The July issue of VOGUE Italia is slated to hit newsstands in Europe next Thursday, making its way to international shelves in the weeks that follow. The issue's cover and inside photo spreads were shot by internationally praised photographer, Steven Meisel. Liya Kebede landed the sure to go down in history cover, while Sesilee Lopez, Jourdan Dunn and Naomi Campbell are featured in the fold out  Meisel’s photographs were given approximately 100 pages for his pictures of black models, while 50 pages of the magazine will investigate subjects which are related to black women in the realms of arts and entertainment.

While the photography is both ethereal and edgy, and the fashion world is a buzz with the concept of a major fashion publication focusing an entire issue to such an obvious, yet basic, prejudice, I am amazed at the praise that is being pushed forth onto VOGUE Italia editor-in-chief, Franca Sozzani. Cathy Horyn, of The New York Times interviews the style maven and fashion renegade, and in the exchange Sozzani seems humble, self-deprecating, well-spoken, and concerned. She emphasizes the importance of noticing the absence of diversity in fashion, in advertising, on the runways, and suggests the change will ignite passion and interest in high fashion and the world of super models again. Horyn questions her, asking, " Is there a risk the fashion world will just see it as something trendy?" Sozzani thoughtfully responds, "It could happen, and it would be a pity. Because, you know, it’s easier to do a normal issue. Paolo Roversi does a story, Craig McDean does another, and Steven Meisel another… I would feel very disappointed if this is only a nice moment. We should go forward."

Yet, it seems as though Horyn is quick to forget the mini-fiasco that followed a spread in the September issue, where a wealthy white woman was featured dripping in jewels in a hotel, while a black maid was left to pick up her dirty laundry. Horyn wrote a bit about the black model featured in the Italian mag, while the American VOGUE failed to represent anything but the wide-eyed, blonde Eastern Europeans. The New York Times and Horyn later issued a correction saying,

"An article last Sunday about the fashion industry's reticence to use black models referred incorrectly to a black woman in a maid's outfit pictured in the September issue of Italian Vogue. She was, in fact, a maid at the hotel where the pictures were taken, and was included, the Vogue photographer said, because of her attractiveness and her ability to underscore the pictures' theme of a stereotypical rich white woman who hires ethnic servants; the black woman was not a model dressed as a maid."

It is as though no one in the fashion world is able to remember Sozzani's inclusion of a social hierarchy that still leaves the black woman lower than that of the white woman. I suppose one could still celebrate Sozzani's inclusion of the "real" woman in the spread, that the photo of a non-model, non-white is still a step in the right direction. However, I am not sure that by portraying a black woman as the hired help and the white woman as the symbol of beauty, wealth, and power is a bold, progressive decision.

I still applaud Sozzani for deciding to publish the all-black July issue, and judging from the photos above, and the samples of the articles and editorials included in the issue, it will be spectacular. But, I think Sozzani is far from an arbiter of equality.