Black + Beautiful Vogue Cover Girls
The first black model to grace the cover of British Vogue
was Donyale Luna in 1966. Donyale
went on to star in movies directed by Otto Preminger, Federico Fellini and Andy
Warhol, before the end of her short tumultuous life. The cover of Vogue is the pinnacle of any model’s career.
The honor can lead to high-end fashion and beauty contracts, film, TV and commercial
roles and entrepreneurial enterprises.
The first African American model on the cover of American Vogue was
Beverly Johnson. Her career
achievements include film and TV roles, two beauty books and a successful hair product
line. Beverly is the star of a
reality show on OWN“Beverly’s Full House”. real
estate entrepreneur. The second African American model to score a Vogue cover was Peggy Dillard. Peggy is now a successfulHer Harlem salon, Turning Heads was on the vanguard of the natural hair
movement. Somalian beauty Iman is
also a multi hyphenate talent. Iman is an actress, author and CEO of Iman
Cosmetics. Many Vogue cover beauties of color pen their memoirs and campaign
for important issues. Waris Dirie has a memoir and documentary, “Desert Flower” that details her escape from genial
mutilation. Her foundation is called
Desert Flower Foundation. Beauty Alek Wek also wrote her memoir and is an
ambassador for Doctors without Borders. Alek also designs a line of elegant
handbags, "Wek 1933". Tyra Banks is a television mogul
who started on “The Fresh Prince of Belair” as Will Smith’s love interest. Tyra
is the CEO of Bankable Enterprises, which produces “America’s Next Top Model”
and her successful talk show “Tyra”. In addition Tyra has found time to
complete her Executive Business Education at Harvard School of Business. Shari
Belafonte has
starred in several TV dramas. The model with the most Vogue covers to date is
Naomi Campbell. Adding to her various endeavors philanthropy and acting, Naomi
is the executive producer of reality show, “The Face” where aspiring models
compete to be the face of ULTA. The show will debut this week on Oxygen.
Naomi is a coach with supermodels Coco Rocha and Karolina Kurkova. Other models have established
post Vogue cover careers in the arts. Louise
Vyent is a
photographer. Wanakee Pugh is a visual artist. The new cover girls are branching out like their history making supermodels
of color. Chanel
Iman has a website devoted to her accomplishments
and philanthropy. Liya Kebede is the
face of L’Oreal. Liya founded the Liya
Kebede Foundation to reduce maternal,
newborn and child mortality in Ethiopia and around the world. Noemie Lenoir has added film actress to her resume. Joan Smalls is
the co-host of MTV’s House of Style.
Lana
Ogilvie and Kiara Kabukuru have
beauty campaigns with Cover Girl Cosmetics. Now there is an online campaign to launch a Vogue Africa. Black + Beautiful
Vogue cover girls are Semper Fabulous.