Okay so this morning I talked to a guy at a magazine distributor in my area who assured me that the July issue of Italian Vogue wouldn't be in stores of for another week so there was no reason for me to make a special trip yadayadayada...he lied.
The first pics from the highly anticipated "black" issue have hit the internets so here is a peek. I've decided to withold judgement until I've seen the entire issue for myself. The usual suspects (namely Naomi, Jourdan, Tyra and Liya) are present but so far there is no sign of the rumored shot of everyone's favorite plus sized cheesecake model Tocarra of ANTM fame.
In response to Steven Meisel's challenge, American Vogue has run an article and editorial called "Is Fashion Racist?" in this month's issue (exceedingly plastic Nicole Kidman on the cover.)
The editorial features "white" hot Jourdan Dunn again with Chanel Iman. The answer to this question of course is yes. Everybody knows it and I hate that Anna Wintour always feels the need to explain why she is using black models instead of just, you know, using them in normal everyday unimaginative spreads that US Vogue is known for. I'm still mad about her editorial apology the year the Kiara Kabukuru was on the July cover several years back.
Will this change anything? The pessimist in me says no but we'll have to wait and see if fashion editors willingness to feature black models and models of other non-white ethnicities (in the lowest selling month for magazines across the board) will carry over.
Stay tuned.
Photo source: fashinfags, NYT, and Luxx @ TFS.