Anne Trips Over Coddington's Mammy Jars As Joan Smalls Confronts Fashion Industry Racism

Joan Smalls Confronts Fashion Industry Racism, As Anne Trips Into Grace's Mammy Jars

The first black person I ever saw in life was a real black woman Aunt Jemima. I remember her serving little appetizer-size pancakes in a grocery store in a tiny Minnesota town when I was growing up. I thought she was magnificent — independent and on the road, creating her own life, traveling to new places, center stage in the grocery store lighting up the place like Christmas in July.

If only I could be like her when I grew up. To me, she was a movie star — a beautiful, talented movie star — and I loved her skin, her smile and — most of all — her self-confidence.

I was shocked to discover this weekend that former Creative Director of American Vogue Grace Coddington proudly displayed her collection of mammy jars in a French lifestyle magazine last year. You’re reading the words of someone who became so agitated at a dinner party in Connecticut 25 years ago, that I feigned a migraine just so I could excuse myself from the other guests and lie down.