Supermodel Jourdan Dunn made major fashion waves in February 2015, when she became the first woman of color since Naomi Campbell in August 2002 to cover British Vogue.

This week Jourdan Dunn owns a worldwide, fashion first; and it’s her own crown-worthy moment in the spotlight. Harper’s Bazaar UK [IG] travels to the ancient Castle of Mey in Caithness, Scotland for its June 2024 cover story.

Jourdan is styled by Cathy Kasterine, as a key figure in Bazaar’s ‘Best of Britain’ issue. Dunn wears Chanel on the cover, with Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry worn lavishly in images. Add Chopova Lowena, Erdem, Gabriela Hearst, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Richard Quinn, Roksanda, Simone Rocha, Stella McCartney and more on a fashion story where the absence of Burberry is noteworthy./ Avril Mair provides fashion direction; makeup by Alex Babsky; hair by Isaac Poleon

The Castle & Gardens of Mey, originally purchased by HM Queen Elizabeth in 1952, served as a royal residence for the Queen Mother for about three weeks in August and another 10 days in October.

Dunn reflected about her global-first photography shoot with Richard Phibbs [IG], when she met Lydia Slater in Bloomsbury for the followup Bazaar interview, which is part of today’s fashion story ‘Queen of the Castle’.

“All seals, and water, and sands – it was a wonderful escape. I understand the attraction, to be so far away from everybody. My gran loved the Queen Mother – they shared the same birthday – so this would probably have been her proudest thing.”

An Emotional Interview That Inspires . . .

AOC is deliberately underscoring this earnest statement from Dunn, about her gran’s likely response to the supermodel’s honor as muse of the fashion shoot. I can’t imagine living in Britain as a young girl of color, and my beloved grandmother shared the queen mother’s birthday — and expressed her love for this national figure to our family.

And now I — the granddaughter and a woman of color — am shooting a ‘Best of Britain’ Bazaar fashion story at her castle.

Dunn’s tearful reflection underscores the complexity of our modern world and our collective global history. Polarized populations with brains that operate on a single, push-button mode of binary thinking might condemn this very fashion story, even when Dunn is called a ‘national treasure’ on the cover.

. . . But Never Into Self-Indulgence

Few fashion writers will highlight the deep emotions revealed in this interview. And it comes in a week when our top models are revealing their misery faster than I can type. AOC isn’t trying to play divide and conquer, but my own ethical standards force me to put Jourdan Dunn’s self-doubts on a higher rung of the ladder than others’.

It’s a bit like the term PTSD. An estimated 10 million people — countless children among them — are suffering from PTSD in Ukraine. The majority of Palestinians — again countless children — are on the road again in deplorable conditions in Gaza They, too, are suffering now and into the future from PTSD.

These large swathes of suffering people are condemned to years of fighting forms of mental illness in varying degrees of intensity. In my earliest days in New York, I managed many Holocaust survivors — their numbers tattooed on their wrists. I dealt with their PTSD flares, which often revealed highly-irrational behavior and fierce fights that I was forced to arbitrate.

Saving Mental Wounds for the Deserving

Women broadcasters living in New York, several who experienced a moment of being queasy when the earth shook in a tremor weeks ago, are NOT suffering from PTSD, even though they said they were days later.

Some of our models remind me of these broadcasters. And not to derail this fashion story narrative, but on the topic of ‘imposter syndrome’, an estimated 80 percent of successful people experience this feeling of being undeserving, with a disproportionate number of them being from marginalized groups.

White women models suffering from imposter syndrome is an oxymoron. You are thriving in a system devoted to your success. You might be uneasy when you’re making $40 million a year when 20-40% of models are paid next to nothing. This is the 21st century economic system you embrace in America. Most of us do, and some of us believe we have much to learn from the Scandinavian countries.

I don’t read about many major philanthropy or activism initiatives launched by the young women tearful over their imposter syndrome ‘disease’ — even though science confirms it’s the best medicine.

Ask Karlie Kloss. Almost no one has followed in her footsteps with initiatives like Kode With Klossy, now partnered with Apple.

A white woman heading up Goldman Sachs might have imposter syndrome because she is a total rarity in the finance world. However, climbing that finance ladder requires a woman with such brilliance, moxy, established financial results and fierce backbone that she probably knows she’s the real deal.

Banishing Self-Doubts & No Turning Back

Jourdan Dunn became very emotional in this interview. She shared the major self-repair the mother of one son Riley, experienced working with a life coach during the pandemic.

"It helped me to realise what my purpose is and what my passions are. I love beauty, I love art and that’s what the fashion industry does. I never used to believe I was creative, but my life coach said, 'You’re creating all the time!'
"Even getting this cover –" she breaks off and wipes her eyes, apologising. "I feel a bit emotional about it. Three years ago, I'd have thought, 'Why would I get that?' This time, that little voice did try to pipe up, and I was like: why wouldn't I be best of British? I've learnt to quieten those doubts."

Jourdan Dunn: the UK’s Black Martha Stewart?

Jourdan Dunn does not discuss past issues around race in this interview. AOC returned to her 2015 British Vogue cover to acknowledge Dunn’s last historic achievement in fashion world. Dunn doesn’t bring up any of these past issues, perhaps believing that she is satisfied that the industry is dealing with models of color in a good faith mode today.

After the online success of her cooking show ‘Well Dunn’, the supermodel is focused on becoming “the UK’s Black Martha Stewart’.

"That’s the next step to building an empire and creating generational wealth, and having the Dunn name live on past me,” she tells Slater. A Carribean/British gastropub is on her mood boards. Being a role model to Riley is important to her “Especially because he already feels limited.”

Riley suffers from sickle cell anemia, which Dunn has expressed guilt over in the past. To be clear, sickle cell anemia only manifests itself in a child, when both parents are carrying the gene. The guilt is not only Dunn’s to bear; and we note that Riley has an excellent relationship with his father and other siblings on his father’s side.

Genetic diseases in children are a gut punch for the parents, and I imagine they learn to do the best they can to handle the understandable guilt, which never fully retreats.

As for the wolfhounds Richard Phibbs brought to the photo shoot, Dunn observed: "They had such a nice energy, they came to me and they didn’t intimidate me in any way."

Phibbs hasn’t commented yet, but these not common dogs are associated with the aristocracy. I’ve tried to learn if they are part of the property, with no luck.

In closing, Lydia Slater shares that Jourdan Dunn is very excited about life right now. After observing her, Slater is also excited for Dunn.

We’ll add Anne of Carversville to the list. Go for it, Jourdan Dunn. Your self-sabotaging demons sound kicked to the curb. How refreshing. ~ Anne