... the other Black experience
The Black Issue
While browsing the various fashion blogs i read...i came across this :
This is the cover of Vogue Italia titled as "The Black Issue". It is the first issue of its kind that features all black models such as Liya Kebede, Naomi Campbell, Sessilee Lopez and Jourdan Dunn.
Honestly im conflicted on how I feel ab this. I do like how it appreciates black beauty
in an industry that features pages of pages of the same types of white bitches. On the other hand is this just another way to divide people rather than bring people together? I dont know how to call it...it makes me happy to see a magazine take a progressive step into broadening the spectrum of what is beautiful but i'm not sure if this is just exploitation & just an issue that was done to say to the critics/readers that we(fashion industry) are not not racist we did a black issue..idk i'm curious to hear what yall have to say ab this!
This is the cover of Vogue Italia titled as "The Black Issue". It is the first issue of its kind that features all black models such as Liya Kebede, Naomi Campbell, Sessilee Lopez and Jourdan Dunn.
Honestly im conflicted on how I feel ab this. I do like how it appreciates black beauty
in an industry that features pages of pages of the same types of white bitches. On the other hand is this just another way to divide people rather than bring people together? I dont know how to call it...it makes me happy to see a magazine take a progressive step into broadening the spectrum of what is beautiful but i'm not sure if this is just exploitation & just an issue that was done to say to the critics/readers that we(fashion industry) are not not racist we did a black issue..idk i'm curious to hear what yall have to say ab this!
Tags: fashion
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by kifaru on -
I don't wanna knock it as long as there is nothing overtly racist in the issuse.
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Permalink Reply by celestial on -
From what i understand the modeling scene can get extreme at times as far as racial tension though its nice to see a publication dedicated to the beauty of every race stood aside and gave glory to black women. "Nah dat thur sumthin ya dunt se evry de"
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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on -
the reason why this (BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL BITCHES) is happening is because there are less black working models on the scene than there were even 10 years ago. and american vogue is some racist bullshit. you can count on one hand the number of black regulars on the runways of the major shows...and this season fashion designers that usually use and ask for black models have said that parisian agencies don't have any--ridiculous.
there's definite racism and underrepresentation of ppl who don't look eastern european--even major designer are complaining of how absolutely boring all the agencies have become.
anyway, i agree about trace ...and really if these white agencies with their token black women scouts supposedly can not find strong enough black models w/ the same body types as eastern european tweens--then more power to specialized agencies.
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Permalink Reply by Obsidian on -
Fashion industry. *yawn* I love fashion, I hate corporate. The magazines, the shows, the styles - they are all "media", like any news station. The mags on the rack at the checkout line at the grocery store say "we are the standards, photoshopped and everything" as if . For Italian Vogue put out a Black issue is sad - for there even to be a need. But it is something we should really not care about. The white fashion world is ho hum. Let's just worry about what we create and nurture, and leave them to their own silly world. If we like something from their world, cool. If their world disses us, then that should be proof that they're silly and don't deserve our valued attention (and not err on the side of letting it bother us). As a whole, the conventional fashion industry is a spectacular failure (no bold, only trite neatly packaged Westerness) and their practices reflect that.
And I don't agree with the message I see in that True Beauty cover (straight hair, tall, skinny, typical, over sexed, projecting the weak female popular image). But ah well, just my opinion. Someone else can probably see something I am missing.
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Permalink Reply by wonders on -
this is funny to me - the title they've given this thing - A Black Issue. it's like, "alright stop harrassing us about the fact that we never have any black girls in our magazine. here, we made A Whole Black Issue of Vogue for you. now can you step off?"
my only problem with this is the separation of races. instead of recognizing a problem and just incorporating more black models into their mix they have this - a one time gimmicky event.
on a positive note - there is a 12 year old black girl who will read this and see that black skin isn't ugly and that it's just as beautiful as anything else.
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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on
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JC Report article on the magazine........essentially reporting on how there's a huge demand in NYC for this issue and essentially nails the reason for it: people of color want to see "themselves" in high fashion magazines. All of the editorials and images in the vogue aside from the advertising are of black women. Adverts are near-exclusively white women.
http://www.jcreport.com/intelligence/magazines/140708/italian-vogue...
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Permalink Reply by Nadia C on -
Maybe i'm just jealous but...Black people who are shown in the media always seem to represent some sort of demigod version of blackness. Like, its all just "the beautiful people" syndrome. Do they really represent your average black person? Eh. Not so much, in *my* opinion, at least. It's sort of like seeing all of these beautiful white people in the media, and then looking at all of these white people on my city block who'd be considered very average, if that(Although, for racial reasons, they'd still be held above everyone else).
I find that the presence of black people in the mainstream/media can be just as detrimental, as the *lack of our presence in the mainstream/media, in certain cases.
Especially modeling and such.
Call me crazy, but most modeling (I'm a fashion designer, but not *that* kind of fashion designer) seems like some sort of multicultural, modern-day version of eugenics(Most of the American entertainment industry seems like this). It's just another stereotype we're all suppose to live up to.
Like that magazine above in that post.
You have a "beautiful person" of every race that represents this multi culti perfection that all people are suppose to attain and not rest until they do.
You have the Asian chick, the white chick, the red head, the black chick, and the Hispanic/Italian-looking chick. All stuff we've seen before. All stereotyped images and ideas. No real individuality there.
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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on
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Nadia C said:Maybe i'm just jealous but...Black people who are shown in the media always seem to represent some sort of demigod version of blackness. Like, its all just "the beautiful people" syndrome. Do they really represent your average black person? Eh. Not so much, in *my* opinion, at least. It's sort of like seeing all of these beautiful white people in the media, and then looking at all of these white people on my city block who'd be considered very average, if that(Although, for racial reasons, they'd still be held above everyone else).
I find that the presence of black people in the mainstream/media can be just as detrimental, as the *lack of our presence in the mainstream/media, in certain cases.
Especially modeling and suc.
Call me crazy, but most modeling (I'm a fashion designer, but not *that* kind of fashion designer) seems like some sort of multicultural, modern-day version of eugenics(Most of the American entertainment industry seems like this). It's just another stereotype we're all suppose to live up to.
High fashion models rarely represent anyone's reality--white or black. their bodies are forms and the edgy form (and closest to their fashion drawings) for the last few decades is something lean and sharp...not sexually appealing (as curves are interpreted).
Really, this issue is about showing the full potential of high fashion black models given the chance. Vogue Italia gave these black women a chance especially relatively newcomer Sessilee Lopez who owns her edit from what I've seen!
Also, apparently the team behind some of the photoshoots were mostly black...according to an eMail response from Stylist Edward Enninful (consistently works for Vogues US, Paris, Italia):
Naomi Campbell is one of my best friends. She is from Streatham in South London. Pat McGrath is also one of my best friends. She comes from Northampton in England. I am from Ladbroke Grove, in London. Put three very vocal black Brits together, add a North London hairdresser, Guido Palau, and stir with New Yorker Steven Meisel, and what do you get? A very, very loud shoot. We laughed, ribbed each other, and talked about the old days, but most of all we created a story that reflected black dreams and aspirations. There was no hip-hop gangsterism, no ghetto fabulousness, no bling-bling clichés. Meisel simply shot a beautiful story with one of the most important icons of this century. His testimony to Naomi, who he first photographed at the age of 15, is both a love story and an ode to creativity, excellence and longevity. http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/beauty-and-soul/
And I think yer impression of modeling is more 1990s than 2000s where black models are pretty hard to come by and when they're around they're tokenized...as was mentioned in the post above--there's only one advertisement in the Vogue Italia that features a black model--the rest are white....in otherwords: Benneton-like ads aren't trendy atm...multi culti is out.
Oh, and I tried for a few minutes today to track down a copy of this in Chicago--according to the guys i talked to they've been routinely sold out over here since June and according to JC Report the same thing is happening in New York City. A popular argument for why black models aren't used more often is because they don't sell well.......lullz, but perhaps this is solely a product of the novelty of an all-black issue, but i doubt it. Even by the all-important white standards in the fashion industry, these women on the cover/s owned. ...and really, I think it's b.s. to say that stuff like this has no impact. Anyway, I'm really curious to see how sales for this issue went because stateside it seems like they're banking.
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Permalink Reply by Nadia C on
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LesYpersound said:Nadia C said:Maybe i'm just jealous but...Black people who are shown in the media always seem to represent some sort of demigod version of blackness. Like, its all just "the beautiful people" syndrome. Do they really represent your average black person? Eh. Not so much, in *my* opinion, at least. It's sort of like seeing all of these beautiful white people in the media, and then looking at all of these white people on my city block who'd be considered very average, if that(Although, for racial reasons, they'd still be held above everyone else).
I find that the presence of black people in the mainstream/media can be just as detrimental, as the *lack of our presence in the mainstream/media, in certain cases.
Especially modeling and suc.
Call me crazy, but most modeling (I'm a fashion designer, but not *that* kind of fashion designer) seems like some sort of multicultural, modern-day version of eugenics(Most of the American entertainment industry seems like this). It's just another stereotype we're all suppose to live up to.
High fashion models rarely represent anyone's reality--white or black. their bodies are forms and the edgy form (and closest to their fashion drawings) for the last few decades is something lean and sharp...not sexually appealing (as curves are interpreted).
Really, this issue is about showing the full potential of high fashion black models given the chance. Vogue Italia gave these black women a chance especially relatively newcomer Sessilee Lopez who owns her edit from what I've seen!
Also, apparently the team behind some of the photoshoots were mostly black...according to an eMail response from Stylist Edward Enninful (consistently works for Vogues US, Paris, Italia):Naomi Campbell is one of my best friends. She is from Streatham in South London. Pat McGrath is also one of my best friends. She comes from Northampton in England. I am from Ladbroke Grove, in London. Put three very vocal black Brits together, add a North London hairdresser, Guido Palau, and stir with New Yorker Steven Meisel, and what do you get? A very, very loud shoot. We laughed, ribbed each other, and talked about the old days, but most of all we created a story that reflected black dreams and aspirations. There was no hip-hop gangsterism, no ghetto fabulousness, no bling-bling clichés. Meisel simply shot a beautiful story with one of the most important icons of this century. His testimony to Naomi, who he first photographed at the age of 15, is both a love story and an ode to creativity, excellence and longevity. http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/beauty-and-soul/
And I think yer impression of modeling is more 1990s than 2000s where black models are pretty hard to come by and when they're around they're tokenized...as was mentioned in the post above--there's only one advertisement in the Vogue Italia that features a black model--the rest are white....in otherwords: Benneton-like ads aren't trendy atm...multi culti is out.
Oh, and I tried for a few minutes today to track down a copy of this in Chicago--according to the guys i talked to they've been routinely sold out over here since June and according to JC Report the same thing is happening in New York City. A popular argument for why black models aren't used more often is because they don't sell well.......lullz, but perhaps this is solely a product of the novelty of an all-black issue, but i doubt it. Even by the all-important white standards in the fashion industry, these women on the cover/s owned. ...and really, I think it's b.s. to say that stuff like this has no impact. Anyway, I'm really curious to see how sales for this issue went because stateside it seems like they're banking.
Ahh. I see I misinterpreted the post. The photographs on that blog are beautiful.
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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on
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tocarra jones also has an editorial--she's a full-figured black model from America's Next Top Model.
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Permalink Reply by X-D-D-M*9 on
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You mean to tell me these photos aren't all of the same woman? I kyd, I kyd heeheehee...
I thought TRACE turned over to non-Black ownership when it changed from TRUE. Still I like the images in it; I did and article for TRUE waaay back in the day.
Black women rule regardless of Vogue.
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