.:: BLEU MAGAZINE - It's A Lifestyle ::.

Jordan Dunn

A BLEU POINT OF VIEW:
BRITISH BELLE DU JOUR:
JOURDAN DUNN
by Aisha Diaby

At the forefront of fashion and leading the sleuth of boney beauties lies the refined British native Jourdan Dunn. 17 year old Dunn was discovered a few years ago while breezing through Primark in London. (Picture Target, Old Navy). With her high cheekbones, radiant complexion, and near 5'11 frame, its not hard to see why that in just a few short years Dunn made her beauty mark indeed!

She has booked major editorials, signed with 3 prominant agencies, walked 77 shows last fashion season including Valentino and Vuitton and made history by becoming the first black model in 7 years since Queen Naomi to walk the Prada show. Shame on you Muicca!
Jourdan isnt naive or indifferent to the travails facing models of color today or the thin white line on the catwalks. "London's not a white city so why should all our castings be white? I go to castings and see several black and asian girls, then I get to the show and look around and theres just me and maybe one other coloured face." She says. "They just dont get picked. I hope its because the designer just didnt think they were good enough as a model but I dont know." These comments had quite an impact and drew a backlash from fashion insiders, that responded by saying that the fashion world is only meeting customer demands and that the customers want their models thin, white, and blonde. Furthermore, fashion is a business and they have to employ models that sell things!

The truth is that black models have seen one of the biggest recessions since the 90's, maybe even the 80's. In hopes of breathing color back into the industry Vogue Italia has made an unprecedented decision to devote an entire issue to the black models. And Jourdan is set to be the covergirl.

With the world at her stilletoed feet, Jourdan Dunn has the makings of the next big supermodel.