Ciao Bella!: Italian Vogue Celebrates Black Beauty
By Loryn Wilson - Jun 24th, 2008 at 11:43 amAccording to Cathy Horyn of The New York Times, famed photographer Steven Meisel chose to photograph only black models for the upcoming July Issue of Vogue Italia to confront the lack of diversity in the fashion world. Horyn’s thoughts on the troublesome history of race and fashion:
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.”
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The answer is the individual eye.
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?
It’s been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if you look at Times‘ companion slideshow to this article, it’s hard to deny the beauty of Liya Kebede or Naomi Campbell.
As someone who appreciates fashion and who loves images of black beauty, I’m excited to see Mr. Meisel’s work. I remember being a little girl and seeing images of Campbell in Vogue and on VH-1’s Fashion TV and being in complete awe. In some ways, though, I find myself torn. Yes, it’s wonderful to open up a cover of Vogue and see all black girls for once, but it still ignores the fact that the majority of black models are styled to adhere to a European standard of beauty–straighter hair, lighter skin, and narrower hips.
In addition, Feministing points out that Vogue Italia ’s decision to feature only black models for this one issue doesn’t do enough to confront the lack of diversity in the magazine as a whole, and that giving black models a single issue–as opposed to actively seeking them out for every issue–doesn’t really address the issue:
I can’t help but think that this is a somewhat empty gesture by a magazine hoping to avoid widespread change. Because if they put out their “black issue,” then no one can accuse them of being racist, right?
Point taken. But I also believe in good intentions, and perhaps this could kick off a very important, necessary discussion about race and diversity in the fashion industry.
The really interesting part is that apparently Italian Vogue is seen as less prestigious than its French and American counter parts, so it would be a much bigger step for the French or American version (who recently came under fire for their LeBron Giselle cover) to create an all black issue.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:09 pmI believe it is important to have these single-focused issues because they do a lot to highlight the lack of coverage in every other one. Obviously it doesn’t end there, but I definitely appreciate the effort.
Nonetheless, Italian racism isn’t necessarily between Whites and Blacks as it is here (it does exist, but to a lesser extent), but between Whites and Arabs, Chinese and Romanian immigrants. That is where Vogue could make a point, by having Italian citizens from those backgrounds in one issue. This would go much further for racial healing in Italy than having a ‘diversity’ issue featuring only one relatively well assimilated race.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:13 pmUmmm…okay, so I read the story and looked at the accompanying slideshow. My question is - where were the *black* models? Not trying to be picky here, but none of those photos had a dark skinned woman in them. In many of the photos their skin contrasts so much with their clothing as to make them appear white. Beautiful Is Beautiful does not translate to Even Black Girls Make Pretty White Girls. It’s very strange that they wouldn’t show a representative dark model in the slideshow, if they even used one in this project. I know there are many gorgeous dark skinned models out there.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:30 pmAli, Italian Vogue is not definitely not less “prestigious” than American Vogue. Everyone knows that out of the major Vogues (Paris, Italian, UK, and American), the U.S. version is the most lame. However, I do agree with your point that a Paris or American all black issue would be a bigger step, but not because those magazines have more “prestige.” Rather, it would be a bigger deal because the editors of those magazines are two of the most influential people in fashion right now.
Tommaso, I totally agree with your second point about using different races rather one to showcase “diversity.” However, it’s important to note that the issue the magazine discusses isn’t diversity in Italy, but rather the fashion industry as a whole.
Scot, the New York Times slideshow is only a small sampling of what’s actually in the magazine, although it interesting that all the models shown are light-skinned. It’ll be interesting to see what all the images look like when Italian Vogue hits newsstands in the US. Alek Wek is a well-known, established dark-skinned black model and I’d be shocked if she didn’t make it into the magazine.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:14 pmLisha,
I guess I put it wrong but I always heard that the American and French magazines have this bias against their Italian counterpart as somehow lesser. To be perfectly honest, I’ve never read an issue of Vogue magazine from any nation but I do think that its an interesting step for a high fashion magazine to take especially because I remember reading that they rarely like to put minority women on their covers.
I think that though the American version may face a lot of criticism for having an issue similar to the Italian version so soon after the LeBron fiasco, it would still be a step in the right direction.
June 24th, 2008 at 11:07 pm[...] you heard about the inexcusable LeBron James/Giselle Bundchen cover. This past July, I wrote about Vogue Italia and their salute to Black models. While I was excited to see the images of Black beauty, it [...]
February 19th, 2009 at 8:49 am