Italian Vogue’s New All-Black Fashion Spread

There used to be a whispered society of a very thin group of elite black models that had all the right stuff for the biggest and best fashion designers and houses around the globe. The problem was and still is why aren’t these houses of haute couture using them? Sure you could say what about Iman, Naomi, Tyra, yea, they where special no doubt, and there are quite a few more stellar girls that can walk a runway like you never seen, which ironically is why you don’t know it, they don’t get hired! At one point and time Style.com had 101 shows and presentations and 31 of those had no black model representation. Most of those that did use black models opted for one or two while Diane von Furstenberg, Charles Nolan, Tracy Reese, Yigal Azrouël, Philip Lim, Marc Jacobs, Jenni Kayne and Sue Stemp were among the designers who used more than two.
Lately the whispers have been getting louder as more and more voices want to be heard on this mega issue. I could go on and on but then you could simply Google where are the black runway models and read many articles in abundance yourself. And with fashion week closing its Fall 2011 season in Paris we can only speculate the whys and why not’s of the industry that showed us so few of the very talented black models from all of Fashion Week.

Just like a late night paid programming commercial would hark, get these fashion magazines at the low, low price of $9.95, BUT WAIT, there’s more, and in this scenario there really is a bright side. Italian Vogue’s February issue featured a 17 page all black model spread. It immediately sold out of every distributed copy although I’ve heard there’s a dealer in the garment district that has some stored away for sale at $15.90 a copy.

The story is called The Blackallure, and it was shot by Emma Summerton who’s work is nothing short of great! The models featured for this epic spread are in no particular order by name. Aminata Niaria, Ajak Deng, Chanel Iman, Rose Cordero, Melodie Monrose, Jourdan Dunn, Arlenis Sosa Peña, Georgie Badiel, Sessilee Lopez, Kinée Diouf, Lais Ribeiro, and Joan Smalls.

To see more of Emma’s Italian Vogue’s Work and other major magazine shoots: http://models.com/models/emma-summerton