Supermodel Naomi Campbell said on April first that the“ fashion bible” Vogue magazine should launch an African edition to recognise the continent’s contribution to a global fashion industry that has been criticised for its lack of diversity
Campbell, who was in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, to grace the runway at Arise Fashion Week, said there was a need for better representation of the continent.
“There should be a Vogue Africa,” she told Reuters in an interview. “We just had Vogue Arabia, it is the next progression, referring to the edition of the magazine aimed at a readership in the Middle East that launched last year.
“Africa has never had the opportunity to be out there and their fabrics and their materials and their designs be accepted on the global platform … it shouldn’t be that way,” said the British-born Campbell.
Condé Nast International, which publishes Vogue, could not immediately be reached for comment.
“People have come to realise it is not about the colour of your skin to define if you can do the job or not,” said the model, adding she had seen signs that the fashion industry was becoming more diverse such as the appointment of Edward Enninful as British Vogue’s editor-in-chief in April last year.
The Ghanaian-born Enninful is the first black editor in the publication’s 100-year history and the first man to take up the role.
Last week, LVMH’s Louis Vuitton brand, the biggest revenue driver at the French luxury goods group, said it had hired Ghanaian-American Virgil Abloh to design its menswear collections.
Vogue has faced political and cultural issues from featuring prominent muslim woman ,their approach to fashion and the effect of different cultures on fashion and women lives . Vogue also sponsored the “Beauty without borders” which donations were used to establish a cosmetology school for afghan women. And has supported both Obama and Clinton campaigns
If vogue Africa were to come into fruition would it cover the whole of africa or would the magazine be specific to individual countries. since vogue has never been specific to a whole continent.
The 125 years of vogue and the ever increasing appeal and image of the fashion powerhouse Its shocking that a whole continent has been left out . but thanks to celebrities and visionaries like Naomi Campbell perhaps we could shed a light on all of the beauty that Africa has to offer.
