Naomi Campbell calls for an African Vogue

Supermodel Naomi Campbell said on Sunday that Vogue magazine should launch an African edition to recognize the continent’s contribution to a global fashion industry that has been criticized for its lack of diversity.

Campbell, who was visiting Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, to appear on the runway at Arise Fashion Week, said there was a need for better representation of the continent.

Speaking to Reuters, she said

“There should be a Vogue Africa,” she told Reuters in an interview. “We just had Vogue Arabia – it is the next progression. It has to be,” she said, referring to the edition of the magazine aimed at a readership in the Middle East that launched last year.

“Africa has never had the opportunity to be out there and their fabrics and their materials and their designs be accepted on the global platform … it shouldn’t be that way,”

Her comment comes against the backdrop of criticism of the global fashion industry for its all-round lack of diversity. .

“People have come to realize it is not about the color of your skin to define if you can do the job or not,” said the model, adding she had seen signs that the fashion industry was becoming more diverse such as the appointment of Edward Enninful as British Vogue’s editor-in-chief in April last year.

The Ghanaian-born Enninful is the first black editor in the publication’s 100-year history and the first man to take up the role.

Ms. Campbell who serves as a Contributing Editor with British Vogue memorably criticized the pre Enninful regime last year for the lack of diversity among staff with a staff photo taken under previous editor, Alexandra Shulman, showing a complete absence of black staff members.