Only Black Is Beautiful in Italian Vogue

Black women spend $20 billion a year on clothes, but the fashion world still harbors a racial prejudice that keeps women of color out of the big glossies. Now noted photographer Steven Meisel has teamed with Italian Vogue to produce a special issue, in which all the models are black and all the articles address black women in the arts. The New York Times reports on the issue's genesis.

Meisel and Vogue's editor said that the rise of Barack Obama was one inspiration for the special issue. Generations of supermodels, from Iman to Naomi Campbell, appear alongside more neglected women whom Meisel hopes will obtain more work
afterwards. "What don’t you get?" he asked of one of his models. "She’s a beautiful woman." (More Black women stories.)