Beach Tomato’s Who’s Who guide to the African models dominating the scene in 2011

I stumbled across ‘The Who’s Who of African models’ feature on http://www.beachtomato.com, all thanks to myfashiondiary‘s interview with Kirsty Hathaway, the editor of fashion, travel, beauty and beach culture website Beach Tomato.

Courtesy of www.beachtomato.com

I first met Kirsty when I assisted her on the bookings desk at British Vogue. Since then she’s been the fashion editor of Company and now she’s the editor of Beach Tomato. It’s fantastic to see her editorship of Beach Tomato producing an African issue that offers fashion commentary on the beautiful African models who were omnipresent at the top shows. Beach Tomato’s ‘The Who’s Who guide of African models’ rightly recognises the following African models; first is Nigeria’s very own Oluchi Onweagba -’The Veteran’, followed by ‘The Obsession’ Zimbabwean Nyasha Matonhodze, next is Liya Kebede – “The Power House’, then Kinee Diouf – ‘The Over-achiever’, then teenage Tanzanian Herieth Paul, who is considered “The One to Watch’, and last but certainly not least Grace Bol, the Sudanese ‘Breaththrough Star’.

Back in September I and Judy Koloko, veteran model booker and now agent extraordinaire at CLM, made the same observation. Yes, black models are certainly having a moment. We hope it isn’t a fleeting one because Iman, Bethann (as in Hardison, one-time model, and legendary fierce advocate of black models) Naomi, Tyra, Alek, Kimora, Oluchi, Liya and Agbani to name a few, have all proven that black models are commercially viable and have a longevity that transcends the catwalk, the glossy pages of magazines, billboards and TV.

As for Beach Tomato we hope your African issue isn’t a temporal thing? We are rather looking forward to seeing black beauty intelligently reflected in its diversity throughout your website and features that consider black women who are fashionable, stylish and avid travellers. And yes, we are in the high numbers.

All this writing about black models deserves a more in-depth post, and we will be bringing you just that very SOON…

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