it loves change but it can’t actually change anything. It can only reflect a change in the air. But what changes fashion? What would finally move American designers to include more black models on their runways? That 30 percent of the country is nonwhite? That black women spend $20 billion a year on clothes? That an African-American is the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party?

The answer is the individual eye.

In fashion, one of the most influential eyes belongs to the photographer Steven Meisel. His pictures have caught an America basking in the earnest, self-reflected glow of celebrity and money. He has taken innumerable risks, especially with “Sex,” the 1992 volume he did with Madonna, that have paid off with a career that allows him to do whatever he wants.

And he has almost lovingly photographed some of the world’s beautiful women, tapping into their psyches, connecting with them on a human level, while transforming them into fashion deities.

As the model Veronica Webb, who first worked with Mr. Meisel 20 years ago, said: “Steven knows every single tic, every talent that every girl has. He just pulls it out of them.”

For the July issue of Italian Vogue, Mr. Meisel has photographed only black models. In a reverse of the general pattern of fashion magazines, all the faces are black, and all the feature topics are related to black women in the arts and entertainment. Mr. Meisel was given roughly 100 pages for his pictures. The issue will be on European newsstands next Thursday and in the United States soon after.

Under its editor, Franca Sozzani, Italian Vogue has gained a reputation for being more about art and ideas than commerce. Ms. Sozzani also doesn’t mind controversy.

[Read the full story—with multimedia slide show—here.]