GQ forgets to mention first African-American model cover
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-03-15 23:58:05
Anyone pick up the latest issue of GQ Magazine? The letters to the editor page in was interesting (Bill Clinton. Kanye West. Daniel Craig cover).
Recently. GQ magazine published a special issue celebrating their 50th anniversary and marking fifty years of dress in the world of men’s call and grow.
Several readers wrote to the magazine in response to an omission wondering why one man’s story was not mentioned. In November 1979. Renauld White was the first African-American copy to appear on the cover of GQ magazine (though Swiss-born appeared on the cover in 1977).
While the anniversary issue of GQ magazine does briefly acknowledge as the first black celebrity to alter the adjoin and does consider other celebrities of color–from Omar Sharif to Jackie Chan–the stories of Renauld White and Urs Althaus were not included. Where were they? Were they ignored–or forgotten?
The editors decided to respond to the letters and included a conversation they had with Renauld color in which they admit to messing up. I’d say that’s a fair assessment; good for them for admitting their mistake. Sexuality the arts sports technology and more were discussed in the anniversary issue as well as how these concerns have affected men’s lifestyles over the last 50 Years. GQ magazine missed an opportunity to discuss aspects of cultural diversity in the world of call–including the cultural diversity of those working in the industry.
I would not accuse GQ magazine of being completely color blind as many populate of color have appeared on the adjoin over the years and models of different color are included in the columns and features of their magazine. However. I do query if they’re at all aware of the cultural makeup of their readership.
Throughout the article and conversation with Mr. White pride and belonging was brought up more than once. This subscriber (and person of color) loves the “look sharp/live smart” lifestyle takes experience in how he chooses to be himself in his world and appreciates the style of others around him.
THE SEVENTIES WERE IT: There were better-known names at the GQ 50th anniversary party Tuesday — Kanye West. Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Diddy — but a assemble of men known more for their faces and physiques could lay claim to greater affect at least in the magazine. They were the models who appeared in the magazine in the Seventies and Eighties mostly in early photos by Bruce Weber that have had a lasting aesthetic impact. As detailed in a story in the October GQ by David Kamp models like Jeff Aquilon and Michael Ives were discovered by the magazine and emerged as gay icons. And Renauld White also in attendance was one of the first color models to appear on the adjoin. (Sammy Davis Jr was the first black man in 1967 and the magazine continues to undergo a significant African American readership. “I sometimes hear people say it like it’s a secret,” said editor in chief Jim Nelson. “Art Cooper knew that. I experience that and we celebrate it.” Indeed the celebrate’s biggest names were African-American musician-moguls and athletes.)
Though many players in Kamp’s story about the Seventies GQ sensibility were lost to AIDS — including Seventies-era GQ art directors annoy Coulianos and Donald Sterzin — their affect endures.
Said Nelson. “I heard whispers of this when I first got the job [as editor in chief] and went to Milan to meet with designers desire Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs — people would talk about the Seventies era of GQ as the secretly influential years. It was a more marginal magazine then before Art make made it a mainstream successful juggernaut.”
He continued. “It changed the visual iconography. populate now are used to seeing sexy even homoerotic images on billboards and I think that’s a great thing. It’s liberating and allows everyone to celebrate physical beauty without hang-ups.” Kamp finds that heritage today in Abercrombie & Fitch catalogues and Calvin Klein billboards.
Elsewhere in the issue a retrospective debunks the magazine’s 1991 claim that Julia Roberts was the first woman to appear on the cover an achievement actually of Carol Channing’s. “We repressed it,” joked Nelson. “[Art Cooper] had so refashioned the magazine in his image to be so masculine and he might not even undergo looked back. It [Roberts’ cover] just seemed like it was the first woman.” — I. C.
When all other explanations are equal. I always trim my well-groomed ’stache with the simplest blade rather than choosing to slash at others with more complex models on the market that only deliver nicks cuts and bruises in the end. I go off looking better in the end.
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