Naomi Campbell and Essence Magazine Create 50th Anniversary Fashion History

The Essence Magazine achieve a milestone as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Essence Brand which has served as a pillar in the black community for 5 decades. In honor of Essence’s milestone year, supermodel Naomi Campbell graces the May/June issue in the first ever self shot and styled cover.

Due to the current pandemic, a lot of businesses and activities have been put on hold which has prompted indefinite work from home mandate and also travel restrictions.

The Essence Brand had a milestone to commemorate while it looked like the world was falling apart. Naomi Campbell and the editorial team of the Essence magazine rose to the occasion and created history in the process.

Naomi Campbell did her hair, make-up and styled herself and afterwards took the shots of what has now become the first ever Essence magazine cover shot entirely on an iPhone.

“It was a very special honor and unusual experience for me to be able to shoot and style my own cover for ESSENCE’s 50th anniversary issue. While it was a sad reminder for me of all the people in media and production who are not able to work due to the coronavirus, it also brought me hope and encouragement to know that our people and our infrastructures are resilient”, Naomi Campbell says.

The Chief Content and Creative Officer of Essence, MoAna Luu said that amidst the pandemic the importance of getting the issue completed was never lost. “Bringing this issue to life in the midst of a global pandemic represents everything that Black women are and illustrates how we will continue to show up for them in the best and worst of times, as we have done for the past five decades,” Luu said. “We are resilient and we wanted to show that resilience.

The same resilience that motivated our team to make this cover happen. The same resilience that resulted in Naomi and I relying on FaceTime to talk through how this shoot would be brought to life because I couldn’t be there with her in person. The same resilience that allowed us to close this issue while working entirely remote for the first time in our brand’s history.” “Naomi shot herself with  an iPhone,” Luu added. “We couldn’t send a team so, she had to do her hair, her makeup and her styling herself. We were on late night calls trying to figure out how she was going to do the shoot with her phone in her hand. Then, we had to do a re-shoot because the photos didn’t come out how we imagined. So, there were technical challenges, there were human challenges; but Naomi did it all without asking any questions, she never quit. What’s amazed me the most about working with Naomi to do this cover shoot during the pandemic is the way that she embraces the fact that she truly controls her own narrative. She’s never waited for people to do for her; she’s created her own opportunities. She’s been a pioneer in so many ways and now she’s a pioneer in ESSENCE history because she’s completely and literally controlling her own narrative in this issue from the cover to the in-book story.”

Entertainment Director, Cori Murray stated that with 20 years of experience under her belt with pulling off history making covers nothing has come close to this.

For Naomi Campbell this marks a moment she’ll never forget as she joins the nation in remaining hopeful and leaning into the resilience that brought us this far to carry on.