Instead of waking me up when September ends, wake me up when it begins.
And trust me when I say I was wide awake and through my third cup of coffee waiting for my September issue of Vogue. Why? Because this issue made history.
Anna Wintour, Vogue's editor-in-chief granted Beyoncé unprecedented control over this month's magazine release. This alone should be put in the fashion history books, mainly because Anna Wintour is known to have a tight grip on how her publication looks, what the models wear, as well as the literary content within the magazine.
Beyoncé's unprecedented control included say over her outfit on the cover, as well as the outfits worn within the publication and the captions that go with them. The main reason this issue made history though, is not because of the person on the cover, but because of the one behind it.
For the first time ever in Vogue's 126-year lifespan, a black photographer has been hired to shoot the cover.
Tyler Mitchell, a 23-year-old photographer who has shot for Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, has made it big by now shooting the cover for the September issue of Vogue. And it's all thanks to Beyoncé.
Well, it might be.
Even though the 36-year-old popstar had unprecedented control of several aspects of the spread, she didn't necessarily have the last say on other things, like the photographers. And according to Wintour in a comment to Business of Fashion, the "concept, and the photography was entirely Vogue's." Which we would love to believe is true and that the magazine is striving for diversification, but it leads us to the question of, "why now?"
And by that, I mean, why just now?
Considering it's 2018 and the publication has been around for 126 years, how come it's just now using a black photographer to shoot its cover? And it just so happens to be the issue when a black artist who was given unprecedented control?
Which also leads to the conclusion by many Vogue readers and fashion fans that Beyoncé's high influence and persuasion on the month's issue had a big part in convincing Wintour to OK Mitchell as the cover's photographer.
So maybe this diversification in photographers trend will catch on, and Wintour will consider using more black photographers in the future, but until then, we may never know.