VOGUE CHALLENGE BUT MAKE IT ELUSIVE

BEYONCÊ IN SEPT 2018 VOGUE REDESIGNED AS AN ELSVMAG COVER. PHOTO BY TYLER MITCHELL

RIHANNA IN NOV 2018 VOGUE ARABIA REDESIGNED AS AN ELSVMAG COVER. PHOTO BY GREG KADAL.

Following what seems to be a trend of brands and companies feeding into the Black Lives Matter movement, particularly making note their lack of inclusion or diversity or even using this time to “seem aware of the issues” that as a whole can exclude Black creatives.

With Anna Wintour - Artistic Director of Conde Nast & Editor-In-Chief of Vogue Magazine; commenting on the discriminatory culture and taking "full responsibility" for not hiring enough Black creatives while acknowledging the hurt and pain Vogue employees of color must be feeling during this time, the response seemed to fuel that it wasn’t enough. With overseeing Vogue; some feels she could’ve done more and to simply say “Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators” lends itself to the discriminatory culture and systemic racism that has been engrained in America.

Now enters the #VogueChallenge, a trend where Black and POC lend their talents to creating their own Vogue color; speaking to the lack of brown models of color gracing the cover.

How hard is it really to add diverse creatives behind the scenes and on the covers? With this - and as a creator; I have two takeaways - the creator creating to be showcased and accepted within a publication that blindly excludes until its trendy and the power that diverse creators have (somewhat disconnect and widespread) but together can push its own brand and publication that uplifts and recognizes the talent held, giving creatives opportunities to take chances, giving creatives space and the freedom to create for themselves and not to fit in to these spaces that were built to exclude.

Enter ELSV, created out of being excluded from a number of spaces and even at times to showcase that I can produce at a level such as Vogue, GQ, T Magazine, WSJ Magazine etc. Once the building began, the experience of creating just to create and for yourself took over. Its something about working with creatives with the same mindset, that wants to create just to create, removing the stipulation of trying to fit into some box for the sake of checking a box of inclusion so brands can say well we have one or we had models of color and so on. Even with the challenges of being an independent publication, there isn’t anything like having a safe space of your own. So with rebranding, taking risks and never giving up, ELSV still remains a project hard to let go especially in all of its elusiveness.

CIARA IN FAULT ISSUE 31 REDESIGNED FOR ELSVMAG. PHOTO BY IRVIN RIVERA.

ELIJAH BLAKE MOCK ELSV COVER