It’s Time: Why Vogue Must Finally Be Led by a Black Woman by Darralynn Hutson

by Darralynn Hutson

I was sitting in a zoom conference call at Meredith (Dotdash) Publishing when the creative director turned to me and said, "We need something more urban for this section." The call went silent. I knew what she meant and why she asked me specifically and so did everyone else. What she was really saying was that the story needed a Black woman’s touch, but she couldn't bring herself to say it directly.

I cleared my throat. "Do you mean more diversity?" I asked.

"Well, yes," she said, shifting uncomfortably. "You know what I mean."

I did know. After 25 years as a Black woman in magazine journalism, I've sat through countless meetings where diversity was treated as a flavor to add, not a fundamental perspective that could reshape how we see beauty, culture and style. I've watched talented Black women be passed over for leadership roles while being told their time would come. I've seen brilliant editors relegated to covering "urban" fashion while our counterparts have the prestige of handling luxury beats.

It’s why I have spent more than 25 years as a Black woman in the trenches of fashion and culture journalism. I have pitched and fought for every inch of my career, while mentoring dozens of creatives and emerging journalists who carried that same yearning to simply be seen and heard. I know what it costs when our stories are not told, when our faces and bodies are emulated and emasculated at the same time. For Black women to be taken seriously in the glossy halls of magazine publishing, we need to lead the room, not just be in the room.

We are seeing a historic shift. Anna Wintour’s decision to step down from Vogue after four decades marks the beginning of one era. And it is long past time for that beginning to be shaped by the vision, brilliance, and cultural fluency of a Black woman.

I said what I said.

Think of how Vogue, the so-called fashion bible, has defined American taste for generations. It has crowned beauty ideals and creative genius from a single, mostly white vantage point. Yes, there have been nods to diversity. Yes, there have been Black models, Black cover stars, Black stylists, Black collaborators. But the decisions,  the ones that truly build power,  have never been in Black women’s hands. 

There is no shortage of Black women more than ready for the moment. Women like Chioma Nnadi, who has helped drive the Vogue brand forward globally. Women like Jamila Robinson, Elaine Welteroth, Lindsay Peoples Wagner, Jessica Cruel, Nikki Ogunnaike, Julee Wilson and Jessica Cruel, who have already proven they can steer bold, relevant, inclusive storytelling and still deliver the aspirational power that defines this industry.

It does matters who tells the stories. It matters who sits in the big chair. It matters who chooses whose voices get amplified and whose get silenced. And after centuries of Black women shaping style, culture, and imagination, but rarely holding the keys, there is no more excuse to ignore their rightful place at the very top.

For me, and for so many of my colleagues, journalism is a calling, an oath to tell the truth. And Black women have answered that call even when it cost them everything.

Vogue has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break open a future that so many of us have fought for. A future where a Black woman’s editorial vision is not a footnote, not a token, but the very heartbeat of the most influential fashion publication in the world.

Because we are not visitors to the culture. We are the culture. We have carried it on our backs, we have stitched it with our hands, we have dreamed it into existence from the runways to the cover lines.

Let us lead.