Modeling pioneer Ophelia DeVore (right) with clients and friends (l-r) Joan Murry, Trudy Haynes, the Philadelphia news legend, actress and writer Ellen Holly and the great model Helen Williams. Photo via opheliadevore.com.
Whitney Houston in a 1980s Max Factor ad.
Whitney Houston on the November 1981 cover of Seventeen magazine.
(via dreamhampton1)
Norma Jean Darden in a 1967 Simplicity sewing pattern ad.
Fashion Shows Are Big Business for Models Like Cordie King - Jet Magazine, April 3, 1952 on Flickr.
love, Love, LOVE Cordie King. #QuintessentialVintageBlackGlamour
Darnella Thomas in one of her groundbreaking ads from the legendary Charlie fragrance campaign in the 1970s.
From Black and Beautiful: How Women of Color Changed the Fashion Industry by former Ford model Barbara Summers
Although Darnella shot at least four ads for the Charlie campaign, she was not signed to a contract. “Every time I did a shoot for them I would get paid whatever the day rate was; it was never a contract. A contract would have entailed them giving me the television commercials, which is what I really wanted. I know for a for a fact that the reason I did the second, third, and fourth ads was because they got a lot of letters about me. I wouldn’t have continued to do them if they weren’t successful. It was interesting, too, that I didn’t see some of the ads. When you photographed, you shot two or three ads. I don’t know how many they used, or where. The ads ran in some parts of Africa and Latin America, but they didn’t tell me that. I wasn’t supposed to know obviously. Who thought that far? I was only looking for Essence, you know? But they used my ad in Vogue and Glamour also.
(Source: vintageblackglamour)
Princess Elizabeth of the kingdom of Toro .
Full name Elizabeth Christobel Edith Bagaaya Akiiki
In addition to her Royal title, she is a lawyer, politician, diplomat, model and actress. She briefly (February 1974 - November 1974) served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Idi Amin.
After finishing elementary school, she was sent to Gayaza High School, a prestigious female boarding high school in Buganda, followed by Sherborne School for Girls, in England, where she was the only black student. “I felt that I was on trial and that my failure to excel would reflect badly on the entire black race.” she later wrote. After one year, she was accepted to Cambridge, the third African woman in the institution’s history. In 1962 she graduated from Cambridge with a law degree.
The Princess is involved in Charity across the African continent and is now serving as Uganda’s Ambassador to Germany.
Princess Elizabeth of Toro: Lawyer, politician, diplomat, model and actress.
(via fyeahblackhistory)
Naomi Sims at the “Harlem Homecoming” benefit show for the Dance Theater of Harlem in 1972. Image via Bettmann/Corbis
Pioneering model Helen Williams in a Bulova watch ad from 1959.
Pioneering model and businesswoman Ophelia DeVore in the 1940s.
Models Cordie King and Alberta Culbreath model afternoon fashions for Ebony Fashion Fair in 1958.
