Saying publicly to New York Magazine what many of us are thinking, Iman recently expressed concern that the highly anticipated "all-black" July issue of Italian Vogue will just be a gimmick and may not change anything about the lack of models of color in fashion magazines. "I still don't like us to be a caricature...They'll think, 'Okay, we did it.' And then they're done with it, and we'll have to wait till next year." The iconic model also shared her belief that the fashion industry is out of touch and that in 2007 black models in particular were "nonexsistant" and that the industry was "outdated" when compared to other media. The answer, according to the legendary beauty, is to go all Norma Rae on their asses and form a union. "I can only say that one of the reasons is that models have never had unions, so there is no one to say, 'This isn't right.'" Iman, along with Jourdan Dunn, Veronica Webb, and newcomer Arlenis among others, will appear in Vogue Italia in July. Still no official word on which model or models will appear on the cover.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Iman Doesn't Want Black Models to be Caricatures
Saying publicly to New York Magazine what many of us are thinking, Iman recently expressed concern that the highly anticipated "all-black" July issue of Italian Vogue will just be a gimmick and may not change anything about the lack of models of color in fashion magazines. "I still don't like us to be a caricature...They'll think, 'Okay, we did it.' And then they're done with it, and we'll have to wait till next year." The iconic model also shared her belief that the fashion industry is out of touch and that in 2007 black models in particular were "nonexsistant" and that the industry was "outdated" when compared to other media. The answer, according to the legendary beauty, is to go all Norma Rae on their asses and form a union. "I can only say that one of the reasons is that models have never had unions, so there is no one to say, 'This isn't right.'" Iman, along with Jourdan Dunn, Veronica Webb, and newcomer Arlenis among others, will appear in Vogue Italia in July. Still no official word on which model or models will appear on the cover.
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5 comments:
I think that the lack of color not only exhists on the runway but in the fashion industry in general. The lack of black models, designers, blacks working for fashion magazines. There really needs to be some changes. We are major consumers of an industry that doesnt acknowledge us or our beauty.
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"The answer, according to the legendary beauty, is to go all Norma Rae on their asses and form a union."
Hell yeah! That is a great idea. This is why I respect Iman all the more.
I agree...do the Norma Rae thing, make your voice heard. People want to be passive about everything and make complaints...we all know what you say is true. Now, what are we going to do about it?
Love the write-up! Iman brings up a good point.
The sentiments of Steven Meisel who shot this noteworthy all-black Vogue Italia issue is that this feature be a stepping stone for the fashion industry to take note of Black talent. Hopefully, Meisel will make it a point to continue to shoot Black models and not just hang up his camera for a year or two and not shoot any editorials with Black models.
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