“At a magazine, everything you do is edited by a bunch of people, by committee, and a lot of them are, were, or think of themselves as writers. Part of that is because magazines worry about their voice.” – Chuck Klosterman, American journalist who has written for The New York Times Magazine.
“I hate racial discrimination most intensely and all its manifestations. I have fought all my life; I fight now, and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one, whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. It makes me feel that I am a Black man in a White man’s court.” -Nelson Mandela
THE DEMISE OF PRINT
(NY) I love visiting magazine shops as much as bookstores. Even though sometimes they’re as noisy as the city streets, these visits gives me the right visual rush I need as a photographer. My favorite magazine shops are where I brush up on my rusty Arabic.
The last conversation I had with some Turkish and Egyptian magazine vendors (in one of the largest magazine shop in NYC, now reduced to half its original size) is that magazine business is not doing well. This is probably the worst time in the history of magazine sales, at least coming from the people who sell the magazines as a livelihood. In fact, most of their outlets are closing down one by one.
About 400 print magazines closed shop in 2009 and it is predicted that more will follow in 2010. Most magazine shops (small or large-scale) around the city are also closing as a domino effect of global recession and the inevitable demise of the print magazine.
1540 AD
Staring at the floor to ceiling wallpaper of crisp fashion magazines, I can’t help but wonder why: “in the year 2010, a multi-colored country like America, and an ethnically diverse city like New York (one of the biggest magazine consuming cities in the world), all I see are white peoples’ faces with a sprinkling of token minorities.
Since 1540 AD (the American colonial era), Racism has been a major issue in the United States. Caucasians have, historically, dominated the country and it’s not a secret. The country’s minorities: Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, Arab-Americans, American Jews, Irish Americans, other immigrant groups and their descendants, have carried the heaviest burdens of racism in history. Go visit the nearest magazine shop, flip through the “fashion magazines” within your arm’s reach and see for yourself.
Every other year a racism controversy will explode online, Naomi Campbell’s face protesting will be everywhere for a few weeks. Then, designers and magazine editors will try to mix it up a bit in the next few months. When the protesters go quiet, again, in the western front, the fashion leaders will revert to ‘normal’, which is ‘the color white’. Racism in fashion has always been a game of hide and seek: as long as the victims (minorities) don’t notice it’s okay. The breeding ground of racism is right in front of me, the magazine stand is full of blondes and for every dollar I spend to purchase a copy of the “white people’s” exclusive vision of a ‘fashion world’, I contribute to the century-old ugly tradition of racism in America.
HIGH FASHION ADS PULLOUT WHEN IT’S A NON-WHITE COVER
The fear of low sales and advertisers pulling back prevents editors from putting dark-skinned models or celebrities on the covers of fashion/women’s magazines (which, by the way, are mostly Caucasian owned). Fashion magazines claim being backed into a wall because a magazine’s main source of income comes from advertisers. It’s a “numbers game at the end of the day”, it’s all business nothing personal or racist.
OK, so you’re saying darker skinned faces don’t sell. Do the advertisers and magazine consumers also not want to see darker skinned magazine editors-in-chief, darker skinned fashion photographers, darker skinned editorial staff, darker skinned writers? Does it mean that people of colour are just that incompetent? Is there a reason minority voices and points of view are not represented in your magazines?
It is really sad to see our heroes: the artists, the visionaries, the so-called envelope pushers, the fearless fashion forwarders being tied up and backed against the wall. They’ve become like a Steven Klein image: helpless and defeated by America’s Racial Capitalism. People don’t want to talk about it, too. Nobody wants to talk about race especially if the race that is benefiting from the discrimination is the race of your heritage, it’s a dead dog on the side-walk that people don’t want to look at. It’s worse for the minorities who are not doing anything about it. Are we comfortable of the situation now?
Vogue was built on the foundation of white affluence and wealth like this images shows (obviously Anna Wintour's wet dreams)
...certainly not this women (probably were the slaves of those 'elite' white women above)
I think Ms. Wintour would even use one of these blonde fashionistas...
...before she even use a real life asian princess or an asian actress for the cover of her 'Nazi Fashion Bible' Vogue.
MEXICANS OF THE PACIFIC
They say Filipinos are the Mexicans of the Pacific, mainly because a person of Filipino ancestry will take on “Mexican jobs” like yard work, cleaning hotel rooms, and being caretakers in the aquatic Pacific rim nations. The fact is, among the South East Asian nations, Philippines has been colonized and forced to slavery more than their neighboring countries in Asian history.
Vogue Magazine was founded as a weekly publication in 1892 by the Caucasian Arthur Baldwin Turnure and was picked up in 1909 by the Caucasian Condé Nast. Everybody knows that “the fashion bible” a.k.a. “the world’s most influential fashion magazine today” was built on the foundation of white affluence and wealth as their core consumers.
The old money such as the Vanderbilt and Roosevelt families (Dutch-Caucasian descent), the Rockefeller, Heinz, and Astor families (German-Caucasian descent), the Du Pont family (French-Caucasian descent), the Carnegie, Getty and Forbes families (Scottish-Caucasian descent), some of them might have even owned Black or South Indian slaves sometime in history, depending on their locations. The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP), in reference to white North Americans from the British Isles, particularly of English descent, who were Protestant in religious affiliation. It initially applied to people with histories in the upper class Northeastern establishment who, allegedly, formed a powerful élite. The same heritage of 99% of all the editors-in-chief, fashion photographers, editorial staffs, writers, interns, publishers, fashion models of every fashion magazines that ever existed in human history. Now where do the Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, Arab-Americans fit in the pretty white picture of Vogue History? Where does an ‘Asian-Mexican’ like me fit in the picture?
KKK meeting? or Nazi Convention?
ANNA WINTOUR
Can you blame Vogue Editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, the proclaimed queen of American Fashion for following the hundred years tradition and point of view of all the Caucasian women that came before her, namely: Vogue US Editors-in-Chief Josephine Redding (1892-1901), Marie Harrison (1901-1914), Edna Woolman Chase (1914- 1951), Jessica Daves (1952-1963), Diana Vreeland (1963-1971), and Grace Mirabella (1971-1988), Vogue UK Editors-in-Chief Elspeth Champcommunal (1916-1922), Dorothy Todd (1923-1926), Alison Settle (1926-1934), Elizabeth Penrose (1934-1940), Audrey Withers (1940-1961), Ailsa Garland (1961-1965), Beatrix Miller (1965-1984). Vogue Paris Editors-in-Chief Cosette Vogel (1922-1927), Main Bocher (1927-1929), Michel de Brunhoff (1929-1954), Edmonde Charles-Roux (1954-1966), Francine Crescent (1968-1987) and the current Editors-in-Chiefs of Vogue UK and Vogue Paris Alexandra Shulman (1992-present), and Carine Roitfeld (2001-present) are all white.
Watch the 2009 documentary The September Issue (a desperate rebuttal to the 2009 book/film THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA to save the bitter Ice Queen’s face) and tell me it’s not proof that Vogue belongs to one point of view, one race. Designer Thakoon Panichgul is a sad charity/PR stunt and editor André Leon Talley is a silly token mascot.
If Vogue Magazine is the grand daddy of all fashion magazines that existed out there, it has set a trend, a blueprint (or a white-print?) and a tradition of having one unifying voice of fashion: the ‘white voice’. Unlike the other Vogue editions worldwide (Vogue China, Vogue India, Vogue Japan, Vogue Korea, Vogue Mexico, Vogue Taiwan and the newly launched Vogue Turkey) the western Vogue editions are the proclaimed ‘FASHION BIBLES for the rest of the world, because they’re “representative of a multi-colored nation”.
Most people who work at Vogue US actually believe they are part of human history. Every time they launch the latest cover they feel like they are contributing to the welfare of humanity, it’s in their memos, letters, e-mails, and notes: “we are making history”. This is the regular mantra that goes around the Vogue or Condé Nast office. Maybe one of the reasons most of the people who work there have a big head, like Anna Wintour (literally or metaphorically), they really believe they are saving the world with their desk jobs.
Here are the 14 Vogue US Covers that features minorities since it started with eic Josephine Redding in 1892, it seems cool right? 14 covers? well its over 118 years of Vogue US- it means 1,416 covers published and 14 of them are black women, what a remarkable breakthrough right? and this is after years of protesting to them and once in a while they'll listen and this is the outcome. 14 covers out of 1,416.
Keira Knightley’s Vogue US June 2007 “Out of Africa” cover story shot by Arthur Elgort (Caucasian). Vogue photographer Arthur Elgort was born and raised in New York, Keira Knightley (Caucasian) in Teddington, Greater London, England, and Vogue US Editor-in-chief Anna Wintour (Caucasian) in London, England.
VOGUE’S GLORIFICATION OF COLONIAL RACISM
“American Vogue is a sad joke–the racism and elitist mentality of Vogue is astonishing. The few minorities featured in this magazine reek of tokenism and I would respect them more if they simply had no African-Americans, Asians or Latinos in their magazine. The fact that they hide their racism and ignorance with subterfuge offends even more. Vogue magazine truly embodies all that is wrong in our culture while actually distorting all that is good–sycophancy and rampant cronyism abound while real talent is all but ignored. Unfortunately reading pop culture periodicals is work related but it gets very depressing.” Cathy Horyn fashion journalist, working as a critic for The New York Times, Magazines and newspapers she contributes to include: Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, International Herald Tribune, etc. Horyn is known for her unflinching, even acerbic, reviews which got her banned from numerous designer shows; most notably Giorgio Armani. In 2002, she received the Eugenia Sheppard Award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She questioned the work and exposed the deal-makings of Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour. (http://www.racialicious.com/2007/08/18/vogues-glorification-of-colonial-racism/)
Gisele Bündchen (Brazillian) and LeBron James' Vogue US April 2008 cover shot by Annie Leibovitz (Jewish-American), was the third time that Vogue featured a male on the cover of the US issue (the other two being George Clooney and Richard Gere), and the first time with a black man. It was perceived as a prejudiced depiction of James beside the much smaller Gisele in a pose reminiscent of King Kong carrying off Fay Wray. Vogue US (of course) denied all allegations of racism as hidden context. Anna Wintour (British Caucasian) is the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue US.
Vanity Fair's New Hollywood March 2010 cover shot by Annie Leibovitz (Jewish-American), featuring the actresses who embody the new muse of (white) Hollywood is one of the magazine's all white women issues. While race is still a hotly debated topic in the 21st century, with “racism” being the hot iron that no-one wants to touch, it is obvious that the cover definetly lacks diversity. There are no Asian, Black or Hispanic actresses added to the ‘Vanity Fair’ cover, in the same batch Zoe Saldana stars in the two blockbuster films of the year Avatar and Star Trek, Gabourey Sidibe was nominated for an Oscar best actress for the film Precious. Photographer Annie Leibovitz was born in Waterbury, Connecticut and Vanity Fair Editor-in-chief Graydon Carter (Caucasian) in Toronto, Canada.
Gabourey Sidibe and Dakota Fanning’s Vmagazine Jan 2010 covers shot by Dutch duo Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, is one of the very very few covers of the magazine that features a non-white since its launch in 1999, and everytime they feature a black celebrity/model they need to have multi-covers with a white celebrity/model (like this 'Size Issue Covers"). Vmagazine & VMAN Editor-in-chief Stephen Gan was born and raised in the Philippines, photographer Lamsweerde & Matadin (Caucasians) was both born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Ladies and Gentlemen meet Stephen Gan, a Filipino, born and raised in the Philippines with Filipino parents, creative director at Harper’s Bazaar, co-founder of Visionaire, editor-in-chief of V Magazine and Vman magazine and he loves everything white, this is one of those rare chances a minority actually becomes a powerful head in fashion but somehow lacks substance, and heads the opposite way, he rarely uses minorities in all of his covers (in front and behind the camera) and even trying to deny his roots as much as possible, talk about self-loathing.
Hispanic or Latino population in the US is 46.9 million (15.4%). Eva Mendes' Interview Magazine August 2008 cover shot by Mikael Jansson (Richard Avedon’s former assistant) & Jay-Z’s February 2010 cover shot by Craig Mcdean are two of the latest and rare Interview covers that features minorities since it was founded by artist Andy Warhol (Caucasian) and John Wilcock (Caucasian) in late 1969. Eva Mendes was born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents, Craig Mcdean (Caucasian) in England & Mikael Jansson (Caucasian) in Sweden.
Asian population in the US is 13.4 million (4.4%). Greg Louganis’ GQ May 1988 cover, with editor-in-chief Art Cooper (1983–2003), is the second Asian man (part Samoan) on GQ Magazine cover, the first was baseball player Ron Darling (part Hawaiian-Chinese) of the New York Mets -1980, then Jackie Chan -August 1996 cover (born in Hong Kong), Tiger Woods -April 1997 cover (half Thai), Keanu Reeves -May 2003 cover (part Hawaiian/Chinese), and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Samoan) that equals to two Asian and Pacific Islander men every decade.
English of African descent officially residing in the UK currently number about 1.1 million (2.0%). Kate Moss in London's Independent newspaper Sept 2006 with designer Giorgio Armani (Caucasian) as guest editor, the Caucasian Supermodel with her skin done up to make her look black for the African issue - next to Moss's picture was a caption that read: "NOT a fashion statement." Indy's cover provoked a lot of head-scratching. And it lit up the online world with debate about whether or not the Kate Moss picture was an insult to Africa. Or worse, was it downright racist? Kate Moss was born in the UK, and Giorgio Armani in Italy.
Colonial mentality refers to institutionalised or systemic feelings of inferiority within some societies or peoples who have been subjected to colonialism, relative to the mores or values of the foreign powers which had previously subjugated them. As of 2004, Americans formed 2.4% of the total population of registered foreigners in Japan, with 51,851 U.S. citizens residing there. Ash Stymest's VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN (issue #1) July 2008 cover shot by Hedi Slimane with fashion director Nicola Formichetti marks a historical moment for fashion, the first major Japanese fashion magazine with all Japanese text that exclusively uses Caucasian models for covers, and mostly Caucasian photographers (Josh Olins, Steven Klein, Benjamin Alexander Huseby) since it was founded. Photographer Hedi Slimane was born in Paris, France with Italian, Tunisian-Brazilian origins, Nicola Formichetti in Japan to an Italian father and a Japanese mother and VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN Editor-in-Chief Kazuhiro Saito was born and raised in Japan.
French of African descent officially residing in France currently number about 4.2 million. Andre J (Patricia Field's stylist) and Caroline Murphy’s Vogue Paris Nov 2007 cover shot by Uncle Bruce Weber (Caucasian), is the first Vogue Paris cover with a black male and the fashion blogosphere called it "the Big Black Tranny in French Vogue". The fact that the minorities are being rarely used, infront or behind the camera, they should give them more dignity when they are. Photographer Bruce Weber was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and Vogue Paris Editor-in-Chief Carine Roitfeld (Caucasian) in Paris, France.
2005 - $50 Million was paid to Class Members headed by Gonzalez in Abercrombie & Fitch Discrimination Lawsuit Settlement. 2003 - Three separate lawsuits in New Jersey, California and Ohio have been filed against A&F for having racist hiring practices. 2002 - A&F sold a shirt that featured the slogan "Wong Brothers Laundry Service—Two Wongs Can Make It White" with smiling figures in conical straw hats, a depiction of early Chinese immigrants. The man behind the creation of an A&F world of old money and Waspy right wing pretension for decades to the present is the caucasian photographer Bruce Weber.
The Devil really wears Prada? The book & movie suggest Vogue editor Anna Wintour does. Prada S/S 09 campaign shot by Steven Meisel (caucasian) is set for an all white season, the high end Prada has been consistently a force in exclusively using Caucasian models, black girls are token, Asians and Latinos non-existent. Before British newbie Jourdan Dunn walked the Prada runway in 08, the last minority walked for them in Fall 1997 (exactly 11 years) and she is Naomi Campbell. The last time a minority appeared in a Prada ad campaign? 1994, also with Supermodel Naomi Campbell. Prada, Calvin Klein, Balenciaga, Jil Sander, Chloë and Versace sent an all-white girl casting for the Spring of 2008. Miuccia Prada was born and raised in Italy.
THE FUTURE FOR MINORITIES
English is not my first language and I’m not a writer by profession (I definitely need an editor and proof readers badly to make all my ramblings coherent to avoid attacks from the Ivy League grammar police). Although I don’t have the armies of editors and proof readers Vogue Magazine has, writing in naiveboy.com makes me realize a lot of things about myself and my priorities. I have learned to ask myself how I can be more consistent as a photographer, a writer and a minority who is trying to showcase a sense of common humanity that transcends skin colour in all of my work.
The trials on the journey I had to endure to research and write this article has been a rollercoaster. One thing I’ve noticed, though, more younger people are angered by racism in fashion. The the older generations are more the source of racism and denial. What can I do as an individual? Start with myself, be aware of every decision and choices that I do whether it’s purchasing or subscribing to a magazine that doesn’t promote racism or choosing the models for my own projects.
There is a way not to sacrifice your aesthetic just to be politically correct: by following what is right and what is human.
It’s sad but it’s the truth, we are contributing to our own discrimination and the discrimination of millions and millions of people every time we buy their products, whether its a $4 Vogue magazine, or V magazine or a pair of thousand-dollar Prada shoes. It’s disgusting.
Anna Wintour emailed me to react to this blog and she said “I don’t give a fuck, Heil Hitler!”.
Sessilee Lopez, Chanel Iman, Arlenis Sosa Pena & Jourdan Dunn’s i-D Sept 2009 cover shot by Emma Summerton & styled by Edward Enninful, a historical moment for fashion, a publication known for setting trends & breaking moulds among other things, is now set to be the first fashion magazine to use women of colour on the cover of its September issue with the leadership of i-D Editor-in-Chief/Creative Director (former Vogue art director) Terry Jones. American Vogue led by Ana Wintour consistently uses Caucasian women for all her September issues (mostly Blondes), as well as majority of US Fashion Magazines. Photographer Emma Summerton was born in Australia, and Edward Enninful in Ghana.
Italians of African descent officially residing in Italy currently number about 755,000 residents. Black or African American population in the US is 37.6 million. Liya Kebede, Sessilee Lopez, Jourdan Dunn and Naomi Campbell’s Vogue Italia July 2008 covers shot by Steven Meisel (American), is the first Vogue Magazine " Black Issue" in the world. Anna Wintour (British Caucasian) is the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue US, Franca Sozzani (Italian) the Editor-in Chief of Vogue Italia. “I’ve asked my advertising clients so many times, ‘Can we use a black girl?’ They say no. Advertisers say black models don’t sell.”- Steven Meisel.
Du Juan and Gemma Ward’s Vogue Paris October 2005 cover shot by Patrick Demarchelier, a historical moment for fashion, the first and only asian model ever to be featured on the cover of Vogue Paris, sharing limelight with the Caucasian Beauty. Du Juan was born in Shanghai, China, Gemma Ward in Perth, Western Australia, Photographer Patrick Demarchelier in Paris, France, and Vogue Paris Editor-in-Chief Carine Roitfeld in Paris, France.
Rose Cordero’s Vogue Paris March 2010 cover (STILL OUT NOW) shot by the iconic Mert and Marcus, a historical moment for fashion, the first Vogue Paris cover for a black model since 2002. Photographer Mert Alas was born in Turkey, Marcus Piggott in Wales, and Vogue Paris Editor-in-Chief Carine Roitfeld in Paris, France.
Keanu Reeves' Vogue Hommes International Paris Spring/Summer 2009 cover shot by British-born photographer/former actress Amanda De Cadenet, a historical moment for fashion, the first time the magazine used an Asian man and a minority for its cover and probably the first for a major french men's fashion magazine. Keanu Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon with an English mother & American father with Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese and English descent, Photographer Amanda De Cadenet was born in UK, Vogue Hommes International Paris Editor-in-Chief Olivier Lalanne and Editorial Director Carine Roitfeld in France.
Seijo Imazaki’s Rodeo Italy June 2009 cover, that I shot with Art Director Tim McIntyre (former Arena Homme Plus art director), the second time for an Asian to be in a Italian fashion magazine cover (first was Seijo in L'Uomo Vogue) and the first for an Asian photographer. Seijo Imazaki has been photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Paolo Roversi, Michelangelo di Batista and Steven Klein. Photographer Lope Navo was born in the Philippines, Seijo Imazaki in Westchester, NY (Japanese father and a Swedish-American mother) and Art Director Tim McIntyre in Australia.
English of Indian descent officially residing in UK currently number about 1 million people (1.8% of the country's population). Lakshmi Menon’s Dazed and Confused April 2009 cover shot by Josh Olins and styled by Nicola Formichetti, a historical moment for fashion, the first UK based fashion magazine cover for a Keralan beauty. Lakshmi Menon was born in Bangalore, India, Photographer Josh Olins in London, England, Stylist Nicola Formichetti in Japan to an Italian father and a Japanese mother.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/01/vanity-fairs-hollywood-is_n_444763.html
http://micpohling.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/methink-no-dark-skin-for-fashion-magazine-cover/
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/08/18/vogues-glorification-of-colonial-racism/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1566142/Dame-Vivienne-attacks-racist-magazines.html
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Related Entry: http://naiveboy.com/2010/04/02/max-vadukul-photographing-history-by-navo/
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