Professionally called Donyale Luna, Peggy Ann Freeman is known to be the first Black supermodel. Naomi Sims, Tyra Banks, Ojy Okpe, Agbani Darego, Oluchi Onweagba, and Bethan Hardison, are a few Black women who have over time, upturned the challenges of the modelling industry, charting their way into earning the status of being called supermodels. Whether for commercialisation purposes, lookbook shoots, editorials or campaigns, models play such an instrumental role in today's world of fashion.
Black British supermodel stars
"When I first started out, I wasn't being booked for certain fashion shows because of the colour of my skin," wrote supermodel, Naomi Campbell, for The Guardian. "I understood what it meant to be Black. You had to put in the extra effort. You had to be twice as good," she continues. Campbell's rise to fame in the history of modelling is a tale all too familiar. From being scouted at the age of 15 by head of Synchro Agency, Beth Boldt, to having her first big shoot with British Elle, the Black British-born model made history through making signature walks and turns on the runway. Furthermore, she has worked with prominent fashion pioneers like Anna Wintour, Jean-Paul Goude, Donatella Versace, and a host of others.
In 2006, Jourdan Dunn, a British-born supermodel was scouted in Primark by Storm Management at the age of 15. In 2007, she appeared on major fashion platforms, debuting her runway walk at New York Fashion Week with designers Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs. After walking over 75 shows during the SS/08 collections, she won the Model Of The Year category at the British Fashion Awards in 2008. She appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia in the same year — an issue dedicated to celebrating Black models. From thereon, her career spiked, leading her to appear on global magazines titles such as Glamour, Elle, i-D, The Sunday Times Style, and many more.
At 24, Dunn became the first Black British supermodel to ever enter Forbes rich list. This incredible feat is not one that wasn't met with loads of racial discrimination. In a conversation with The Guardian, she spoke about the "whiteness" of fashion runways, bringing to light how we can do much better in areas of inclusion and diversity. "I want to talk about what goes on. A lot of people are scared to speak up. People think it's all glamorous and good and that all models get treated the same, but there is still a lot of BS that happens," she says.
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Having had the pleasure to walk for brands like Giorgio Armani, Moschino, Tom Ford, and Oscar de la Renta, British model, designer and activist, Leomie Anderson, is leaving a mark on the fashion modelling scene. Anderson’s career launched at 14 and she booked her first catwalk show at 17 with Marc Jacobs. In 2019, she made history by being a Victoria's Secret Angel — this was after walking four Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows spanning from 2015 to 2018. "I definitely feel that there's been a lot of improvement with the use of Black models," she comments on the BBC when speaking about both racism and colourism, "but I would definitely say that it has a long way to go especially with regards to shades."
It isn’t just about bookings
While most fashion models have had to face the world of seclusion for being Black, supermodels like Winnie Harlow have to deal with both issues of ethnicity and unique skin. Harlow, born Chantelle Brown-Young, was born with a skin condition called vitiligo. This skin condition has placed the supermodel in the face of both bullying and progression. Her experiences have been a huge learning curve for the industry, especially because conversations about her have been dynamic.
Most models have managed to manoeuvre the industry's biases into booking shows, only to have bad make-up and hair experiences. "With hairdressers, just because you've worked on one Black person's hair [it] doesn't mean you know all black hair," Harlow says in an interview with Glamour, "and with make-up artists, we need to have people who know how to work with dark skin tones, and not have it gray or ashy."
Historic Movements
The issue of non-representation has been long coming. Problems that are especially related to inclusion and diversity, especially for people of colour, are a tale as old as time. African Jazz-Art Society and Studies (AJASS) is a group of creatives which includes photographer, Kwame Brathwaite and his brother, Elombe Brath. On the 28th January, 1962, the group organised a show titled Naturally '62. It was created to disband the doctrines that Western beauty standards are the only relevant course of beauty, giving Black women the platform to walk and wear their afro hair with pride. For Aperture Magazine, Brathwaite told the author of Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul,Tanisha C. Ford, about the importance of this work, how it'll foster more representation, and give a true definition of Black is Beautiful. This is because he felt most publications that were seemingly built for Black women still had the biased knowledge of how beauty should be defined. “There was lots of controversy because we were protesting how, in Ebony magazine, you couldn’t find an ebony girl,” Brathwaite said.
In 2016, Ashley B. Chew, started the revolutionary movement #BlackModelsMatter. The excessive lack of diversity and inclusion of Black models in the fashion industry geared her to establish the movement. Although she didn't anticipate the outcome it garnered, she was still excited at how people received it. In an exclusive interview for Fashionista.com, the model expressed disappointment with how Black models have to do twice as much work in order to get the same attention as their white counterparts. "We matter because we're people too. Fashion is supposed to represent diversity and creativity," she says, "and the number one place where you can be yourself is the creative realm."
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What it means to be inclusive
According to a report by The Fashion Spot, after surveying 460 fashion print magazines in 2015, 84.7% of cast models were white, while Black models made only 4.4%. The modelling industry exhibits untheatrical levels of racial discrimination and peer-to-peer proclivity. Black models have for a long time been sidelined, causing them to question and doubt the very core of their existence and work essence.
In the early hours of February 15, 2016, Zac Posen shared the moodboard for his FW16 collection, intended for New York Fashion Week. The moodboard had pictures filled with women of colour and of all ages. A day prior, he uploaded a picture holding a black bag with the bold inscription of "Black Models Matter", and a caption that wrote "#BlackModelsMatter, #Womanofcolormatter, #Diversity is what makes the world beautiful and inspiring! #NYFW #FW16 @cfda bag by @ash_crew."
Posen made history that Monday night, for not only making a collection inspired by Ugandan Princess, Elizabeth Bayaga of Toro — the first Black model to grace the cover of American Vogue Magazine in 1968, but also for having a model lineup that comprised 25 Black models, out of 33. Only eight were white. Included were the likes of Tasha Moore, Viviane Oliveira, Aya Jones, Aamito Lagum, Cindy Bruna, Riley Montana and Grace Bol. "Since the inspiration was Elizabeth of Toro it made sense to have a casting reflecting this," Posen told CNN. "Their presence and the diversity of the casting complemented the collection and made it more striking."
One can also argue that supporting Black models goes beyond social media activism and designers being more inclusive with their choice of models. Makeup artists, hair stylists and beauty technicians also have their roles to play. In a post that exhibited a perfect mix of both plea and authority, Nykhor Paul admonished white stylists, saying that in order to perfectly support Black models, they need to equip themselves with relevant kits that answered the needs of diverse skin tones. The same was seen in a tweet made by Dunn, where she told stylists to do research on how to treat Black hair. "I swear, some people need to learn how to do Black hair and skin," she says.
While the modelling industry is heading in the right direction of including more fairness, diversity and representation of Black models, it still has a long way to go but with shining stars such as Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn and Leomie Anderson trailblazing in the field, we celebrate the Black British supermodels this Black History Month.