Naomi Campbell has taken to Instagram to criticise British Vogue for its all-white editorial team under former editor Alexandra Shulman.
The model posted a staff photo from Shulman’s penultimate issue, which highlights the lack of diversity in the fashion magazine. She captioned the post: ‘This is the staff photo of @britishvogue under the previous editor #AlexandraSchulman. Looking forward to an inclusive and diverse staff now that @edward_enninful is the editor…let’s hear your thoughts?’
Edward Enninful took over from Shulman at the beginning of August, bringing to an end her 25-year reign as editor. Enninful is the first non-white person, and the first man, to take the helm at Vogue in its 100-year history, and with his appointment has made dramatic changes to his team, such as bringing Naomi Campbell on board as a contributing editor along with Kate Moss, film director Steve McQueen and Grace Coddington. Enninful has been a fervent campaigner against racism and prejudice throughout his career, and received an OBE in 2016 for promoting diversity in the fashion industry.
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Though Campbell isn’t the first to pick up on the all-white staff picture in Vogue, her post, unsurprisingly, sparked a debate in the comment section. Some users agreed that the blatant lack of diversity needs to be addressed: ‘You’re so right and my sentiments are with you. I always felt excluded as a woman of colour reading Vogue… No diversity and they never featured the jewellery/talent of woc’s in their fashion issues…I’m so happy that @Edward_enninful has been appointed!!!’.
‘That’s quite shocking for 2017,’ said another commenter. ‘Edward has his work cut out. Let’s hope he modernises and together let’s watch as profits grow as he makes the magazine inclusive to all colours.’
However, others argued that the picture highlighted that the problem is more to do with class than with race. ‘There’s not so much a race divide here as a class divide and ultimately who runs the media? The upper class – as seen in the picture of Vogue’s staff,’ said another user.
What’s more, Campbell avoided tagging Shulman personally, and instead hashtagged her (sand spelt her name wrong). A little dig in the former editor’s direction, perhaps?
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