British Vogue - 11.2019

“THIS

GENERATION

IS FEARLESS

AND

EVERYONE

HAS A VOICE”

From the moment her career

took off, Jourdan Dunn spoke out

against racism in fashion. Now,

12 years later, the model tells

Yomi Adegoke how happy she is

to be part of a worldwide chorus.

Photographs by Nick Knight.

Styling by Edward Enninful

J

ourdan Dunn – like many high-profile black British

women, such as Naomi Campbell and Thandie Newton

• says she is often mistaken for an American. But in
  person, it’s a near impossible blunder to make – if Kate
  Moss has the London look, Dunn has the London everything
  else. She’s all slang and excited gun-fingers, a living reminder
  of the chattering teen girls I once sat with at the back of the
  school bus – only much taller, and more glamorous.
  Despite her youthful exuberance, Dunn’s west London home
  is decidedly grown-up, befitting a woman who has secured
  some of the most coveted castings of the last decade. After
  her discovery by a model agent in Hammersmith Primark in
  2006 (now the stuff of fashion folklore), she went on to grace
  four different magazine covers in one month and land a starring
  role in Steven Meisel’s historic all-black cover shoot for Italian
  Vogue’s July 2008 issue. That same year she was named Model
  of the Year at the British Fashion Awards. When, in 2012,
  aged 22, she joined supers including Kate and Naomi on the
  runway at the Olympic closing ceremony, her place in the
  British fashion establishment was secured.
  We sit down in her living room, in front of a black marble
  coffee table topped with three dense books – Powernomics: The
  National Plan to Empower Black America; Vogue: Voice of a
  Century; and Posing Beauty: African-American Images from the
  1890s to the Present. The space itself is filled with contrasts –
  dark and light, drama with a touch of playfulness – much like
  the model herself. It’s quietly opulent: the walls are near-black,
  and gold-plated winged goddess statues stand on the
  mantelpiece. Beyond lies a bright white, airy living area,
  featuring an array of luxe-looking brass lamps, and a blue velvet
  sofa beside the shaggiest sheepskin rug I’ve ever seen. Dunn’s
  nine-year-old son, Riley, frequently comes up in conversation,
  but this room is very much a shoes-off, adult affair.
  It appears Dunn, now 29, avoided the delayed adolescence
  that defines her generation, but she assures me that she
  only reached the milestone of moving out of her mum’s last
  October. “I first moved out when I was 18 and then, once
  I had Riley, I went back home,” she says. “It was only
  supposed to be for a bit. Then eight years on, I’m still at
  home. I just got comfortable!”

Her CV reads like it belongs to someone twice her age,

featuring a slate of “firsts”: the first black British model to

make the Forbes models rich list, in 2014; the first black model

to walk a Prada runway in a decade, in 2008. Though proud

of her contribution to both fashion and black history, these

markers made her antsy, not content. “I was happy, but on the

flip side it was like, ‘This is a bit messed up.’ It’s actually quite

sad and puts a big old magnifying glass up to the industry.

It’s kind of bittersweet. It should just be the norm.”

Early in her career, Dunn became well known for calling

out racism in fashion and beyond. On Twitter she would

regularly challenge hairstylists and make-up artists who

couldn’t work with black hair and skin, spoke candidly about

the industry’s “one in, one out” policy for black models, and

even chastised Victoria’s Secret before it was cool to, dubbing

its show “BS”. Nowadays she would be branded an activist,

but Dunn tells me she was simply being honest.

“I just said what was on my mind. I did start feeling like

a lone voice,” she continues, “because I felt like, ‘I’m being

vocal and my peers are being silent.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want

to talk about this anymore. Why am I the only one? You’re

going through the same thing. You look like me.’”

A new-found solidarity on social media has helped matters.

Because of backlashes online, the fashion landscape continues

to implement the changes she had been tweeting about years

ago. “Everybody comes together and backs each other now.

It’s not just one person,” she says. “What I love about >

GREEN SILK-CHIFFON

SHEATH DRESS,

TO ORDER, CHANEL

HAUTE COUTURE.

HAIR: JAWARA.

MAKE-UP: VAL GARLAND.

NAILS: MARIAN

NEWMAN. PRODUCTION:

LIBERTE PRODUCTIONS.

DIGITAL ARTWORK:

EPILOGUE IMAGING.

WITH THANKS TO

FILM RICHMOND AND

THE ROYAL PARKS

203

11-19-Well-JourdanDunn.indd 203 09/09/2019 11:54