01/06/2025
Donyale Luna, a girl from Detroit. She was the first Black woman to grace the covers of Vogue (British edition, March 1966) and Harper's Bazaar. Donyale is widely considered the first Black supermodel.
There is a very informative documentary on HBO. It's called: Donyale Luna Supermodel. It dives into her upbringing, her escapism of identity, racial barriers she dealt with as a Black supermodel, until her untimely passing in 1979 at the age of 33.
She was born Peggy Ann Freeman on August 31, 1945. Born & raised in Detroit, she gave herself the name Donyale Luna as a teenager. In 1963, the fashion photographer David McCabe was visiting Detroit on assignment when, outside the city’s famous Fisher Building, he spotted her— already nearly 6ft tall and with her trademark willowy frame — in her plaid Catholic-school uniform on her way to a rehearsal.
As he tells it, he felt compelled to let her know that if she was ever interested in modeling, she should come to Manhattan and he would help her.
As a teen, she attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit, where she studied journalism, performing arts & languages. She was in the school choir, local community theatre, & the experimental Concept East Theater.
By her 19th birthday, a year later, she had decided to move to New York. This was during the autumn of 1964, just months after the Civil Rights Act was passed.
There were virtually no modeling opportunities for non-white faces anywhere other than dedicated African-American publications such as Ebony. Donyale Luna was a trailblazing yet often overlooked supermodel who broke barriers for models of color in the 1960s. Despite her monumental accomplishments, Luna's pioneering work as an African American model has been largely forgotten.
She was one of one. Even with the adversities & hardships she faced as a black model, she was a torchbearer for black women who came after her.
Donyale Luna 🦋✨️💐
(August 31, 1945 – May 17, 1979)
