Here is why the Vogue challenge matters

With diversity being questioned in many aspects of society, from the workplace to faces we see in magazine covers, black identity and representation matters and is important.

In light of the Black Lives Matter movement, there has be undoubtedly a push to support black business, have more black voices in senior management to hopefully influence change in what we see in pop culture, from our TV screens, beauty and fashion industries.

Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour expressed her regret that the magazine has not done enough to support its black staff and designers. It took Vogue 30 years to hire a black photographer to shoot a cover that featured Beyonce in September issue in 2018.

This was in response to the viral #VogueChallenge, as social media users pointed out the magazine lacks diversity in its workplace and have not featured many women of colour on its cover.

Wintour wrote: “I want to start by acknowledging your feelings and expressing my empathy towards what so many of you are going through: sadness, hurt, and anger too. I want to say this especially to the black members of our team — I can only imagine what these days have been like.

“But I also know that the hurt, and violence, and injustice we’re seeing and talking about have been around for a long time. Recognising it and doing something about it is overdue.”

Instead of waiting to see the change, the internet decided to do it themselves, by posting photoshopped covers of themselves or models of colour on a Vogue ‘cover’.

How can you participate in the challenge:

Take a photo of yourself and use a photo-editing tool to edit the Vogue logo into your photo. That’s it.

Take a look at some of our favourites.

Hope I did this right,
#VogueChallenge pic.twitter.com/ZNw0tElDnM

— Himeros (@nickranger876) June 12, 2020

https://twitter.com/abihailmyrie_/status/1270926826722988032

Sorry for the wait. #VogueChallenge pic.twitter.com/FpPiFkSIwZ

— Kwame Koda (@KwameKoda) June 11, 2020

https://twitter.com/MEENAVOGUEE/status/1271146733351903232

I’m late to the party, but as promised, #VogueChallenge pic.twitter.com/iAfJ4rCQ6z

— TW Studio (@tuvawolf) June 11, 2020

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBU9ryRBCBO/

The challenge is not just publishing a cute or good picture, it hopes to showcase the incredible work of black creators to the mainstream, so that big fashion house such as Vogue take note and actively change the narrative of black beauty in fashion.

(Compiled by Sandisiwe Mbhele)

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