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While we would expect nothing less from the Ethiopian-born model and the world’s number 1 "fashion bible", this cover is very significant for many reasons. It is the first time a woman of colour appears on the cover of the magazine in half a decade, according to Fashionista.
Now, before you go on about how this shouldn’t be a big deal and not everything is about race, lets looks at some facts:
According to The Fashion Spot, in 2014 magazine covers from around the world were pretty much a white wash. They did a survey which showed that out of 611 magazine covers, white models appeared a whopping 567 times, while models of colour only made 119 covers.
They also found that certain publications, including Harper’s Bazaar U.S. and UK and several Vogue editions, failed to feature any models of colour.
The absolute favouring of white models extends to fashion shows and campaigns as well. While New York Fashion week was slightly more inclusive, 77.4 percent of models cast for the shows were white, according to The Fashion Spot.
This year Vogue UK changed that by featuring supermodel Jourdan Dunn on their February cover. She was the first black model to have a solo cover in 12 years! This was a huge victory for Jourdan, who is very out spoken about the blatant racism in the fashion industry.
According to the Daily Mail, Dunn said that she was turned down for several runway shows in the past, because they already had another black model. She was also cheated on magazine covers in the past, because the “royal we” said that magazines won’t sell if there's a black face on the cover.
We think that’s bull. If that were true, why would they put her on a cover now?
Change is happening in the fashion industry, but frankly it is happening too slowly. Seriously fashion world, it's 2015, there is no place for racism anymore. Get your act together.
When it comes to racial diversity the fashion industry is...
