Vogue Italia: Black Barbie Issue

We’re still making moves y’all! Just last Thursday I was raving about this year’s 1st Annual Arise Africa Fashion Week. And NOW, Italian Vogue has released the first ever issue dedicated to Black Barbie. Gotta love those Italians. I’ve been to Italy, it’s an amazing country and consistent with popular belief they LOVE black women.

Anyway, for those of you who were under a bush last year (just kidding), Italian Vogue was the very first mainstream fashion magazine to launch an all-black issue:

All black models throughout the entire publication..I absolutely loved it! And the trail-blazing issue was released on newsstands with 4 different covers: one each of 4 amazing & trailblazing models – Naomi Campbell, Liya Kebede, Sessilee Lopez & Jordan Dunn. I have 3 of the 4 issues (complete in shrink-wrap!). I was fortunate enough to have a best friend studying abroad in Italy last summer who could snag me a copy when it first came out. And once they hit the US, I got 2 more.

Well, just one year and one black US president after, we have July 2009’s issue of Italian Vogue complete with black barbies of all shades, complexions and characteristics. The Barbies are said to be designed with “more authentic-looking black features, including . . . fuller lips, a wider nose, more distinctive cheekbones and curlier hair,” explains Franca Sozzani, Italian Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief.