In Vogue Italia's latest issue, some of the world's top black models - including Arlenis Sosa, Chanel Iman and Jourdan Dunn - all appear in a spread styled by Edward Enninful and shot by Emma Summerton.
Back in November, American Vogue did a similar shoot called 'Asia Major' championing the top Asian models in the business, but are such attempts merely a gimmick, or is it actually a positive step forward? Without sounding cynical, was the American Vogue editorial simply an attempt to appeal to the one international market relatively unaffected by the economic crisis, rather than an being an attempt to diversify the representation of models in the magazine?
After having a stellar year last year, things only seem to be getting better for American model Arizona Muse. In the last month alone she's appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia alongside Freja Beha Erichsen as well as landing the big S/S11 Prada and Yves Saint Laurent campaigns.
But it's Anna Wintour's approval that tops it. The American Vogue editor used her editor's letter in the February issue to talk about the model calling her 'the breakthrough star at the Spring 2011 shows last fall'. She continues: "When I look at Arizona, I see shades of Linda Evangelista and Natalia Vodianova, but most of all, I see her, a gorgeous, smart grown-up. And how could anyone resist someone with that name?"
She's had an editorial in a Vogue Italia supplement but over the last few years Rihanna hasn't been able to close the deal on an American Vogue cover - until now.American Vogue is known for choosing it's cover stars from a pool of 'safe' actresses, mainly Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman and now Blake Lively, so despite Rihanna's fashion appeal it's not a surprise that she hasn't graced the cover.
However, this morning the she tweeted: "Just wrapped my first American Vogue cover shoot with Annie Leibovitz...Rah! #SEXY." And it looks like we'll be seeing more surprise covers this year with Kristen Stewart tipped for the February cover and Lady Gaga still heavily rumoured to grace the magazine's March cover. Hopefully the shake-up signals a move away from the typical romantic covers that we expect from the magazine in favour of something more risque.
We know who the frontrunner is to design the dress, we know the venue and now it's been revealed that Mario Testino was the photographer chosen to take the first official portrait of Kate Middleton and Prince William.
The decision didn't come as a surprise. The royal family have a good relationship with the photographer and notably chose him to shoot Prince William's 21st birthday and Prince Harry's 20th - and he's also shot Prince Charles for both British and American Vogue. Although the shoot took place last month, it's unclear when the images will be released.
Recently we told you about the big law suit former Next models, Anna Aleksandra Cywinska, Anna Maria Jagodzinska and Karmen Pedaru are claiming against the agency for allegedly keeping hold of their earnings. Well, things are getting worse.
Recent documents submitted in the lawsuit have been leaked, revealing how much the models were paid for certain jobs with big magazines. In a document detailing the payments allegedly being withheld from Jagodzinska includes a billing of $250 for a shoot with American Vogue and $125 bill for a shoot with French Vogue. In contrast, the model was supposed to take in $60,000 for a H&M campaign $15,000 for a campaign for J.Crew. As interesting as this is, is it actually telling us something we don't know?
Amongst a flurry of rumours, some about marriage, some about children, Miranda Kerr's publicist confirmed on Friday that the Victoria's Secret beauty had indeed gotten married to sweetheart Orlando Bloom overnight. It seems the Australian model's love life isn't the only blissful thing in Kerr's life at the moment - high fashion (in particular, Italian) brands seem to love Kerr's look, with a flurry of high-end shoots recently.
The latest in a long line saw the model starring in Jil Sander's Fall 2010 campaign, shot, as usual by Willy Vandeperre, following her spots in the Prada campaign, as well as shoots in American Vogue, Numéro, i-D, Love and V.
It looks like the movement between magazines won't slow down any time soon. After Stefano Tonchi's move from T, many expected that Anne Christensen - the magazine's fashion director - would take his place but eventually lost the position to Vogue's Sally Singer. Christensen went on to resign from her role causing even more speculation as to who will take her place.
Tabbitha Simmons is a name that has been thrown into the hat of likely successors. Many think she's a firm favourite particularly due to her longtime close relationship with Singer and her ties with Vogue who she frequently styles for. However, Meredith Melling Burke is also tipped to be in the running for the job. However, as The Cut pointed out, it's unlikely that she will make the move because that would be the second big editor to leave American Vogue.
In other news, there's been a lot of competition of the fashion director position at Glamour after Zanthipi Joannides left the magazine in June. Despite moving to Marie Claire from ELLE only a year or so ago, Nina Garcia is said to have been interested in the position but "discussions with ended shortly after they began" a source told WWD. Kate Lanphear has also met with Cindi Leive, which if it resulted in a move from ELLE, would be really sad. ELLE without Lanphear?!
We haven't seen much of Jourdan Dunn since she gave birth to her son last December but it looks like she's back to work and on a roll after her break.
Recently it was reported that she was shot for a fashion story for the September issue of American Vogue - which also stars Stella Tennant and Liya Kebede - and yesterday i-D tweeted this image of the model from the set of a beauty shoot for their Fall 2010 issue.
I wasn’t hired by Bill Keller to bring Vogue to T. I was hired by Bill Keller to do T, so it’s a different project . . . I imagine at some point it will naturally evolve into something that reflects more my taste and concerns than those of my predecessor. But hopefully that will be an organic process and not an imposition.
