•• July 2008 Issue of Vogue Italy Will Feature Only Black Models •• Naomi Campbell New Face of Yves Saint Laurent
Vogue Italy has announced that in order to protest against the racial discrimination existing in the world of fashion today, they will consecrate their July 2008 issue to solely featuring fashion models of black ancestry together with other celebrities. In particular, Vogue Italia is resisting what they see as the dominance of models coming from Russia and Eastern European countries in general.....
Franca Sozzani, the editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, reportedly said according to The Star that,
The July issue, which comes out next week, will feature a wide range of women of all ages and will include actors, models, and singers such as Naomi Campbell, Tina Turner, Jody Watley, and Iman.""the time also seemed right for an all-black issue now that Barack Obama will soon become the first black nominee for president of the United States.
Fashionmag.fr which is also reporting the news commented that the past few years has seen the disappearance of dark beauties such as Naomi Campbell, Iman, Alek Wek, Mounia, and Katoucha.
In related news, Naomi Campbell will be the new image of Yves Saint Laurent for the fall-winter 2008-2009 season starting in August 2008. The ad campaign was shot in March 2008 under the stewardship of YSL artistic director Stefano Pilati and will go through despite the fact that Campbell was recently condemned to 200 hours of community service due to an altercation with the police.
Read more about the issue also in The Independent
Although I can appreciate that Vogue Italia would attempt at making the racial representation more equal in this way, I think it's better to include all different models in each issue without highlighting "ethnicity" in one all black issue, which gives the impression of segregation, and also of there being a "standard" aside from the ethnic. It's a start, though. I wonder who they'll have on the cover of their October issue this year, and also how much impact the issue will have on future issues.
I am in the US and trying to get a copy of the July issue 2008 all black issue of vogue. Where can I get a copy
I think you would need to order it through your newsstand and they could see if it is still available. I personally got the second edition last summer as they ran out of the first print very fast.