Vogue Italia: A Black Issue

The fabulous Ms. Toccara Jones in an editorial featured in the July ’08 issue of Vogue Italia

I haven’t really said much about the much talked about July ’08 issue of Vogue Italia…ok, so I haven’t posted ANYTHING about it…lol…but that was with much reason. One, everyone else is talking about it and I *try* to be unique. Two, the need for the issue pretty much goes against what Urban Glamour is all about—the premier fashion and beauty resource for women of all races, ages, and sizes! I think if every woman was truly represented in all publications, there would be no need for ‘A Black Issue’—because every fashion magazine would regularly feature women of all races. But, hey, this IS the fashion industry we’re talking about. The only industry in the United States where you can discriminate and not have the EEOC people on your tail.

I of course joined in the frenzy of searching high and low in the streets of Manhattan for the coveted cover, having put my name on two wait lists. I was really excited about the issue because despite my “We are the World” chants, it had been so long since I saw so many beautiful women who looked like me (ok, so I’m not a size 2, 5’11” runway model, but you know what I mean!) I finally snagged two copies last Friday and I love the issue! If only I could read Italian. *sigh*

Note to self: it’s about time to finally realize the dream of being a multi-lingual international spy and learn more languages other than English & Spanish

If you’re still searching for the must-have issue, I just got a phone call from Ahmed of Magazine Cafe located at 15 West 37th Street New York, NY 10018 and they have copies available for sale! Call Ahmed at 212-391-2004 to reserve a copy and then hightail it to the Garment District and pick up your copy before they all sell out again. Tell him Danielle sent you 🙂

P.S. Don’t forget to enter in this week’s double Urban Glamour Summer Beauty SUPER Giveaway! Two lucky readers will win either NARS Blush in Orgasm or Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion! Entries must be in by TONIGHT at 11:59 P.M. EST. Winners will be announced as well as next week’s giveaway tomorrow right here on myurbanglamour.blogspot.com!

Black Beauty History: ???

For Black History Month, we’ve honored 28 beautiful Black women who have made major impacts on the way Black women are both seen and heard. Women like Dorothy Dandridge and Alek Wek who stepped out and showed the world the beauty and grace of Black women in a society that told them otherwise.

So on this last day of February, who should we honor in our Black Beauty History segment? It didn’t take me long to figure out who this slot should go to. Today’s honoree in Black Beauty History is….

YOU!!!

Whether your skin is the color of french vanilla, caramel, or dark chocolate; or you wear your hair relaxed or natural; whether you’re a size 2 or a 32; young or old; or if you’re short or tall, celebrate being a beautiful Black woman!

Black Beauty History: Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith on January 17, 1927)^[1] is an American actress, singer, and cabaret star. She is best known for her role as Catwoman in the 1960s TV series Batman, and for her 1953 Christmas song “Santa Baby.” Orson Welles once called her “the most exciting woman in the world.”

In 1960, Kitt was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has also received three Tony nominations, two Grammy nominations, and an Emmy win. She was profiled on the December 31, 2007 broadcast of NPR‘s Morning Edition.

Kitt got her start as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company and made her film debut with them in Casbah (1948). A talented singer with a distinctive voice, her hits include “Let’s Do It“, “C’est si bon“, “Just an Old Fashioned Girl”, “Monotonous”, “Love for Sale“, “I’d Rather Be Burned as a Witch”, “Uska Dara”, “Mink, Schmink”, “Under the Bridges of Paris“, and her most recognizable hit, “Santa Baby.” Kitt’s unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in the French language during her years performing in Europe. She dabbled in other languages as well, which she demonstrates with finesse in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.

In 1950, Orson Welles gave her her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952 introducing “Monotonous”, “C’est si bon” and “Santa Baby”, three songs with which she continues to be identified. In 1954, 20th Century-Fox filmed a version of the revue simply titled New Faces. Welles and Kitt allegedly had a torrid affair during her run in Shinbone Alley, which earned her the nickname by Welles as “the most exciting woman in the world.” In 1958, Kitt made her feature film debut opposite Sidney Poitier in The Mark of the Hawk. Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt would work on and off in film, television and on nightclub stages. In the late 1960s, television series Batman, she played Catwoman in succession to Julie Newmar.

In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California.

In 1968, however, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon. It was falsely reported that she made First Lady Lady Bird Johnson cry uncontrollably when in fact, the First Lady replied very diplomatically. The public reaction to Kitt’s statements were much more extreme, both for and against her statements. Professionally exiled from the U.S., she devoted her energies to overseas performances.

During that time cultural references to her grew, including outside the United States, such as the well-known Monty Python sketch, “the cycling tour”, where an amnesiac believes he is first Clodagh Rogers, then Trotsky and finally Eartha Kitt (while performing to an enthusiastic crowd in Moscow). She returned to New York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a ‘recipe’ for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of the refrain “constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon” was distinctive.

In 1984, she returned to hit music with a disco song, Where Is My Man (UK #34); the first certified Gold record of her career. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the country, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations. Her 1989 follow-up hit “Cha-Cha Heels” (featuring Bronski Beat) received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached #32 in the UK charts.

In the late 1990s she appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz. In 2000, Kitt again returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa‘s The Wild Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. Begininng in late 2000, she starred as the Fairy Godmother in the National tour of Cinderella alongside Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. She reprised her role of the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of Cinderella which took place at Madison Square Gardens during the holiday season of 2004.

One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove and returned to the role in the straight to video sequel Kronk’s New Groove and the spin-off TV series The Emperor’s New School, for which she has won two Annie Awards for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production. She is currently doing other voiceover work such as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot.

In recent years, Kitt’s annual appearances in New York have made her a fixture of the Manhattan cabaret scene. She takes the stage at venues such as The Ballroom and, more recently, the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly stylized image, alternating between signature songs (such as Old Fashioned Millionaire), which emphasize a witty, mercenary world-weariness, and less familiar repertoire, much of which she performs with an unexpected ferocity and bite that present her as a survivor with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of resilience — her version of Here’s to Life, frequently used as a closing number, is a sterling example of the latter. This side of her later performances is reflected in at least one of her recordings, Thinking Jazz, which preserves a series of performances with a small jazz combo that took place in the early 1990s in Germany and which includes both standards (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and numbers (such as Something May Go Wrong) that seem more specifically tailored to her talents; one version of the CD includes as bonus performances a fierce, angry Yesterdays and a live rendering “C’est Si Bon” that good-humoredly satirizes her sex-kitten persona.

From October to early December, 2006, Kitt co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical Mimi Le Duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa L. Williams.

Kitt was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics Smoke Signals collection in August 2007. She re-recorded Smoke Gets In Your Eyes for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month.

Black Beauty History: Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922–September 8, 1965) was an American actress and popular singer.

Dandridge’s mother, Ruby Dandridge, was an ambitious small-time local performer whose ambition was a successful stage and screen actress. She created an act for her two young daughters, Vivian and Dorothy, under the name of “The Wonder Children.” The daughters toured the Southern United States for five years supervised by Ruby Dandridge’s lesbian partner, Geneva Williams, while Ruby worked and performed in Cleveland Ohio. During this time, they toured non-stop and rarely attended school.

With the start of the Great Depression, work dried up, as it did for many of the Chitlin’ circuit performers. Ruby Dandridge moved to Hollywood, where she found steady work playing domestics in small parts on radio and film. During this time, Williams continued to train and rehearse the girls, who were renamed “The Dandridge Sisters” and booked into such venues as the Cotton Club and The Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Dandridge’s first on-screen appearance was a bit part in a 1935 Our Gang short. In 1937 she appeared in the Marx Brothers feature A Day at the Races, singing a solo in the production number “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm”.

Dandridge did not receive another role until 1940, when she played a murderer in the race film Four Shall Die. All of her early parts were stereotypical African-American roles, but her singing ability and presence brought her popularity in nightclubs around the country. During this period, she starred in several “soundies“, video films designed to be displayed on juke boxes, including “Paper Doll” by the Mills Brothers, “Cow Cow Boogie”, “Jig in the Jungle”, “Mr. & Mrs. Carpenter’s Rent Party.”

Leading roles for black actors in Hollywood were very scarce so when Dorothy heard that an all black production of Carmen Jones was being planned, she knew this was the role she had dreamed of. Carmen Jones was an Americanized version of the Bizet opera with new lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. The lead character, Carmen, is a sultry vixen whose independent inclinations to love her men and then leave them lead to her violent demise.

Dorothy arranged a meeting with Preminger to discuss Carmen Jones. He knew her from her work in Bright Road and when she came to his office, he was under the impression that she was interested in the part of Cindy Lou, the sweet demure girlfriend of Harry Belafonte at the start of the film. When Dorothy informed him that she was only interested in the role of Carmen, Preminger told her that she was not right for the part. Dorothy was furious but determined to change his mind. She bought a wig, a skirt and a low cut blouse that she wore off the shoulder. She met with Preminger again and he could not believe the transformation. He had found his Carmen.

The filming of Carmen Jones progressed smoothly. Both Dorothy and Belafonte were disappointed to learn that their voices would be dubbed for the singing sequences. Carmen Jones was released in November of 1954 and it was a resounding success. Dorothy was all over the media. She appeared on the cover of the November 1, 1954 issue of Life, photographed as Carmen by Philippe Halsman. The next few months would be a whirlwind round of premieres, promotions and photo shoots. It was heavily rumored that she would receive an Academy Award nomination. She refused to listen to the gossip but when the nominations were announced in February of 1955, she read her name along with Audrey Hepburn, Jane Wyman, Judy Garland and Grace Kelly. Dorothy Dandridge was the first black woman to be nominated in the category of Best Actress.

On September 8, 1965, Dandridge was found dead by her manager, Earl Mills, in her West Hollywood apartment from an overdose of Imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant. She was 42 years old. Dandridge’s death was later ruled accidental.

On September 12, 1965, a private funeral service was held for Dandridge at the Little Chapel of Flowers in Glendale, California.

It would be some years before Hollywood acknowledged Dandridge’s legacy. In later years, stars such as Cicely Tyson, Jada Pinkett, Halle Berry, Janet Jackson, and Angela Bassett acknowledged Dandridge’s contributions to the role of blacks in film. Halle Berry took the lead role of Dandridge in the HBO Movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, for which she won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Dorothy Dandridge has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6719 Hollywood Boulevard.

Black Beauty History: Queen Latifah

Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), better known by the stage name Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, singer, and actress. Latifah’s work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, Grammy Award, five additional Grammy nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Award, an Emmy Award nomination and an Academy Award nomination.

Latifah started her career beatboxing for the rap group Ladies Fresh.^[3] Latifah was one of the members of the original version of the Flavor Unit, which, at that time, was a crew of emcees grouped around producer DJ Mark the 45 King. In 1988, DJ Mark the 45 King heard a demo version of Latifah’s single “Princess of the Posse” and gave the demo to Fab Five Freddy, who was the host of Yo! MTV Raps. Freddy helped Latifah sign with Tommy Boy Records, which released Latifah’s first album All Hail the Queen in 1989, when she was nineteen.^[3] That year, she appeared as Referee on the UK label Music of Life album “1989—The Hustlers Convention (live)”. Her debut managed to be both a critical and a commercial success and was followed by the albums Nature of a Sista and Black Reign, which contained the Grammy Award winning hit single, U.N.I.T.Y. In 1998, she released her fourth hip-hop album Order in the Court. In 2004, she released the soul/jazz standards The Dana Owens Album.

From 1993 to 1998, Latifah had a starring role on Living Single, a FOX sitcom;^[3] she also wrote and performed its theme music. She began her film career in a supporting role in the 1991 films House Party 2, Juice, and Jungle Fever.

Latifah first attracted notice for her role portraying a lesbian in the 1996 box-office hit, Set It Off and subsequently had a supporting role in the Holly Hunter film Living Out Loud (1998).^[3] She played the role of Thelma in the 1999 movie adaptation of Jeffrey Deavers’ The Bone Collector, alongside Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. Although she had already received some critical acclaim, she gained mainstream success after being cast as Matron “Mama” Morton in the Oscar-winning musical Chicago, the recipient of the Best Picture Oscar.^[3] Latifah received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role, but lost to co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones.^[3] In 2003, she starred with Steve Martin in the film Bringing Down the House, which was a major success at the box office.^[3] Since then, she has had both leading and supporting roles in a multitude of films that received varied critical and box office receptions, including Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Taxi, Kung Faux, and Beauty Shop.

The summer of 2007 has brought Latifah triple success in the big-screen version of the Broadway smash hit Hairspray, in which she acts, sings, and dances. The film has rated highly with critics and stars, among others, John Travolta and Christopher Walken. Also in 2007, she portrayed an HIV-positive woman in the film, Life Support, a role for which she garnered her first Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination. Latifah is starting off 2008 with the release of the crime comedy Mad Money opposite Academy Award-winner Diane Keaton as well as Katie Holmes and Ted Danson.

Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for Cover Girl cosmetics, Curvation ladies underwear, Pizza Hut and Jenny Craig.^[12] She has developed her own line of cosmetics for women of color called the Covergirl Queen Collection and has starred in several commercials for the line, as well as a commercial with fellow spokeswoman and singer Faith Hill

Black Beauty History: Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an American playwright and litigant in the United States Supreme Court case, Hansberry v. Lee.

Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, Hansberry was the youngest of four children of Carl Augustus Hansberry (a prominent real estate broker) and Nanny Perry Hansberry. She grew up on the south side of Chicago in the Woodlawn neighborhood.

The family then moved into an all-white neighborhood, where they faced racial discrimination. Hansberry attended a predominantly white public school while her parents fought against segregation. Hansberry’s father engaged in a legal battle against a racially restrictive covenant that attempted to prohibit African-American families from buying homes in the area. The legal struggle over their move led to the landmark Supreme Court case of Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940). Though victors in the Supreme Court, Hansberry’s family was subjected to what Hansberry would later describe as a “hellishly hostile white neighborhood.” This experience later inspired her to write her most famous work, A Raisin in the Sun.

Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked on the staff of Freedom magazine. It was at that time she wrote A Raisin in the Sun. The play was a huge success. It was the first play written by an African-American woman and produced on Broadway. It also received the New York Drama Critics Award making Hansberry the youngest and first African American to receive the Award.

She died on January 12,1965 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 34.

he Sign in Sid Brustein’s Window ran for 101 performances on Broadway and closed the night she died. Her ex-husband Nemiroff became the literary executor for several of her unfinished works. Notably, he adapted many of her writings into the play, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which was the longest-running Off-Broadway play of the 1968-1969 season. It appeared in book form the following year under the title, To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words.

She left behind an unfinished novel and three unfinished plays, the content matter dealing with many types of emotions.

After her success with A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry became the foremother of African-American drama. She also contributed to the understanding of abortions, discrimination, and Africa. In San Francisco, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, which specializes in original stagings and revivals of African-American theatre, is named in honor of her. Singer and pianist Nina Simone, who was a close friend of Hansberry, used the title of her unfinished play to write a civil rights-themed song “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” together with Weldon Irvine. The single reached the top 10 of the R&B charts.^[1] A studio recording by Simone was released as a single and the first live recording on October 26, 1969 was captured on Black Gold (1970).

Black Beauty History: Dorothea Towles

Dorothea Towles Church (July 26, 1922—July 7, 2006) was the first successful black fashion model in Paris. Church was born in Texarkana, Texas. She was the seventh of eight children in a farming family.

She attended Wiley College (same college depicted in The Great Debaters) in Marshall, Texas, where she majored in biology. After her mother’s death, a wealthy uncle invited her to move into his house in Los Angeles. She transferred to the University of Southern California, where she received a master’s degree in education.

Church initially considered an acting career, but was discouraged by the lack of roles for black actors. She enrolled in the Dorothy Farrier Charm and Modeling School in Los Angeles.

She found work modeling for magazines with a black readership and in fashion shows on the West Coast.

Her sister, Lois Towles, sang in the Fisk University concert choir during its European tour in 1949. Church scheduled a two-month vacation in Paris that coincided with the Fisk choir’s concert schedule. While in Paris, Church decided to try out for some modeling assignments.

Christian Dior (shown left with Dorothea) hired her on the spot to replace one of his regular models who was out on vacation.

Church found Paris so inviting that she decided to stay in France. She told her husband, a wealthy dentist several years her senior, that she wouldn’t be returning to California. “He wrote me and even called me, but I told him I wasn’t coming back,” she said. “He finally got tired, and then he got a lawyer and sued for divorce.”

Church also designed her own gowns with samples she bought from Paris designers using her model’s discount.

In 1954 she returned to the United States and began a tour of black colleges, showcasing her couture line. Her fashion shows served as fund-raisers for Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority for black women.

She later signed as a model with the Grace del Marco agency in New York City. Shortly after moving to New York she met Thomas Church, an immigration lawyer. They married in 1963 and had one son. They remained married until Thomas Church’s death in 2000.

Church was revered in France during the five years she modeled in Paris. “If you’re beautiful, (the French) don’t care what color you are,” Church said.

Church recalled her experience in Paris of the early 1950s in a 2004 interview for Women’s Wear Daily: “For once I was not considered black, African American or Negro. I was just an American.” The French fashion establishment “treated you like a queen,” she said.

In her 1998 book Black and Beautiful, author Barbara Summers quotes Church about her celebrity status in Paris at the beginning of the 1950s: “I got invited out all the time. I was the only black model in Europe and I just thought I was an international person.”

Church was not totally immune to prejudice in Paris, however. Pierre Balmain wouldn’t allow her to borrow his designs for an Ebony Magazine shoot out of concern Balmain’s white clientele would be offended.

“They didn’t think that African American women would buy the clothes, that they could buy the clothes,” Church told Summers. “That’s where my education and my experience came in. I knew about black history and black society.”

Instead, Church told Balmain she wanted to wear the dresses to a party. The photographs later were published in Ebony.

Black Beauty History: Pat Cleveland

Patricia Cleveland was born into an African-American family in New York in the early 1950’s. Her mother was an artist, so Pat also decided she would learn how to paint. When she was 15 years old, she was traveling to art school by the subway, when she was noticed by Carrie Donovan, the editor of Vogue magazine, who asked her to come into the Vogue office for a photographic trial. The first designer to use her as a model was Jacques Tiffeau then later Stephen Burrows.

She also took part in the Ebony Fashion Fair which gave her valuable exposure. This led to a modeling career which has now spanned five decades. Pat has been one of the most successful black models.

At 21 Pat moved to Paris, and modeled for French and Italian designers, including Valentino. Only in 1974 did she return to the United States.

In 1973, she was part of a gala show given at Versailles in France, where she and other black girls modeled clothes of Stephen Burrows, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, Halston and Oscar de la Renta. Even though great French designers Yves St. Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro and Hubert de Givenchy were also showing their clothes, the American girls stole the show with their stage presence and style.

From the mid-1970’s Pat was one of the Halstonettes, the girls who modeled for American designer Halston. His elegant clothes looked wonderful on tall slim Pat Cleveland.

Halston was very fond of all his girls and took them all over the world, China, South America, Europe, to show his clothes.

She continued modeling throughout the 1980’s, appearing on magazine covers and lay-outs. In the late 1980’s Pat married Paul van Ravenstein and became Patricia van Ravenstein. She had two children Anna and Noel. Her family came first, so she was not seen on the runway for a long time. However she did appear in the film “Portfolio” in 1983.

Pat is also a poet. She has published a book of poetry called “In the Spirit of Grace” which is available at Amazon.

In the new century Pat Cleveland has come out into the modeling field again. Everyone was glad to see her back. She wore the clothes of Michael Vollbracht’s new collection for Bill Blass, and of course of her good friend Stephen Burrows on his return to New York fashion week. She modeled for Fall 2003, and for the Spring/Summer 2004 also presented the collection for Italian house Gattinoni, friends for many years.

Black Beauty History: Naomi Campbell

Campbell’s first public appearance came aged 7 in February 1978 when she was cast as a pupil to appear in a music video for Bob Marley‘s song Is This Love?. In 1982, she appeared in another music video, this time as a tap dancer for Culture Club‘s I’ll Tumble 4 Ya.

Aged 15 and while still a student at the Italia Conti Academy, Campbell was spotted by Beth Boldt, a former Ford model and head of the Synchro model agency, while window-shopping in Covent Garden. Campbell soon opted to become a fulltime model, signing with Elite Model Management. Of her looks, she has said: “My features are completely ethnic, and I’m proud of them.”

Although Campbell started her career as a catwalk model, she was quickly hired for various high-profile advertising campaigns, including Lee Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which introduced her to the American market. Campbell also completed campaigns for Ralph Lauren and François Nars. Aged 15 in April 1986, Campbell appeared on the cover of Elle, replacing a model who had canceled out of the appearance.

In August 1988, she appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris as that publication’s first Black cover girl. In addition to Vogue Paris, Campbell also became the first Black model to appear on the cover of Vogue UK, Vogue Nippon and Time magazine. She has also posed nude for Playboy and appeared in Madonna’s 1992 book Sex, in a set of photos with Madonna and rapper Big Daddy Kane. In total, Campbell has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers.

She famously starred in George Michael‘s music video Freedom! ’90, where she lip-synched to his song along with fellow supermodels Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz. In 1992, Campbell appeared in Madonna‘s music video for Erotica, which featured filmed footage from photoshoots for the book Sex. In addition to the previously mentioned music videos, Campbell has appeared in videos for artists such as Michael Jackson, Nelly, Jagged Edge, Jay-Z, P.Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G, Macy Gray, Prince and Usher.

The highpoint of Campbell’s career was in the early 1990s, when she was part of the two major supermodel powerhouses: the Big Six, alongside Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss, and The Trinity, alongside Turlington and Evangelista.

Since 1997, Campbell has been involved in charity work mainly focused on the children and people of Sub-Saharan Africa. She has worked with Nelson Mandela, and has said that one of her greatest joys in life is knowing Mandela, stating that his kindness, passion and intelligence make him a modern world leader. In 2005, she helped create and participated in Fashion Relief, raising over a million dollars for Hurricane Katrina victims. On July 7, 2007 she hosted the South African leg of Live Earth in Johannesburg.

Black Beauty History: Veronica Webb

Veronica Webb (born February 25, 1965) is an American model, actress, writer, journalist and television personality. Veronica Webb appeared on covers of Vogue, Essence and Elle magazines and on the runway for Victoria’s Secret and Chanel.

As a runway model she was in demand to be photographed wearing fashions from the collections of Azzedine Alaia, Isaac Mizrahi, Karl Lagerfeld, and Todd Oldham. Alaia and Lagerfeld became her friends. She learned the French (language) from the former, whom she moved in with for almost a year.

She moved to New York City to earn her college degree and was discovered on the streets by a New York makeup artist. In New York, Webb pursued a modeling career and eventually became a spokesmodel for Revlon. She was the first black supermodel to win an exclusive contract for a major cosmetics company. In 1985 Webb made her feature film debut in Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever” Her film credits include “Animal Husbandry,” “The Big Tease” and Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” and “Jungle Fever.” She has also been featured in a recurring role on the television show “Damon” and has appeared in “Just Shoot Me,” and “Clueless”. She admits that comedy comes much easier for her than drama.

Webb credits as a broadcaster include “Good Morning America”, Vogue magazine’s syndicated style show “Trend Watch”. Veronica has also been named on American Vogue’s best dressed list three times.

She served as editor-at-large of Interview magazine, and was also monthly columnist for Paper Magazine, New York City’s style guide to downtown cool, for five years. Veronica wrote a weekly column on American culture in Panorama, Italy’s popular weekly news magazine, and has contributed as a writer for Details, Elle, The Sunday Times (UK) and The New York Times Syndicate. Webb was recently added as a contributing editor for Conde Nast’s Cookie magazine a lifestyle guide redefining modern motherhood. Esquire (magazine) commissioned her to write an essay on cigars after she did a photo shoot with the publication with Regis Philbin. The periodical’s editors were interested that she enjoyed brainy, self-made men, who enjoyed smoking cigars.

In 1998 Miramax Books published Veronica Webb Sight: Adventures In The Big City. The volume is a remembrance of her life with a collection of her essays. Harvey Weinstein approached her while she was in line at the White House about publishing her essays and memoir. He had been a fan of her writing for some time. In the book Webb is especially frank about both her naivety and arrogance as a youth.

Ms. Webb dedicates her time to several charitable organizations: LIFEBeat, Product Red and the RPM Nautical Foundation. She is married to George Robb and they have 2 daughters together: Leila Rose Robb and Molly Blue Robb. They live in the Florida Keys.

Webb can currently be seen as a co-host on Bravo‘s Tim Gunn’s Guide To Style. Eric Wilson wrote in the New York Times Style section that as the co-host of Bravo TV’s Tim Gunn’s Guide To Style. Veronica Webb is “Saving humanity one make-over at a time.” This Christmas Webb plays a high powered fashion editor opposite Rockman Dunbar in the independent feature film “Dirty Laundry”.

Black Beauty History: Phylicia Rashad

Rashād was born in Harris County, Texas, to Andrew Arthur Allen and Vivian Ayers. Arthur was a dentist and Vivian was a Pulitzer-prize nominated artist, poet, playwright, and publisher. Rashād’s siblings are jazz-musician brother Tex (Andrew Arthur Allen Jr, born 1945), sister Debbie Allen (1950), and brother Hugh Allen (real estate banker in North Carolina). Debbie Allen is an actress, choreographer, and director. While Rashād was growing up, her family moved to Mexico to escape U.S. racism; as a result, Rashād speaks both English and Spanish fluently.

She graduated from Howard University, where she later taught drama, and is a member of the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. Rashād first became notable on the stage with a string of Broadway credits, including Deena Jones in Dreamgirls (she was Sheryl Lee Ralph‘s understudy until she left the show in 1982) and playing a Munchkin in The Wiz. In 1978, she released the album Josephine Superstar, a disco concept record telling the life story of Josephine Baker. The album was mainly written and produced by Jacques Morali and Rashād’s one-time husband Victor Willis. Rashād received another career boost when she joined the cast of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live in 1983.

Rashād is best known for another television role, that of attorney Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. The show starred Bill Cosby as obstetrician Cliff Huxtable, and focused on their life with their five children.

Rashād received two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, for The Cosby Show. In 2004, Rashād became the first African-American actress to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, for her role in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun. She was nominated for the same award the following year, for Gem of the Ocean.

Black Beauty History: Jessica White

Jessica White (born 1984 in Buffalo, New York) is an African-American supermodel, actress and cover girl.

At the age of 16 she was scouted in her hometown of Buffalo, New York and had gone to Personal Best modeling school, run by Susan Makai, at age fourteen. Then was whisked off to Paris where she signed a contract with the IMG agency. In the next six months she landed campaigns for CoverGirl, Chloé, and Gap.

She was soon walking the runways for New York’s top designers including Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, Marc Jacobs and Tommy Hilfiger. Tyra Banks dubbed her “the model of her generation.”

She has walked the runways for New York’s top designers including Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, Marc Jacobs, and Tommy Hilfiger. She has done pictorials for Harper’s Bazaar, Teen Vogue, King and covers shots for Surface and Trace magazines. In 2003, White was chosen for a coveted shoot in Sports Illustrated‘s famed Swimsuit Issue. She was also featured in the 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008 issues. In 2005, she became the first African-American model to be featured in three consecutive editions of the annual feature. ^[2] In addition to working with world class photographers she was the object/subject of several Joanne Gair body painting works in these editions.

White is currently part of Elite plus in New York City.

Black Beauty History: Diana Ross

Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross on March 26, 1944) is a singer, songwriter and actress, whose musical repertoire spans R&B, soul, pop, disco, and jazz. Ross first gained prominence as lead singer of The Supremes, before establishing a successful solo career in 1970 that has lasted through the decades.

During the 1970s and into the early to mid 1980s, Ross became the most successful female artist of the rock era, while crossing over into film, television program television and Broadway theatre Broadway. Over the course of her career, Ross has been awarded a Tony Award for the music special An Evening with Diana Ross (1977), seven American Music Awards, and the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year – Actress for her leading role in the Billie Holiday biographical film Lady Sings the Blues (1972). Additionally, Ross has been nominated for twelve Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Actress. She was also recently honored by The Kennedy Center. She has sold 75+ million singles & albums (solo & with The Supremes)during the course of her forty-five-year career.

In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the female entertainer of the century. Guinness World Records declared Diana Ross as the most successful female music artist of the 20th century with a total of eighteen American number-one singles: twelve as lead singer of The Supremes and six as a solo artist. Ross was the first female solo artist to score six number-ones.

Black Beauty History: Beyonce Knowles

Love her or hate her, Beyonce has definitely made some major moves in her 26 years of life.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, music video director, actress, dancer, and fashion designer. Knowles rose to fame as the creative force and lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny’s Child, the world’s best-selling female group of all time.

When Beyonce won the 2001 ASCAP Pop Songwriter of the Year Award, she became the first African-American woman, and the second woman ever to receive the honor. At the time she received the award, she was only 21 years old! She won the award again in 2005.

In 2007 when she appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, she became only the second African-American woman and first non-model ever to grace the magazine’s cover.

Beyonce has been nominated for 17 Grammy awards and has won 7. She has been nominated for 2 Golden Globe Awards, won entertainer of the year (2004) from Soul Train Award, VH1 Big in ’03, and the NAACP Image Award. In 2007, she was the first female to win the American Music Award for International Artist of Excellence Award. In 2006, she won the World’s Best Selling R&B Artist Award. In 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007 she won the award for Most Performed. And out of all these mentioned, these are just a FEW of the awards Beyonce has been nominated for and won! Check out her other winnings and nominations.

In addition to her awards, Beyonce has been the face/voice of House of Dereon (her clothing line with her mother, Tina Knowles), Pepsi, L’Oreal, Wal-Mart, Tommy Hilfiger, Emporio Armani, McDonald’s, Samsung, Walt Disney Theme Parks, American Express, and Direct TV.

Black Beauty History: Alek Wek

When American Elle chose Alek Wek for the cover of their November 1997 issues, they were taking a considerable risk. Conventional wisdom stated that featuring a dark-skinned African girl on the cover of a major American fashion publication would not sell issues. The result, however, was quite the contrary.

Who could have predicted the monumental reader response from women and men of all ages?
Each and every one was ecstatic about seeing the standards of American beauty being expanded and redefined.

As Oprah Winfrey commented when Alek appeared on her show, “If you’d been on the cover of a magazine when I was growing up, I would have had a different concept of who I was.” Born in Southern Sudan, Alek was raised as part of the Dinka tribe.

At fourteen the civil forced her to flee to London with her younger sister, where they waited two years to be joined by their mother and three more of their eight siblings.
It was in London, while attending school for art and design, that Alek was discovered.

Wek’s new line of accessories can be viewed at alekwek1933.com