A Look Back at the Black Model Movement in 1968
Fashion still celebrates the so-called “Battle of Versailles” in 1973, the benefit fashion show that brought the best of American and European designers together for one night only and helped rally the Black model movement on the runway.
The moment defined an era in fashion’s history, but the Black model movement began decades earlier.
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In 1946, when The Brandford Agency emerged as one of the first all-Black modeling agents in New York City, WWD made its reader aware.
Eunice Johnson’s Ebony magazine, founded in 1945, and its Fashion Fair traveling fashion show and NAFAD, the National Association of Fashion and Accessories Designers, would also be pivotal to increasing the presence of Black models in the early 20th century.
Iconic models of the time included Ophelia DeVore and Dorothea Towles-Church, both recognized for changing the face of fashion at a time when Black models were almost nonexistent in fashion.
DeVore would also become an advocate for the Black model in later years.
Towles-Church was the first Black American model to walk the European runways in 1949. A trip to Paris landed her on the runways of Christian Dior, Balmain and Schiaparelli.
Both paved the way for a roster of models in the ‘50s and ‘60s: Helen Williams; Audrey Smaltz — a model, commentator, and founder of the Ground Crew, and Norma Jean Darden, among a continuum of successors.
Smaltz and Darden shared their experiences in WWD’s recent book “Black in Fashion: 100 Years of Style, Influence and Culture,” discussing the obstacles, and barriers broken.
By the mid-20th century, racial inequities had sparked more conversations about visibility. By the late 1960s, a new movement on the heels of a tumultuous period was nothing but empowering. “Black Is Beautiful” placed Black beauty in the forefront of fashion’s conversation.
Recognizable faces of the era, Donyale Luna and Naomi Sims, helped change fashion’s beauty ideal. Luna would appear on the covers of Harper’s Bazaar and British Vogue in 1965 and 1966, and Sims on Ladies Home Journal in 1968, and Life magazine in 1969.
Sims added entrepreneur to her résumé when she founded her namesake cosmetics line in 1969 at age 21. WWD made note of her success in “Color Naomi Sims Black.” Four years later, she had a lauded wig and hairpiece line and in 1979, she introduced her first scent, aptly named Naomi. In later years she opened Naomi Sims cosmetic boutiques, adding author to her résumé along the way.
Sims’ peers noted her beauty was uncompromised, touting her as the epitome of Black representation in fashion at the time.
She was also a Halstonette, the moniker given to Halston’s model cabine. Halston noted in 1973 that she had more success than any other models at the time. Sims, he told WWD “…was promoted by the Black public because she was really a Black queen.”
Watching the trend, WWD did the first of many articles over the decades on the state of the Black model. “Black is…The Model speaks,” from 1968, introduced readers to models Norma Jean Darden, Renee Hunter, Pal Henry, Sims, and others.
Henry became the exclusive house model and muse to Latin American designer Adolfo until the mid-’80s, while Darden walked in America and Europe. She also walked for all the Black designers, making headlines in the ‘70s and ‘80s with Stephen Burrows, Scott Barrie, Willi Smith, and Jon Haggins, for whom she was a longtime muse.
“It was the Black designers that gave the Black model a tremendous breakthrough,” Darden told WWD during an interview for “Black in Fashion.”
As the ‘70s rolled in, fashion’s visual and social vibes embraced everyone.
And with the cultural milieu of models on the runway in that decade, even if challenges remained, designers and tastemakers knew the moment was noteworthy.
In 1973, WWD celebrated the rise of Black models and the pioneering changes on the runway in “‘73 Movers,” four months prior to the “Battle of Versailles.” It felt less like tokenism in that decade, the models stated. While many had already embraced Europe, when America did the same, Darden noted, “They [the Black models] were here to stay.”
Arriving at this time were Billie Blair, Alva Chin, Armina Saunders, Charlene Dash, Bethann Hardison, Pat Cleveland, Ramona Saunders, Doris “Toukie” Smith, designer Willi Smith’s sister and Beverly Johnson, who debuted on the cover of Vogue in 1974.
They were — with the exception of Beverly Johnson and Toukie Smith — the stars of the “Battle of Versailles,” the name given to the event by WWD’s late, legendary publisher John B. Fairchild. The event put American fashion on the map and the Black models, too. Stephen Burrows would bring them along. The models “brought the house down,” and reigned supreme beyond the now iconic moment.
After Versailles, the impact Black models had on the runway was palpable. And while obstacles remained, many easily made the switch from ready to wear to the haute couture.
There was Gloria Burgess, a relative unknown today, muse to designer Hanai Mori, and Mounia Orosemane or Mounia at Yves Saint Laurent, who held the coveted spot of muse and house model into the 1980s at the house, as well as Amalia Vairelli, Katoucha Niane, Khadija Jones, Rebecca Ayoko, and a long list of other names.
Observing was André Leon Talley, then WWD’s Paris bureau chief. In 1979, he introduced fashion to Hubert de Givenchy’s first and only all-Black model cabine of five models — Sandi Bass, who fit all of Audrey Hepburn’s looks; Carol Miles; Michele Denby; Lynn Watts, and Diane Washington.
“The Givenchy all-Black cabine was a unique moment in the history of fashion…From [the Battle of Versailles] was born this moment of the supermodel, the super Black model in the world of fashion.…You could almost just reach out and touch the energy they gave in the air; it was like quiet thunder,” Talley told WWD in 2021.
WWD stayed abreast of the conversation, continuing to capture Black models in its fashion coverage.
When the ‘80s arrived, the models influencing the scene in the ‘70s had by now established themselves on the runway.
Iman, who began her career in 1975, was among them. She dominated on the runway and in editorials, even beyond her retirement in 1989, helming two successful brands — Iman beauty and Iman Global Chic sold through HSN. And like those before her, she remains one of fashion’s most iconic models of all time.
Yet, time in fashion can be fleeting. Before entering the ‘90s, the movement that happened so organically in the ‘70s had all but ended. At the same time, fashion’s beauty ideals shifted, and the Black model began to disappear from the runway.
Advocacy had to return. Picking up the baton was trailblazer Bethann Hardison, who wound her experience around the new Black model.
In 1984, following in the footsteps of DeVore, she opened Bethann Management, not just to represent a cast of fresh faces but to advocate for them as well. Among her clients were Veronica Webb, Roshumba Williams, Kimora Lee Simmons and the first Black male supermodel, Tyson Bedford. They would join Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks, models already on their way to becoming superlatives.
Sustaining visibility is a state of continued progress. “Once you reach one plateau on the mountain and you clear it. Then you see another and have to climb over,” Hardison told WWD.
Entering the ‘90s, avoiding the call was not an option. Hardison, along with Naomi Campbell and Iman and a contingency of Black models, organized to help fix fashion’s lack of diversity. Their work to support cultural diversity can be seen on the runways today.
The Black model movement that began with Towles-Church in 1949 and continued with the “Battle of Versailles” changed the face of fashion. The Black model remains a powerful and unapologetic celebration of belonging and beauty in familiar and new faces.
Launch Gallery: Celebrating Over 50 Years of The Black Model Movement on the Runway: Photos From the Archives
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