The May issue of Vogue Italia features a 15 page spread dedicated to and featuring all women of color. Photographed by Ellen Von Unwerth, the issue includes models Jeneil Williams, Cici Ali, Ubah Hassan, Gayle McDonald, Kelly Moreira, Jae Childs, R’el Dade, Jasmine Tookas, Lily Taylor and Ariel Meredith.
I’ve been hearing mixed reviews about this particular spread. Some are positive, with admirers expressing how important it is for high fashion magazines to include issues like these. On the other hand many are fed up with the occasional “all black” spread, and believe that models of color should just be given equal opportunity and intermixed evenly into the fashion world.
I featured Vogue Italia’s February all women of color issue, “Black Allure," some time ago. Vogue Italia hasn’t always been the most celebrated when it comes to featuring ethnic models, so I was thrilled to see the Black Allure spread, gorgeous by the way, and full of brown skin ladies. Although I love the all women of color features (gotta start somewhere), I do wish that these magazines were more imaginative with their themes instead of opting for played out clichés: the disco and tribal feel are getting lame...
Vs. of the Day – Proverbs 2:6
“For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
Photo Credit: Fashionbombdaily.com & Shadders.net
I get your frustration with the tired tribal and disco themes but would you be against all Afrocentric themes or just the lesser creative ones?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely just the simple cliche ones @ Le Chele. I would love to see new and imaginative Afrocentric themes that don't place ethnic models in stereotypical boxes, but it seems most magazines opt for those types of features...
ReplyDelete