Written by Serena Hambrick, Staff reporter.

Donyale Luna, a forgotten historical figure in the fashion industry and someone who forever broke down the racial barrier in modeling, has a different life story than the black supermodels we know and love. 

Although Donyale was a pioneering supermodel, she often faded into the background of Black history within the fashion realm, with many people seeing models like Naomi Sims, Beverly Johnson, Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks as the trailblazers for black women in fashion, but Donyale opened the door for all of them. 

As a lanky girl who grew to be an astounding 6’3 from Detroit, growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s she was seen as odd and weird, especially amongst the Black community. However, by 1963 her lanky yet strikingly beautiful appearance caught the eye of British fashion photographer David McCabe, who essentially scouted her. Then her modeling career began in New York and Europe. 

By January 1965, she made history as the first Black model to appear on the cover of Harper‘s Bazaar, although it was only an illustration of her versus a photograph. In March of 1966, she made history again as the first Black model to be on the cover of any iteration of Vogue Magazine, appearing on the cover of the British magazine. Throughout the 60s she worked with top designers of the day like Valentino, Mary Quant and Yves Saint Laurent and parlayed that experience into acting in the European cinema in the 1970s. 

Although she was a pioneering Black woman during the Civil Rights era, Donyale Luna often tried to distance herself from her Blackness. When she was asked what she was or where she was from, she would always say she was mixed with various ethnicities like Polynesian, Indian, Mexican, etc. to take away from her being Black.  

She lived through an identity crisis. Essentially, she was outcast and made to feel different by the Black community. Growing up and entering the dominant white modeling world and European scene,  she lost track of who she was. She also got caught up in that counterculture of drugs and died by age 33 of a heroin overdose in 1979. 

As time moved on, Donyale’s legacy to fashion faded immensely up until recently, when many people have taken a keen interest in her life as well as her intriguing look and photographs. 

 In September of 2023, Max released a documentary titled “Donyale Luna: Supermodel.” The documentary chronicled her early life in Detroit, her groundbreaking modeling career and ultimately her final days. 

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.