Will Fashion Hold Tight To Its Embrace Of Black Model Beauty? Here's Hoping

Will Fashion Hold Tight To Its Embrace Of Black Model Beauty? Here's Hoping

Tiya Miles is a professor of American culture and history at the University of Michigan, as a member of the Program in American Culture, Center for Afro-American and African Studies and Native American Studies Program.  In 2011 Miles won a five-year grant MacArthur Fellowship for her intellectual prowess -- which is to say that Tiya Miles knows that's going on in her world.  

When the topic is models, Miles believes that Hollywood, fashion and beauty businesses are responding to the popular public movements demanding change. The changes are worldwide, but when the subject is fashion models, the lens centers on New York, London, Milan and Paris. Striking an ironic note, Miles sees our growing consciousness of the "importance of visibility and voclaity for people of color, particularly black people" as a positive outcome of the threatening rise of white nationalist identity across America and Europe.

“It is no coincidence that this runway model trend and movies like 'Black Panther' "have arrived at the same time," Prof. Miles told the New York Times after the Fall 2018 fashion shows. "The two are interlocked, as both have been incubating in what feels a like a growing crusade with many of the hallmarks of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s. They are part of a pushback against the dominant pressures of European and American white centrality.”

Denials Say Anna Wintour Is Going Nowhere As AOC Reflects On Edward Enninful's May 2018 New Fashion Army

These rumors are not true, a Vogue representative told the Cut. "There's zero truth to the story." Condé Nast also denied that Anna Wintour will be leaving the company.

I read the Page Six story before the denials. The source of this stunning rumor about a fashion industry executive, the grand high priestess whose influence cannot be overstated, is a report published on “Page Six” titled, “Is Anna Wintour Out at Vogue?”  The publication reportedly spoke to a number of sources who said Wintour is going to exit her role this summer after her daughter’s Bee Schaffer's wedding Francesco Carrozzini, son of former Italian Vogue Editor Franca Sozzani, in July. The report also speculated who would replace Wintour were she to leave Vogue, who might be encouraging her to exit, as well as what other opportunities might the 68 year old want to pursue.

Longtime Condé chairman Si Newhouse, who died in October 2017, was Anna Wintour's biggest cheerleader. In the Anna is leaving narrative, his presumed successor is Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of  Condé Nast International, currently living in London running the company's international media. According to Page Six, Jonathan "doesn't like (the amount of power) Anna has" and favors Enninful." This assertion comes from a single source.

Under Wintour’s watch as artistic director, Condé has closed the print editions of Teen Vogue, Self and Details and it has fought to compete online after closing down Style.com. Sources told The Post that the company is about $100 million a year in red ink.

So 'informed' is the Page Six story that it says there's even buzz that Wintour's exit interview has already been arranged and granted to the New York Times. 

Edward Enninful: Ghanaian Immigrant

Besides being as stunned as everyone else with this Page Six Story about Anna Wintour leaving Condé Nast, I couldn't help thinking about a short piece from yesterday about Edward Enninful's May 2018 British Vogue cover.

For additional context, Enningful is originally from Ghana and I had just watched the superb Netflix documentary 'Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise."  There is a scene in the film featuring Maya Angelou living in Ghana for a time immediately after independence. Of course I was captivated as Angelou was surrounded by global activists and intelligentsia including Malcolm X.

I made a joke to myself that any moment Queen Elizabeth II would appear, dancing a foxtrot with Ghana's new president Kwame Nkrumah. This episode from 'The Crown' and my commentary on it has become a tried and true daily read on AOC. With that Queen EIizabeth appeared with Nkrumah, leaving me smiling and wanting to know more about Edward Enninful's parents. Were they activists? Because Enninful has spoken truth to power on the need for diversity in fashion his entire life. 

This was the backdrop of my own Sunday thoughts on Enninful's May 2018 Vogue UK cover. We have a long way to go here before Edward Enninful replaces Anna Wintour at American Vogue. 

Edward Enninful's New Day Fashion Army

Boston Globe Writes Fashion Industry Sexual Expose On Patrick Demarchelier, Greg Kadel, David Bellemere, Karl Templer & More Model Aggression

Boston Globe Writes Fashion Industry Sexual Expose On Patrick Demarchelier, Greg Kadel, David Bellemere, Karl Templer & More Model Aggression

In what is becoming a fashion industry #MeToo moment, The Boston Globe released their investigation of sexual assault and misconduct accusations against at least 25 photographers, agents, stylists, and casting directors including Patrick Demarchelier, David Bellemere, Greg Kadel, Seth Sabal, Karl Templer and more. 

Models offering testimony include Abbey Lee, RJ King, Myla Dalbesio, Chloe Hayward and more prominent names in the industry. 

One of the industry's most prominent voices Coco Rocha told the Globe's Spotlight team that when she refused to get naked on the set at age 16, the photographer replaced her with a girl younger and more obedient. Months later, another famous photographer simulated an orgasm as he took her picture.

On her first test shoot at age 15, Dasha Alexander said the photographer held the camera in one hand and digitally penetrated her with his other. The move would make the pictures more "raw" and "sensual". I find this move laughable because a woman's sensuality is much more innate. If anything, the photographer would inspire raw fear -- unless the model was in full agreement with the gesture. If the photographer didn't ask her in advance about this digital penetration, he is guilty of sexual assault. 

Ashley Graham Tells TED: I'm Bold, Beautiful & Brilliant Even With Back Fat

Ashley Graham Tells TED: I’m Bold, Beautiful & Brilliant Even With Back Fat

IMG model Ashley Graham gave one of the most inspiring talks ever before a sold-out audience of 450 people in Valencia, Spain during an April 2015 TEDxBerkleeValencia event. Watch it here.

Dominating the stage with confidence and enthusiasm for her commitment to being a body-image activist for all women, Graham who is a 27-year-old Nebraska native said:

‘My body, like my confidence, has been picked apart, manipulated, and controlled by others who didn’t necessarily understand it. I had to learn to reclaim my body as my own, and in reclaiming my body as my own, I understood as a woman that I had a greater purpose to redefine feminine beauty.’