Customer Reviews

Skin Deep: The Story of Black Models in America and Abroad

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I loved this book from front to back. It gave me an inside perspective on how black models are treated in the fashion industry. After being brain washed and white washed by dozens of "Vogue," "Glamour," and "Cosmo" magazines, I had lost sight of how beautiful and elegant black models/women are. This is unfortunate but true and can only account for the racist attitudes and standards that Western society (especially America) has against ethnic (African, Asian, Latin, and Native American Indian) beauty. Ethnic beauty is copied and exploited. You can see it in every page of the most popular fashion magazines. I also read Eileen Ford's comment about this book. She was wrong wasn't she. Thank you for writing this book Ms. Summers. It is unquestionably a work of art.

Modeling doyenne Eileen Ford once told the author that a book about Black models would be a short one. Skin Deep is most certainly not. This book is filled with the history of beautiful Black women who have made an impact on the world of style. It was a long time coming.

I was very excited to read this book and I was highly disappointed. The content was great but the editor and author needs to be slapped. The layout was ridiculously confusing, the chapters had no flow, pictures didn't correspond with the stories, some of the interviews bordered on the foolish, etc.... The was a two paragraph mention about black male models. what about children models? What about the effects of we are portrayed in advertisements through history? Where is the history? A chronological timeline? I've read articles in white mags about black models that gave more information that this book. Don't buy it.

The author has spent admirable energy collecting images, interviews, and historical data. But she has been ill-served by her editor and publisher. The text and images are made incoherent by not having been shaped, as if the author's note cards had spilled on to the page in no particular order (a simple chronological narrative might have been best). Sadly, the result is a book about beauty that is not beautiful. The publisher seems not to have hired a book designer; the images neither flow esthetically nor relate integrally to the text. Even the index shows lack of care for the material, with the font unadjusted to distinguish between pages with images and those containing only text. Black beauty deserves better than this. And yet, since this is the only book of its kind, it is still worth buying... It is a joy to see these fantastic women all in one place. Kudos to Barbara Summers for introducing them to each other and to us.

This is a first and the most compelling, comprehensive and enligtening book on the subject. I applaud the author and publisher for their vision, tenacity and courage. A must for every library. Kudos!!

Being a fashionista of color I wanted to know more about the history and who the players were. And I found the info I desird.

Thanks for a wonderfully preserved reasonably priced book.
Your shipment was received well within normal expectations.