Although many may not know the legacy that Beverly Johnson (Buffalo, 71 years old) has left in the fashion industry, the supermodel, who was the first black woman to appear on the cover of Vogue USA, It is a myth in the United States. Considered by The New York Times As one of the most influential people in the fashion world of this century and the past, Johnson is not happy with the treatment she has received in her long career in modeling and in the audiovisual sector. He has said this on numerous occasions, such as in his memoirs, and she has now recalled it again in an interview. for Page Six, in which she has also remembered her demons within the industry, and how she came to feel pressured to consume drugs and submit to strict and unhealthy diets between the seventies and nineties. “They made us believe that cocaine was not addictive. Everyone used drugs then, and we were not aware of their consequences. But that drug was especially used by models because we didn't eat,” she admitted to the American media. The actress also premieres in New York in February Beverly Johnson in Vogue, a new show in which he speaks, just like in his book Beverly Johnson: The Face That Changed It All (2015), of her professional career, her family, her lovers and her childhood in Buffalo, as well as paying tribute to the legendary women who came before and after her.
It all started in 1970, when the supermodel signed a contract with Eileen Ford's popular agency. At 19, she had high hopes for herself and she dared to ask her agent if she could appear on the cover of the prestigious Vogue USA. “Who do you think you are, Cleopatra?” was the response she received immediately, according to the script for her next show. To which she replied: “That's exactly what I think I am.” Four years later she got it, and this 2024 she celebrates the 50th anniversary of becoming the first black woman to appear on the cover of the most prestigious fashion magazine in the United States. Johnson assures in Page Six that she felt pressured to snort cocaine to “kill her appetite” after the owners of the fashion industry encouraged her to look “chiseled to the bone” for the famous photo: “I would just stop and get shakes. She didn't eat and every time she went to work they told me: 'Yes! Chisel to the bone, girl' as a congratulation. Nobody really told the truth.” “I remember she ate two eggs and a bowl of brown rice a week. I remember being shaking in a taxi and insisting that I stop to get a bag of MDMA,” she confesses. Thanks to her mother, and after years immersed in addictions, Beverly Johnson won the battle: “she made me get out of the bathtub and put me naked in front of a three-sided mirror. It was the first time I saw my bones staring back at me. My bones like those of a child in Biafra. “It was a big wake-up call for me.”
Beverly Johnson's professional career has been very varied; From her beginnings as a model she debuted with major American film and television producers. She even released an album in 1979, which was not particularly successful. During the 1970s and 1980s she appeared on more than 500 magazine covers. A role that marked a before and after in a country especially plagued by racism. In 2020, in an opinion piece for the newspaper Washington Post, The supermodel stated: “I was the first black woman on the cover of Vogue, but the fashion industry still hasn't fixed the racist issue. The silence of race was then, and remains, the cost of admission to the highest levels in the fashion industry.” Johnson demanded black hairstylists, makeup artists, and photographers, but more often than not his requests were unsuccessful. The world of fashion, like everyone else, was changing slowly. “My race limited my pay significantly, less than that of my white colleagues. “The industry was slow to include more black people in other aspects of fashion and beauty.”
Precisely, his career as top model It cannot be understood without its fundamental role in civil rights activism, and its excessive attempt to open the doors to other black models. Although he would later appear three more times on the cover of Vogue (media that said of her in 2016 that “she broke the glass ceiling in fashion”), Johnson's historic first time earned her a place in history and gave modeling one of its biggest stars. Take a look at the many times Johnson appeared in the pages of Vogue and how his iconic images have stood the test of time. But despite being part of the cast of supermodels, along with Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell or other popular names that were a milestone in fashion in the last century, for Johnson inclusion remains a pending task. Her finger has been pointed on more than one occasion at Anna Wintour, director of the magazine and international advisor for all the publications of the Condé Nast group (Vogue, Glamour, Vanity Fair…). She believes that the grande dame of fashion has enough power to make changes and create new inclusive trends. So much so that he has asked to establish the so-called “Beverly Johnson rule” by which, Whenever there are vacancies for a position, especially a position of responsibility, black people are interviewed to fill it.
Two marriages, a pregnancy, an assault and death threats
The model's sentimental life has been characterized by its heads and its tails. She married a real estate agent, Bill Potter, at a very young age. In 1977 she remarried Danny Slims, a businessman with whom she had her only daughter. Two years later, they divorced. In the nineties, she had a romantic relationship with Chris Noth ―Mr. Big in Sex in New York―. They stayed for five years until they broke up in 1995, when the supermodel requested a restraining order after hitting her and threatening to kill her. “Chris Noth punched me in the chest and ribs, hurting my ribs, making it difficult to breathe, hitting and bruising my face and body and I had to have medical attention,” as she recalled then. Page Six. The resolution of the complaint was made public in October of the same year, in which the judge approved a distance of 500 meters, which lasted until 2017. “He made repeated threats against my life, making up to 25 calls per day, threatening to kill me. . To me and my dog,” he clarified at that time.
All the setbacks in his relationship with the protagonist of Sex in New York They made him remember what was probably the most unfortunate episode in his life. In the eighties, Johnson wanted to audition to work on the fashionable series of the moment, The Bill Cosby Showwho at that time was positioned as one of the most popular performers on American television. All this with the intention of enhancing his image and recycling himself in his career as an artist. When the interpreter met her at her apartment, Cosby put a drug in her coffee with the intention of sexually abusing her. But Johnson managed to escape from her because she started shouting and insulting him, which caused the comedian to put her in a taxi to her house. “I knew from the second sip of the drink that Cosby had drugged me… and very drugged,” the supermodel recounted in 2014 in Vanity Fair, which was his letter of complaint. In recent years, more than 60 women have accused him of rape, drug-induced sexual assault, sexual assault, child sexual abuse and sexual misconduct… allegations for which he went to prison in 2018 in the first criminal trial of a celebrity in the #MeToo era (released from prison in 2021).
The supermodel got married secretly in Las Vegas last year. with one of her childhood loves, Bill Maillian, during her 71st birthday celebration. “I sat up in bed on October 11 [su cumpleaños es el 13 de octubre] and I said, 'I know what I want for my birthday. I want to marry”. Mailian, who helped Johnson build a beauty business, has encouraged his activism: “We come from the same mold and the same kind of family history.”
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