July Italian Vogue Supplement Dedicated to Black Barbie Dolls

It's not exactly on par with last July's "black" issue of Vogue Italia but it is interesting. This month's Italian Vogue includes a supplement issue that traces the lineage of Mattel's black Barbie dolls, from "Francie" (launched in 1967) and 1980's first official black "Barbie" named doll to current incarnations.

The Cut thinks this is a cleverly timed cross promotion for Mattel's new line of black "So In Style" dolls created by Stacey McBride-Irby.

I'm no collector but I do love looking at the dolls. The "So In Style" models are pretty cute even if they only seem to have one body type.

S: Youtube, Vogue UK, The Cut

ETA: More pics at Jezebel

Vogue Korea - August 2009 - Naomi Campbell

Photographer by John-Paul Pietrus

s: kanna

Meh.

Arlenis Sosa Peña - Vogue Italia - "Glitter" editorial

Photographed splendidly by Michelangelo Di Battista.

Just gorgeous. So many of these bring vintage Hollywood film noir movie stills to mind...in the full dazzling color that has become one of Di Battista's trademarks.

s: Diciassette (17)/TFS

Jourdan Dunn - Italian Vogue - "The Now Smash of Style"

Photographed by Craig McDean for 5/2009 Italian Vogue.

I love these. It's not very often that black models get photographed in such an avant-garde style. It's a nice break from the jumping and laughing type shoot that one finds month after month in American Vogue.

á la Balenciaga (a reader at The Fashion Spot) dreamed up this imaginary cover featuring the best photo from the editorial:



I'm biased but I do like it much better than the actual May cover:



What do you think?

s: Diciassette(17),BLACKLAB,TFS

Vogue - March 2009 - Michelle Obama

Snagged this from Jezebel.

To be honest, I'm a little 'meh' about the photo they chose but then this is American Vogue (which has never been accused of having much imagination when it comes to photo styling) AND Annie Leibovitz has been phoning it in for about a decade.

Still, I love the color of her dress and will be waiting with baited breath until this shows up in my mailbox.

I'll reserve furthur judgement until I see this one in person. The image makes it look as though her head is weirdly Photoshopped doesn't it?

I wonder if this issue will break their sales record the way Oprah's cover did back in 1998.

The Vagaries of Fashion - Italian Vogue

The good news: Vogue Italia used another black model in an editorials.

The bad news: She's just an unnamed prop in a decadent multipage editorial featuring white model Anja Rubik.

This is yet another example of how people of color can occupy the same space as white subject but not the same status.  When I look at this photo, all I see is the maid. In contrast, all she sees is her employer, eagerly waiting for the next order. It's almost as if the photographer (Miles Aldridge) decided to flip the script on the more common 'white woman in Africa' imagery and instead drop a brown person into a white person's world. Unfortunately, in this case, the brown woman is still just window dressing. 

 I would go on about this but I think I'd just be repeating myself and to be honest,  the ladies over at Threadbared said much more succinctly in  fantastic post titled "Background Color" that appeared on their blog last year.

Perhaps a better title for this spread would have been "The Vulgarities of Fashion."

Source (and remainder of photos) here.

Ubah Hassan for Ralph Lauren S/S 2009

S: scanned by Luxx/TFS


The Somalian beauty's career has been taking off since the travel restrictions on her Canadian residency were lifted in 2007. Once that was out of the way she signed with Click and within a month of living in New York she got a call informing her that she was chosen to be part of last July's "black" issue of Italian Vogue. In a Glamour UK interview she remarked:

I still hate the word refugee. It’s associated with being a victim and I certainly don’t feel like a victim. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t affect my career. For example, I couldn’t take part in Paris Fashion Week because I have no passport or birth certificate. I have residential status in Canada, but travel visas take up to two weeks to come through. But I’m just glad I’m able to make a living. My dad is so proud of me. There is still sadness in his eyes. I often want to tell him that he did his best, and though all the constant upheavals have been painful, none of it is his fault. At least we can get on with living again now. I often think people take freedom too lightly. Being able to pop across to another country for a holiday or go shopping for shoes are things I never take for granted.

I’ve often thought about returning to Somalia but I’m terrified of what I might find. Right now, the best thing I can do is draw attention to the country’s plight. And I hope that my example will give women from other war-torn countries some hope, and go some way to halt prejudices against asylum seekers. Not a day goes by that I don’t feel like the luckiest person on earth. I’m earning my own wage, living a happy life, traveling the world and meeting extraordinary people every day. I was given that chance. Some people might say that fashion is a shallow, frivolous business. You’ll never hear that from me.

Liya Kebede & Jourdan Dunn - Vogue - Feb. 2009

"It's a Madcap World" - Photographed by Steven Meisel

Sorry for the small images (I'll try to remember to replace them whenever I get the new issue in the mail.)

source: Sansartifice

Naomi Campbell - Vogue China January 2009

Photographed by Mario Sorrenti. She looks a little different in the face, don't you think?

Oluchi in Vogue

After a brief absence it seems Oluchi is back. From the cover of POP Magazine and the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show to opening her own modeling agency in South Africa, the 6'1" Nigerian stunner is keeping very busy. I was happy to see her back on multiple pages of the December issue of Vogue (the one with Jennifer Aniston on the cover) alone and with her son Ugo.



Vogue is still far from perfect but even I will admit that some effort has been made to diversify the magazines lately. There have been several profiles in the past few months on black women like Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, socialite Maggie Betts, and Dr. Iffie Aitkenhead. It certainly has made the magazine a more enjoyable read.



Arlenis and Indian model Lakshmi Menon also have portraits in the "Shine a Light" statement jewelry edit but so far, actual multi-page spreads are still reserved for Vogue regulars like Coco Rocha and Raquel Zimmermann.

S: scanned by Luxx/TFS and me from 12/08 Vogue

Duro Olowu in Vogue Magazine

Vogue's Sally Singer featured Olowu, along with Roberto Cavalli and Tracy Feith, in her short piece about the best "bohemian" designers. Singer also wrote the much maligned article "From Here to Timbuktu" that appeared in Vogue a few months ago, so clearly she is their go-to person for ethnic influenced clothing. Here, she credits Olowo for "keeping wild graphics in check" and praises his "caravan of dreams creations." Ok, whatever. When I look at Olowu's designs and textiles, I just think beautifully layered clothing that a colorphobe like me might fantasize about working into my Beatnik uniform.

Carlos Campos to Hop on All-Black Model Trend

Using all black models has now become to lazy way to get attention in the fashion industry. Menswear designer Carlos Campos will unveil his first women's collection on September 7th in New York.

He has shared that his inspiration for the show is the jet set glamourous lifestyle of iconic model Iman and her rocker husband David Bowie.

Sigh. Why not just use black, or other non-white models, because they are beautiful and look great in the clothes? 

It's sad that those in the industry have interpreted the success of Vogue Italia as merely a publicity stunt and not the desire of fashion consumers to see more racial diversity in this once groundbreaking industry.

Even Campos' muse Iman expressed concern that black models would be seen as a gimmick after the publication of the July Vogue Italia.

Photo: DailyLife

ETA: Scriptgirl sent me a link to this article on issues of race and Fashion Week. It has a few good quotes from designers like Tracy Reese who remarked:

"I was pleasantly surprised this year. We're always calling up the agencies to say, 'We want to see black girls, Latinas, Asians, everything. ... There were a lot of new faces...For me, it's fun to see how different personalities enhance the clothes."

Designer Pamella Roland added, "Model casting has actually been easier this season. We're impressed by the sheer number and beauty of all ethnicities this time around. The only difficulty will be in choosing which girls we will ultimately cast."

Vogue Letters

I think I've mentioned before that the Letters to the Editor feature is usually my favorite part of any magazine. My own letters are usually way too bitchy to be published but every now and then someone will write one that is after my own heart. 

I wrote awhile ago about the "From Here to Timbuktu" editorial and article that appeared in the June issue of Vogue magazine. This month's issue features three letters that highlight wildly different takes on the piece. 

The first letter congratulates Vogue on "the absolutely respectful mise-en-scene" which apparently, inspired the reader to such an extent that she now plans on wearing her Tuareg men's wallet around her neck instead of on her wall.  A second letter really kills it and tells of the reader's completely rekindled Arabian Nights-esque fantasies.  That one left me wondering if the woman who wrote it did so while was was sitting buck naked at her computer, drinking wormwood and gently stroking the fur on her diamond collared ocelot. 

I honestly began to wonder if I missed something since the article's description of Timbuktu as a playground for wealthy people who want to get away from it all just left a bad taste in my mouth. 

Luckily, Chelsea Cook from Athens, Georgia breaks it down:

I was stunned to see photographs of beautiful Liya Kebede amid what looked to be poor African citizens in the June issue. I was sickened to then read the photos' captions: a $3,915 Cavalli dress...modeled next to people from one of the world's poorest countries...

Just this morning I was reading about a 16 page spread which appeared in Vogue India's August issue in which luxury items were modeled by nameless poor people. In the photo above, an Indian child models a Fendi bib which retails for $100. Manufacturers argue that they are just trying to create aspiration for their brands while raising awareness of the problem of poverty. There is no indication if any of these models for a day received the typical wage that a professional model would earn for hawking the same goods in the magazine.  They just get the typical people-as-props treatment. I guess this is much prettier and editorial featuring the real poor people who make these designer garments for pennies in sweatshops.

Somehow I just don't think that this is amusing or enlightening. 

Chanel Iman - "Black Break" - Vogue Korea

The pics are nice enough I guess. But really, is it necessary to put "black" on the cover and the spread? We all know that Chanel Iman is black (and part Korean too), that's why she isn't on the cover of US Vogue. Unfortunately, Chanel appears to be the only black model with new photos in the issue. The other "black beauties" spreads are just recycled from July's Vogue Italia. I think I'll pass.

Photographed by Oh Joong Seok

Pics scanned and uploaded by Chrisis511/TFS

Vogue Korea - September 2008 - Chanel Iman

The font on this cover is a little odd don't you think? I didn't quite believe it was real and not someone's Photoshop experiment when I first saw it. This is Chanel's first solo Vogue cover. Arlenis Sosa has a spread in Tyra's issue of Harper's Bazaar and a brief editorial (with two other models) in this month's extremely boring US Vogue.

ETA:

Here's a rundown of what will be inside the issue (thanks to chrisis511 @ TFS)

Black Break
Model : Chanel Iman
PH : Oh Joong Seok

There's Only One Naomi (a reprint from Vogue Italia)
Model : Naomi Campbell
PH : Steven Meisel

Model Mogul (a reprint from Vogue Italia)
Model : Tyra Banks
PH : Steven Meisel

Trend Atelier 
Model : Chanel Iman, Hyoni Kang, Noh Seung Soo and Kim Bong Man
PH : Hyea W Kang

Fascinating Fall (a reprint from Vogue UK)
Model : Lily Donaldson and Freja Beha
PH : Emma Summerton

Mature Masculine (a reprint from Vogue ??)
Model : Gisele Bundchen
PH : David Sims

Future Reflection
Model : Daul Kim and Song Kyung Ah
PH : Hong Lu

Full Moon Rising
Model : Jee Hyun Jeong, Daul Kim, Lee Ji Yeon and Hyoni Kang
PH : Lee Gun Ho
-(Korean traditional clothes "Hanbok" ed)

On The Road
Model : Cho Seung Woo(Actor) and Shin Min Ah(Actress)
PH : An Ha Jin

Rule To Form
Model : Daul Kim
PH : Oh Joong Seok

A Good Sequel
Model : Lee Ji Yeon
PH : Hyea W Kang

Space Walking
Model : Han Hye Jin
PH : Lee Gun Ho

Urban Romance
Model : Jee Hyun Jeong
PH : Kim Juag Han

CNN asks "Will fashion 'Black Issue' make a difference?"

There's not much new in this article, written by Lola Ogunnaike, but here is the link if you're interested. The best quote comes from Carlos Ojeda, an agent at New York Models. He basically gets into print what all of us have been thinking when he says:

"[This will tell people that] It's OK to have more than just one [black model], and she doesn't have to always be Naomi." 

and

"I hate to sound cynical, but by January, I feel like it will be back to business as usual...I want to be hopeful and positive, but a part of me does not want to get my hopes up."

Another "prominent" yet unnamed stylist quoted in the piece added, "You can't have an issue with all black girls, pat yourself on the back and say 'that's it for the year.' "

We'll all have to wait and see. Like I said earlier Jourdan Dunn seems to be getting a lot of work since the issue hit stands and of course Naomi is always busy. What I'd like to come out of this is for another Suede (or Colures) type magazine to get some serious financial backing in this country.

photo source: simplylovely

Same Old Story at Vogue Brazil

I spied this cover over at Jezebel. Brazil  may pride itself on being a "racial utopia" and has the largest percentage of individuals of African descent outside of Africa but when it comes to fashion, magazines and runway shows remains largely brown free despite the successes of models like Graice Carvalho and Emanuela de Paula (featured with other Brasilian models below.) Recently, black models protested the fact that they were excluded from auditioning for runway shows during Fashion Week. In spite of the attention the issue garnered, Vogue Brasil continues to only feature fresh white faces on its covers.

I don't know when I'll get an opportunity to travel there myself but I am curious if there are any magazines there that cater to black women.