Cosmopolitan Kenya - Who Knew?

I had no idea that there was a Kenyan edition of Cosmopolitan Magazine until I came across this photo of Ajuma Nasenyana on the cover.

Apparently, it launched in 2005 but I couldn't really find much else on the web about it. I'm not even sure if it is still being published. 

It's the second African edition of Cosmo (behind South Africa) and the magazines have many similarities. First of all, they share content, but there are an additional 30 pages of local content added to the Kenyan edition. Kenyan Cosmo also has a unique cover and chooses models for the editorial images which makes the Kenyan section "blacker" than the rest of the magazine. Lastly, the frank sexual discussion which made Cosmo famous in the US and other parts of the world are toned down quite a bit to bring it in line with local social mores.  According to The Guardian, this is the target audience: 

She is proud of being African, though she prefers to wear her hair straight. She is just as interested in having a career as a western woman, though perhaps more coy about sex.

I can't remember the last time I picked up an issue of American Cosmo. When I was younger it was always front and center in the supermarket right next to People Magazine by the cashier. Back then, reading it held a vouyeristic appeal. I may have been stuck in Tacoma with a bus pass that only worked on weekdays before 6 pm but they gave me a glimpse into what life was life for real women - women who traveled a lot, dated all kinds of men, had an unusual amount of sex and  dressed like extras from Dynasty. I imagined that all the ridiculous monthly quizzes were what these worldy women did to pass the time on their flights to exotic locations. I had a really active imagination back then. 

I'm not sure why no one ever imports these magazines for US consumption. I can only really speak for myself but I'd be very interested in reading African lifestyle magazines. I'm also continually peeved that networks like BET or TVOne haven't bought the rights to the Nigerian versions of Big Brother or America's Next Top Model. It would be a hell of an improvement over what they are airing now.

Will There Ever Be an African Vogue?

Do you remember when Vogue India hit the stands and Australian model Gemma Ward was front and center flanked by two presumably Indian models in what I like to call "the coveted Beyonce spot?" All I could do was laugh at how predictable that move was on the editors part.

In the months since that launch last year, Vogue India has featured a dazzling array of Bollywood actresses and models on the cover. It's as if to say, "yeah, we thought the cover on that premiere issue was lame too but we fully intend to make up for it!"

Anytime I think about that launch I wonder if an African country will ever get its own Vogue. Maybe a Vogue Nigeria or a South African Vogue.

I've debated back and forth on message boards about who would be chosen for the imaginary inagural cover. Legendary Iman? Alek Wek? Liya? Oluchi? Gemma in a safari hat?

I read an article in The Times this morning about Oluchi in which she was quoted as saying that top magazines in South Africa (like Glamour and GQ) refuse to put blacks on their covers. This in a country that is 79% black.

She said:

“As a Nigerian and an African I have done so much in my career to represent everything African in Western countries. There is a diverse group of people in South Africa, be it black, white, Asian. ...If you pick up Vogue India everything about it, from the first page to the last, is very Indian...I would like to see that in South Africa. They [magazines] need to embrace diversity and show more love ...It doesn’t give me joy to pick up a copy of South African GQ and feel like I’m reading American GQ."

Damn.

This saddens me. I recall seeing the cover of South African ELLE once with a dark skinned woman on the cover and for months I tried to find an issue at various newsstands only to come up empty. I was dying to know if the cover I saw was an anomoly. So far, I'm not willing to pony up the $90 or so for a subscription to find out.

Back to my magazine fantasy...I picture two covers. The first one featuring a mix of models from all over the continent with Iman or Liya Kebede, Alek Wek or Ajuma to show the very different types of African beauty. My second thought has editors mixing it up a bit more with the likes of a Jourdan Dunn, Emanuela dePaula, Chanel Iman, Chrystelle Saint-Louis Augustin, or Damaris Lewis to illustrate how there isn't a corner of the world that hasn't been touched by this so called dark continent's beauty and influence.

Seriously, I could ponder this for hours. I am so much more satisfied by made up magazines than by their real conterparts. Maybe there's an editor out there dreaming of this launch too, and of Gemma Ward posing on an elephant for the cover.

Cape Town Fashion Week: Aug. 8th - Aug. 11th

See more coverage of Cape Town Fashion Week at Vogue.com

Runway Africa 2007

I initially read about this show at I Like Her Style. The event is September 15, 2007 and tickets are still available. Times like this I wish I didn't live in the Northwest, I would love to see this.

RUNWAY AFRICA is a stylish and elegant couture exhibit that provides an intimate look at Africa’s creative fashion industry while spotlighting African influence in today's mainstream style and fashion. It features creations inspired by the rich traditions of the African continent, known as Africhic, Runway Africa promises a bold fusion of African textiles combined with glamorous couture.

RUNWAY AFRICA is the first couture fashion show to debut in the United States with an entire couture show dedicated to "Africhic". Read more at Runway Africa.

African Fashion Magazines

Sadly in the 90s and so far in the 00s it seems the Black model has gone the way of the Dodo bird. Whereas in the 80s Naomi, Tyra, Georgianna, Karen, Veronica Webb, Roshumba, Gail O'Neil, and a host of other Black models were in demand, these days that has tapered off to a drizzle.

Yves St Laurent was among the first designers to use Black models in the 70s but you'd be hardpressed to find any walking for YSL today. His successor Stefano Pilati was quoted in The Washington Post as saying:

To me, it is a matter of proportions and the bodies I choose. My fit model was a black model...When I wanted to translate what I put on her, it was a disaster. It would need 13 times more work in the atelier to modify it to put on a more Caucasian anatomy.

Sometimes, it's not your choice. You can't find [black models] that are beautiful and with the right proportions. I prefer them with lean proportions with no big hips.

Hmm, one model doesn't fit and he assumes that ALL black models must be just like her? Riiiight. It's a good thing he wasn't fitting Linda Evangelista during her bloated period. He would have banned all the white ones too.

With the failure of fashion magazines geared to Black (and multicultural) readers like Suede, Honey, and most recently Vibe Vixen.

One reader of BrownSista's blog lamented:


The bottom line is that the ‘typical’ fashion magazine advertisers (Gucci, Dior, Marc Jacobs, David Yurman, etc) don’t want to pay for ads in black magazines and they don’t want to diversify the models they use in those ads.

If D&G isn’t buying ad space, the magazine can’t get free clothes for editorials, pay big name models, fly to fashion shows, hire top photographers and writers, and become a presence in the fashion magazine scene.

They can’t put out the fat Sept issues because there is no one buying all those ad pages to fill it.

There are only so many auto ads and MAC ads they can use. The audience is there, I don’t know any black woman that doesn’t miss Honey and Suede, but publishers are short sighted and won’t give the magazines time to build readership or promote them.

All those hip hop artists that are so quick to talk about LV inn their songs should talk instead about how those brands refuse to market to African Americans because of racism.

So what's a fashion loving Black girl has to do to get her fix?

Perhaps the answer lies in African fashion magazines which serve to showcase the beauty, culture and style of African and African designers. I came across two such magazines recently Uzuri Fashion (which bills itself as the Premiere International African Inspired Fashion Magazine) and Haute, a tome focusing on Nigerian designers worldwide.

Both are English language and available for subscription. I haven't received my issues yet but I'm hopeful that these two publications will satisfy my craving until Vogue comes to its senses and launches Vogue: South Africa.