‘Supreme Models’ Director Marcellas Reynolds On Iman, Zendaya And Fashion History

If 2022 was the 12 months of as soon as once more recognizing the contributions of black fashions within the world vogue business, then 2023 is the 12 months the place “the time is come.” That’s a quote straight from supermodel Iman within the epic, six-part documentary collection “Supreme Models,” presently streaming on YouTube.

The docu collection, helmed by mannequin, stylist and writer Marcellas Reynolds and supermodel Iman, tells the complete story and historical past of black vogue fashions from the unique superstars of the Nineteen Seventies to the fashionable experts of 2022 who’re pushing the business to be extra open and sincere than ever. It options everybody from Zendaya and Veronica Webb to Joan Smalls, Valuable Lee, Regulation Roach and Anna Wintour. It’s the primary documentary to explicitly accomplish that.

And Reynolds intentionally selected to put it the place people can entry it without spending a dime.

“This is why I feel it is vital that this documentary is on YouTube,” explains Reynolds, whose first e book Supreme Models: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion, was the catalyst behind the documentary collection. “YouTube is world. It isn’t sitting behind the paywall. And anybody who’s serious about vogue of any age, any race, any creed, can watch the Supreme Fashions documentary without spending a dime. They do not need to pay $10.95 or nonetheless a lot Netflix or Hulu or HBO Max decides to make their month-to-month payment.”

This relative freedom of entry mimics the need for true vogue freedom mentioned within the doc collection, which has been considered over 8.1 million occasions since its October 2022 launch. (Every episode has multiple million views individually.) In it, Reynolds and Iman gathered dozens of business insiders – from journal editors to stylists to photographers and administrators to the fashions themselves – to debate the ups and downs of the recurring, close to white-out circumstances of vogue’s runways. The brief historical past is that this: Pre-90s have been a polka dotted, not-very-diverse panorama. The 90s have been a variety heyday. After that? Mainstream vogue week as soon as once more grew to become almost white.

This pattern – abruptly up and to the precise earlier than trending down once more – is one thing that should change for the higher and then stabilize. Reynolds posits that diversifying all features of the style business is sweet enterprise and in addition results in extra creativity and inclusivity. The documentary affords proof from insiders of the reality of those statements. However enterprise apart, the trail of those uber in style black fashions affords a basic underdog-to-success story that the majority viewers can both think about or empathize with.

“The issues that the Black mannequin goes by are the very same factor that the Black lady goes by in her on a regular basis life. Proper?” explains Reynolds. “[Skin] shade racism, the pure hair debate, sizeism, ageism…”

To that time, Vogue cowl star Valuable Lee takes centerstage in episode 6, the place she even sheds a tear whereas explaining what it means for a curvy black lady to attain cowl mannequin standing. And this solely after ladies like Iman and Naomi Campbell trailblazed and fought for inclusion for all fashions – not only for the “token black woman.”

“I like the second we’re creating,” explains Lee within the documentary. (She lately was featured in Vogue.) “I like doing issues that we haven’t seen. On the finish of the day it could simply be a photoshoot or it may be at timeless image that’s gonna stay endlessly.”

Explains Iman in episode one: “There’s nothing like a Black lady on the runway. There actually is nothing prefer it.”

And he or she would know.

These runway moments or these timeless photos that stay endlessly are those that historical past remembers, and they’re additionally those that impression popular culture. In fact, it additionally issues who takes the pictures and who selects the fashions, simply because it issues who turns into editor of the style magazines.

“Me and Regulation [Roach] speak on a regular basis. It’s not an absence of expertise, it’s an absence of alternative,” says Zendaya, who mentioned Beyonce’s 2018 Vogue cowl, which was photographed by Tyler Mitchell, who on the time was celebrated for being the primary black photographer to make a Vogue cowl within the journal’s 100+ 12 months historical past.

Within the documentary, Zendaya remains to be aghast that “this was simply” a couple of years in the past and we’re nonetheless saying the “first black” particular person achieved one thing for the primary time.

Provides Joan Smalls, additionally within the documentary: “It’s laborious to have a voice in an business the place they let you know shut up and look fairly.”

The fashions within the documentary all had rather a lot to say to push again on that sentiment. And, with out this pushback, the business would have remained far much less various than its present standing. They’ll’t sit again and simply “be fairly” when there may be a lot extra work to be accomplished, particularly in mild of 2020’s racial reckoning.

The doc is exceptional in that it’s a little bit of a watch opener – even for seasoned professionals. However they’ve to talk up – similar to Reynolds determined to do when creating the e book Supreme Fashions within the first place. It was a real labor of affection for the native Chicago mannequin, media character and stylist. He labored within the business and knew these ladies and knew their tales. He needed to create a e book that precisely pulled collectively all of the historical past that was not but written down so it evening be neatly collected in a single place. For posterity.

The Again Story

Reynolds is aware of the historical past of Black modeling just like the again of his hand.

He spouts off particulars and remembers covers and full shade spreads that have been the primary or the perfect or probably the most surprising or probably the most lovely. These are moments that may solely be remembered by people who have been there, or those that sat on the desk or have been within the room when it occurred.

“I imply, I all the time suppose again to Naomi Sims being on the duvet of Girls Dwelling Journal and the truth that at the moment, Girls Dwelling Journal had 14 million subscribers,” Reynolds explains. “Fourteen million folks [representing] each race acquired {a magazine} with a Black lady with pure hair on the duvet and darkish pores and skin. That modified all the things. It really opened the door to this concept {that a} Black lady may very well be celebrated for her magnificence, for her pure hair and her darkish pores and skin and the dimensions of her lips. And I feel that lineage continues, proper?”

He goes on.

“Whenever you see anyone like Peggy Dillard, who was the second Black lady on the duvet of American Vogue on the duvet of the journal, carrying her hair pure in an Afro. Otherwise you see Shari Belafonte who had a number of Vogue covers along with her pure brief cropped Afro. Range and inclusion are vital as a result of folks have to see themselves represented fantastically to counteract when they’re being advised that they don’t seem to be lovely. That is why we’d like variety and inclusion. We want constructive pictures of individuals, of all colours to counteract what’s all the time advised to us that we’re not lovely or particular.”

And we additionally have to doc it, lest folks overlook the historical past of what occurred.

“We’re in peril of individuals not understanding who Josephine Baker, Hattie McDaniel, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge are,” explains Reynolds. “And if they do not know who actresses are, they most likely don’t actually know who Helen Williams, Donyale Luna, Naomi Sims are. And should you stretch that out —should you stretch that out a decade from now—these folks could not know who Beverly Johnson is and who Iman is.”

He shivers in disgust at this inconceivable future.

“These books stand within the face of that.”

Behind the Scenes

Reynolds was in a position to persuade Iman to signal on to the undertaking after alerting her that nobody had accomplished such a all encompassing documentary earlier than. Iman signing on was a sport changer, as was Zendaya’s contribution. Webb, a very good good friend of Reynolds, helped as effectively. In reality, she wrote the foreward for his first e book. Nearly all of the documentary legwork had already been began with the success of the primary e book.

“Iman tells this story [about] once they approached [her] and it was was like, ‘Effectively, why would I do that? What do you carry it to the desk that is completely different than, than anyone else that is advised this story?’” Reynolds says. “And so they have been like, ‘Iman, no person has ever advised this story. There has by no means been a documentary about black fashions earlier than.’ And Iman was like, ‘you’re kidding? That was the factor that actually offered Iman on it.”

When Reynolds moved into the world of styling, he even tried out for Queer Eye for the Straight Man however didn’t get that function. He then poured his coronary heart and soul into engaged on his ardour undertaking Supreme Fashions and utilizing all his star energy to name up pals and colleagues like Bethann Hardison to place collectively the sparkly, indepth, 240-page tome. He then went on, in 2021, to publish Supreme Actresses: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Hollywood, which encompasses a plethora of the business’s biggest thespians.

Effectively-meaning insiders anticipated Reynolds to create a vogue/type e book, like many different insiders have accomplished. However Reynolds didn’t need to add to that early 2000s pattern, which noticed a plethora of how-to-get-dressed type books enter the pantheon for the would-be, at-home fashionista. From 2011 or so, he knew he would write a complete e book about supermodels.

That stated, Reynolds virtually went broke placing collectively his first e book, particularly after having to safe rights for the pictures he used. However Abrams took up the undertaking and his good friend and supermodel Veronica Webb wrote the ahead. The remainder is historical past now that Iman signed on as an government producer of the documentary, which took a couple of 12 months to place collectively.

Reynolds additionally has plans for a 3rd e book, which is coming quickly. In the meantime he does have some learnings he’s completely satisfied to share about making a doc collection from scratch and doing one thing sudden – and succeeding wildly at it.

“We as Black folks need to step into after we know what we’re speaking about, after we’re authorities,” he explains. “We’re so used to being checked by anyone else who does not know as a lot as we do, that we permit them to verify us or permit them energy that they do not need to wield. I am not doing that anymore in any space of my life. I am not doing that with my books. I am not doing that with my documentaries. I am not doing that as a stylist. I am not doing that as an individual. I am not doing that in my life.”

As 2023 opens up, Reynolds is able to shine the sunshine on the true type makers who’re creating historical past with each movie and each photograph.

“I am stepping totally into my energy as a author, a producer, a director, a historian, a humanitarian,” says Reynolds. “I am proudly owning it.”