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Black and Beautiful: How Women of Color Changed the Fashion Industry (Paperback)

by Barbara Summers (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  (1 customer review)

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Editorial Reviews
-- Essence magazine
"Rich and inspiring"

-- Miami Times
"A startlingly refreshing look at Black women models in a way that not merely celebrates their beauty but also honors their work."

See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Amistad (February 5, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 006095812X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060958121
  • Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,086,325 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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Barbara Summers' latest blog posts
       
 
Barbara Summers sent the following posts to customers who purchased Black and Beautiful: How Women of Color Changed the Fashion Industry
  

Writing for a Reason

3:47 PM PDT, July 23, 2006
Strolling through the tents at the Harlem Book Fair yesterday afternoon got me thinking about writers and their writing. Listening to a panel of wonderful writers discussing memoirs and autobiographies got me thinking more specifically about the responsibility I felt when I was working on Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models.
     Ten years ago no one knew anything about the role beautiful Black women had played in changing the face of modern culture. Or let me put it this way: if they knew, no one was articulating it. Back then no one knew anything about the history of Black women in the beauty industry either. Not the Black women actually working in the business, nor anyone else. After 17 years as a model, I segued into writing and decided to do a book on this unknown corner of history hidden in plain sight.
      That's when I met Dorothea Towles. Dorothea was the first international model of color to become a big success. She jumped ship from a comfortable marriage in Los Angeles to land 6,000 miles away on the runway of Christian Dior in 1949. 1949! She was the toast of post-war Paris for several years before returning to the States to spread the gospel of glamour across Black America. She was gorgeous, spirited, well-educated, warm, and generous. When she died in early July at the age of 83, a special kind of down-to-earth elegance died with her.
     But Dorothea did not die unknown. I'd devoted a whole chapter to her story in Skin Deep. Recognition, interviews, and international acclaim followed. Of course, she had enjoyed much success decades earlier, but a second helping in her later years was doubly sweet.
     During the long, tough genesis of Skin Deep, I often found myself overwhelmed by the amount of material and exhausted by analysis. When had models begun to attract so much attention? And why? And where were the Black Girls? And why didn't they get the same coverage, treatment, and pay, as the other models? There was a whole industry to examine, whole cultures to inspect. Yet the grand story always had more resonance when it focused on an individual's life. One personal detail could reveal an entire world.
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