From the Monthlies: The Queen

Images from Elle, February 2013

As a woman of color, there are moments when you have to stop and give thanks to those who opened doors for you. In many ways, Naomi Campbell did so by causing people in the industry to rethink traditional notions of beauty and redefine it in a more all-inclusive way. This lady is beautiful by all accounts. That there are those who wouldn’t consider her such, though, because her skin is dark, her eyes are almond shaped, her lips are full, and her body muscular is still a reality not to be ignored. As I’m sure many attractive minorities will relate, a beautiful black woman is a beautiful woman, not just beautiful for a black woman. The same is true of Indians and Iranians and Japanese and Mexicans and everything in between. When I read this Elle magazine article it wasn’t the tidbit about her testimony in front of the Hague that got me (although it was much entertaining to learn that she declared under oath, “This is an inconvenience for me.”) or the laundry list of things Naomi has done since the infamous cell phone incident to clear her image and/or her conscious. Instead it was the rather telling bits information about her breakthrough as a model that made me proud of her and thankful for those who stood behind her. The two that stand out in my mind: (1) In 1988, Yves Saint Laurent personally threatened to pull his advertisements from Paris Vogue if the magazine didn’t put Naomi on the cover — making her its first black cover model; and (2) Linda Evangelista once chided an Italian brand: “If you don’t take Naomi, you don’t get us,” of she and Christy Turlington, who with Naomi became known as modeling’s indivisible “Trinity.”