Skin Deep: The Story of Black Models in America and Abroad
by Barbara Summers

Black models are living proof that beauty is more than skin deep.Skin Deep brings readers face to face with some of the most beautiful women in the world: Black models. For the past 50 years they have redefined beauty, fashion, and style in dramatic ways. Each era would exalt its star models: Dorothea Towles, Helen Williams, Naomi Sims, Beverly Johnson, Iman, Naomi Campbell, and Tyra Banks, among them. Less well known are the many other talented, elegant women who enjoyed careers as well. At every level of achievement, however, they all confronted challenges testing their courage, endurance, and integrity.How they succeeded - and sometimes failed - is thecompelling essence of
Skin Deep.Only an insider could tell the story of Black models with the authenticity it deserves. Barbara Summers, a Ford model for 17 years, spent a decade interviewing dozens of models and fashion professionals on three continents to record their experiences. With insight and flair, she gives voice to familiar faces. With an artist’s eye, she pored over hundreds of images by the world’s most acclaimed photographers to select the more than 250 pictures that make this volume a landmark publication.Black models transformed the fashion industry.Popular culture around the world would never be the same again. Beyond advertisements for clothes and cosmetics, they projected visions of a far more precious but far less tangible product: freedom.