Black Beauties are being celebrated on the front cover of Vogue Italy!

Vogue Italy did something extremely bold for July 2008: they featured a black model on the cover and on top of that they created a fold out cover that feature three other black models photographed by Steven Meisel.

These models are the top black models in the industry at present and it’s quite the homage that Vogue Italy would feature Liya Kebede, Sesilee Lopez, Jourdan Dunn and Naomi Campbell. Liya Kebede made the front cover while the other three black beauties graced the pages of the rest of the fold out.

The July issue of Vogue Italy is far more than just showcasing four pretty faces, it’s about featuring successful black women in the arts and entertainment world.

There has been a lot of talk that the fashion industry doesn’t use black models in the same way they did a few decades ago. Naomi Campbell, known for her candied talk, has highlighted this discrimination for a long time now. I’ve hear of some of the crucial excuses some designers have used to justify why they aren’t using more black (or Asian) models and it’s quite sad that such talk would still be prevalent in 2008.

I remember as a teenage admiring pages after pages of black models in magazines and that’s just not something you see as often anymore.

In fact, the reason why Yves Saint Laurent makeup was the first line of cosmetics I bought with my allowance money as a teenage was because he constantly used black models in his fashion shows and as

the “face” of his makeup line.

Along with the four cover ladies for their July 2008 edition, Vogue Italy has featured a long list of the top black models in the industry for decades: Iman, Karen Alexander, Tyra Banks, Veronica Webb, Gail O’Neil, Yasmin Warsame, Alek Wek, Alva Chin, Arlenis Sosa Pena and Chanel Iman.

New York Times Fashion & Style did a report on the discrimination of black models in the fashion world: Conspicuous by Their Presence.

I quite like the angle New York Times uses in this article to highlight the fact that in the US African

Americans women buy $20 billion worth of clothing each year and the country has made history by having the first African American in a position where he might be the next President of the United States … and let’s not forget Condoleezza Rice’s position, yet designers aren’t all that interested in seeing black sport their designer wear on the run way or in fashion magazines.