Vogue Paris' May 2015 issue is fronted by Liya Kebede who, besides being a designer and model, is the first woman of color to appear on the publication's cover since 2010, reports Fashion Gone Rogue.
The cover is Kebede's second with Vogue Paris; she first fronted the magazine back in May of 2002. The publication has a bad track record for promoting models of color on its covers. After Kebede's cover in 2002, the next cover to feature a woman of color came eight years later, when Rose Cordero starred in the March 2010 issue on her own. Supermodel Naomi Campbell appeared on the front page in 2008, but shared the real estate with Kate Moss.
American Vogue made similar headlines last year when it put a model of color on its September issue for the first time in 25 years. And while diversity has always been an issue in fashion, it has become the center of even more controversy recently. In just the past month, Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing spoke out about how fashion does not belong to white people, and model Jourdan Dunn, who coincidentally just became the first Black model to cover Vogue UK since 2002, also talked racism in the industry. They were joined by Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci, who advocated for normalizing the use of Black models, and Rihanna, who talked about what a big deal it was for a woman of color to land a Dior campaign.
At least all these big names commenting on the lack of diversity in the fashion industry are in positions to make a difference, and, hopefully, make headlines like these obsolete.
