Debora Spanhol's 'Feet firmly on the ground' Racial Unity for Vogue Portugal
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Vogue Portugal commissions ‘Feet firmly on the ground’, captured by Berlin-based photographer Debora Spanhol IG posted online September 2020. Tasha Malek and Alina Tsoy @ M4 Models; Laura Berns and Melissa Enns @Viva Models Berlin explore family, friends and race — and not for the first time in the pages of Vogue Portugal.
Tamara Svenja styles the fashion story with fresh, fall looks from Designers Remix, IRO, Lana Müller, Maison Margiela, Miu Miu, Mother of Pearl, Mulberry, Proenza Schouler and more. (See style credits.)
In April, 2019 South African model Thando Hopa covered Vogue Portugal’s ‘Africa Motherland’ issue “dedicated to origins and Africa, as the cradle of humanity.”
I wrote then that this reality of human existence — that humanity was born and migrated out of Africa — is the very “blood and guts” of Anne of Carversville.
The model, lawyer and activist Thando Hopa also made history as the first woman with albinism to grace the cover of any Vogue edition. To be an albino person identifying as African delivers a complex stew of emotional and psychological challenges for any human.
Hopa was also the first black South African grace a Pirelli calendar, appearing in the ‘Alice in Wonderland’-themed 2018 edition.
These two fashion stories are not the only examples of Vogue Portugal navigating this complex terrain in a world suddenly teeming with racial protest and demands for inclusion in fashion world and far beyond.
On a note of irony, I just Googled to attempt an understanding of what percentage of the world identifies as Caucasian. Granted, we are at the top of a pyramid of fashion’s understanding that we must change our points of view on topics from models of color to sustainability. This is a wave of focus on people of color in fashion pages and not necessarily a new normal. Note that I am 100% confident that we are NOT going back to our old ways.
At the same time, even I am aware that for now, I cannot “pulse” the important fashion stories, ad campaigns and industry news with white models, then people of color. It’s possible that Whiteness could make a very visible and permanent decline in the pages of fashion magazines. This is my greatest life dream come true (as a White woman originally from Minnesota) — but the very visual transition may take some getting used to for many of us.
