Chanel Iman, Jourdan Dunn, Sessilee Lopez, and Arlenis Sosa’s September cover of i-D broke last week. Four models of color on the cover of a September issue — the most important edition of the year — is a pretty big deal in an industry where non-white models still struggle to attain the same visibility as their white colleagues. Chanel tells the magazine:

“It usually takes an ethnic girl — I’m not saying black, I’m saying ethnic, let’s make that clear — twice as long. We’ve gotta work extra-hard to stay in the game and stay with the girls who do well but aren’t ethnic. Some girls can skip seasons, but us ethnic girls, we cannot skip a season, because that’ll kill us. Once you’re in there, you’ve got to go in hard. You’ve got to be strong. It takes time, investment, and being away from friends, family, and home. To be what you want to be, to be driven, means working twice as hard as the next person, whoever they are.”

Jourdan, now five months pregnant, might sit a season out but won’t leave the fashion industry. She tells the magazine pregnancy has done wonderful things for her self-confidence. i-D reports she was barely showing at the time of the shoot, but:

“I’m starting to feel more secure in who I am now. Being from an Afro-Caribbean family, being black, skinny, isn’t really acceptable in that community; it’s all about having curves and stuff,” [Dunn] explains. “That’s why I’ve never been comfortable with my body until now, when I realize I can say this is who I am, I’m healthy, I’ve always liked to eat, and I’m now happy enough in my own skin to not give a fuck what anyone says about me any more. Growing up, being told I was skinny, felt like teasing. Everyone was always telling me about being a model, and it used to really piss me off. Then I got scouted. It might seem like I got big jobs right away, but I can still remember going on the Storm website and seeing these other girls’ amazing editorial work next to my same old test shot and Polaroids. Back then, I wondered if I would ever get a job.”

Well, she’s certainly gotten a lot of jobs since. And now a behind-the-scenes video of the i-D cover shoot. We hope you like models’ winking.

Jourdan Dunn Talks Pregnancy, the “Unnecessary Competition” Among Black Models, and Joins Sessilee, Chanel, and Arlenis in i-D [Fashionologie]
i-D’s September 2009 Article [SESSILEE: Official Site]

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Filed Under: arlenis sosa, chanel iman, diversity issues, id, jourdan dunn, models, sessilee lopez, video

The September Issue opened in New York this weekend, and unlike fashion magazines these days, it raked in a heap of money. The movie grossed $240,078 in six theaters, for an average of $40,013 per screen. That makes it the second-best per-theater average of any 2009 release, according to indieWIRE. It also makes it the fifth-best documentary debut in history, behind 1995 IMAX featurette Across the Sea of Time, Davis Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth, Michael Moore’s Sicko, and Paul Provenza’s The Aristocrats. But this is just New York. Will our friends in the middle of the country share the same appetite for La Wintour when it opens in other markets after Labor Day?

And even though Anna Wintour herself has probably seen the movie several times by now, with all the premieres and whatever private viewings she’s enjoyed, the editor–cum–movie star waited in line like a normal person to buy a ticket and see the movie in the theater. Gawker has a picture of her waiting in line, wearing cropped skinny jeans, beige flat loafers, sunglasses, and her perfectly tailored Fashion’s Night Out T-shirt. Anna Wintour: queen of fashion, borough visitor, and now guerrilla marketer! Maybe she’ll hand out Fashion’s Night Out flyers in Times Square during her lunch break? Twitter? She really is one of the people.

Box Office: “September” Skyrockets; Finds 5th Best Doc Debut Ever [indieWIRE]
Anna Wintour Waits Like a Commoner to See The September Issue [Gawker]

Read more posts by Amy Odell

Filed Under: anna wintour, fashions night out, movies, rj cutler, the september issue, vogue, wintour wonderland