Beverly Johnson VOGUE, Forty years ago in 1974, Beverly Johnson became the first African American women to ever grace the cover of American Vogue, and changed the course of history forever. After being told by Eileen Ford that she would never be able to land a Vogue cover, when Johnson learned the news via a personal phone call from Wilhelmina Cooper she celebrated by screaming on the phone with her mom in a phone booth; she didn’t have enough money to buy her own copy of the issue. (Ultimately, Beverly ended up having three American Vogue covers across her career.)
Fast forward four decades since she she earned this coveted spot, and runway diversity continues to be an issue. And Johnson commented to Women’s Wear Daily that there aren’t as many African American models working today in the industry, despite the number of very visible faces we all know and love–Joan Smalls, Jourdan Dunn, Chanel Iman, and more–and there is also a lack of women of color behind the scenes as well.
As reported by WWD, Johnson said that despite the existence of diversity initiatives, “Sometimes we live in this very elitist bubble called the fashion industry [and] we have become really oblivious to what’s going on in the world.”
But she, along with Naomi Campbell, Iman, and Bethannn Hardison, will continue to speak out about runway diversity and will have their eyes on the catwalks this coming fashion week. We’ve got nowhere to go but up.
