Influencial Magazine Cover: British Vogue 1966

British Vogue, 1966

One of the most influential magazine covers that hit the press in March 1966 was from the ever popular fashion magazine Vogue. The cover showed American actress and model Donyale Luna on the cover of British Vogue.

What makes this cover influential was the fact that Donyale was the first black model to be featured on the cover of a British magazine. A year earlier in 1965, Donyale  had appeared in Harper's Bazaar as an illustration. The illustration however, although a first for a black model, was quite ambiguous with the skin tone of the model visually unclear.

Although the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, racial prejudice still existed so the statement that British Vogue made by using a black model around a time of racism was innovative and influential. As well as being the first black model to appear on the cover of a British magazine, it was the first for Vogue altogether with American Vogue not featuring a woman of colour until 1974.

Beverly Johnson, the first black model cover girl for Vogue US, 1974

This influential magazine cover helped pave the way for fashion as we now know it. Today, British black models such as Naomi Campbell and Jourdan Dunn have featured on the cover of the some of the most popular fashion magazine. It is because of British Vogue and Donyale Luna that the fashion industry has changed and accepted those of different ethnic backgrounds.

What is interesting in particular about the model Jourdan Dunn is that she was the first black models to walk a Prada runway. As well as this she is one of the first British models to enter the Forbes top earning model's list. Although racial prejudice towards models has improved since that first influential cover by Vogue, it is clear that even today, prejudice towards black models does still exist.

Jourdan Dunn on the cover of British Vogue, 2015

Up until this February when Jourdan Dunn appeared on the cover of British Vogue, there had not been another black model on the cover for twelve years. Before February, the last black model on the cover of Vogue was Naomi Campbell in 2002. Many newspapers have speculated why this is the case, with model Naomi Campbell herself stating that more black models worked in the 70s as appose to now.

Although in 1966, the British Vogue cover was influential to the fashion industry at the time, it is clear that changes still need to be made in order to rid prejudice from the fashion world for good.