Beverly Johnson

"For generations in this country, beauty was traditionally represented by three very distinct ideals in virtually all media: blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin...My cover shattered that notion forever….Women of color could boldly say to the world, ‘Hey, look at me! I’m here and I have value and I am beautiful.'"

"…I tell them the funny stories of the models trying to knock me off of the runway. They are laughing and giggling. I get them. Then we do a fashion show. I get them walking and strutting, and we have fun. Not only is it a fashion show, but we also talk about who they are and what they wish for. I’ll ask an 11-year-old girl to give me one of three wishes, and she’ll say, “That my mother believes me.” Heartbreaking. I would imagine it’s stemmed from some of the altercations in my life with abuse. I always tell them that I get more out of this than they do."

"I believe that every culture contributes to fashion. But, I do remember Polly Mellen telling me, 'You know where we got hot pants from? We used to go up to Harlem and we would just look at what all the community people were wearing.'"

"At my moment, there was always a token black person. And in the ’70s I became that token black person. It brings out the worst in people when they think there’s only one spot, where for everyone else there are lots of spots."