Jourdan Dunn's boyfriend jailed

Sigh.

Why couldn't he just be a nice young man?

The news broke this weekend that Jourdan Dunn's boyfriend (and the father of her two month old son) has been jailed for three years for selling coke.

Weirdly enough his name is Jordan too - Jordan Cummings a 20 year old from  North London.

British tabloid The Sun broke the story, with one unnamed source saying of Cummings:

The police kicked down his front door when they arrested him.

He's well-known on the streets as a dealer. He's been dealing since he was a teenager, and makes about £1,000 a week. He and Jourdan are always out and have been together about five years - though I've never heard marriage mentioned.

Damn.

First look @ Jourdan Dunn's return

[caption id="attachment_2068" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Hat tip to blogger Beauty is Diverse for the tip and pic!"][/caption]

Ok, so the wait is over!

Jourdan Dunn's first show post-pregnancy was the Aquascutum show today at London Fashion Week ... and here she is!

They covered up her body a bit - not sure if that is deliberate or not since looking at her face, it is evident she does still have a bit of the baby weight.

We hope this is the first of several shows we will see her in this season!

JOURDAN'S BAAA-AACK!

Can you tell we're excited?!

One of our favourite islandistas walking the fashion runways, Jourdan Dunn is set to be back in action for London Fashion Week, after being out for a good part of last year when she was pregnant.

Jourdan delivered her first child, a baby boy in December and now she is set to make her return in her home city.

The showcard above surfaced a few days ago on models.com, sending the fashion pack into a frenzy of anticipation for the return of the islandista who was Britain's model of the year in 2008.

And then the story broke in the mainstream press with New York Magazine and British Vogue reporting her imminent return.

According to the gossip on fashion forum The Fashion Spot, she was sighted at a Russell Marsh casting and folks have been speculating about which of the shows he casts will she appear in - guesses right now are on Richard Nicoll, Chris Kane, Jaeger and Jonny Saunders and Prada.

Yay! Welcome back Jourdan! We sure missed you!

Model behaviour: Naomi for Haiti, Jeneil's nude cover & more

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Islandista born and descended models have started 2010 as busy as they were in 2009.



The queen of them all, Brit-yaadie Naomi Campbell has been working hard at putting together her annual Fashion for Relief show, which will benefit Haiti this year.

She is teaming up with Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the show which will take place during London Fashion Week.

Thus far, Naomi has brought on fashion friends Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood for the event which takes place on February 18th.

She was out and about this week doing interviews and photo calls for the event.

Say what you want about Naomi (and yes, there is nuff to say) but her heart is as big as her temper. She has always worked hard for charity causes.

In more islandista model news, fellow Jamaican models Jeneil Williams and Jaunel McKenzie are going hard for 2010 - already. More on their blazing start to 2010 when you read on.

Jourdan Dunn in i-D spread

She might be getting ready to give birth any day now (her son is due in December) but our girl, islandista supermodel Jourdan Dunn is still staying in the spotlight, thanks to several pre and early-photo shoots she did this year.

The latest one to be unveiled is a spread in the winter issue of i-D magazine, titled Prince Charming.

In it, Jourdan is showcasing the work of Roland Mouret (he of the ubiquitous Galaxy dress) in a black and white feature photographed by Kerry Haillihan and styled by Edward Enninful.

And she looks spectacular. Check some of the pics below.

[caption id="attachment_1803" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Photo credit: Kerry Hallihan/i-D magazine"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1804" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Photo credit: Kerry Hallihan/i-D magazine"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1805" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Photo credit: Kerry Hallihan/i-D magazine"][/caption]

Preggers Jourdan Dunn walks for Jean Paul Gaultier

Even though she's six months' pregnant, Jourdan Dunn still made an appearance during Paris Fashion Week over the weekend - walking in the always hotly anticipated Jean Paul Gaultier show.

Dunn made an appearance in an outfit that was JPG-redux - a bronze conical bra a la Madonna in the 80s, but this time, updated with a belly pad for her  baby bump!

Check out the pics below.

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Islandistas out and about - Jourdan, Selita and ... Foxy?

[caption id="attachment_1504" align="alignleft" width="259" caption="Photo credit: Fashionologie"][/caption]

  She might be big pregnant but that is not stopping our favourite islandista model Jourdan Dunn, from making the scene during the Spring/Summer 2010 fashion season.



 

First, she was made an appearance for Vogue's big event, Fashion's Night Out in London and then she made it over to New York City for Fashion Week there and hung out  on the front rows and backstage with friends like Sessilee Lopez.

And now she's popping up at her hometown's own, London Fashion Week, taking in the Top Shop Unique(above) and Issa shows (below).

 

And it looks like pregnancy agrees with Jourdan as she is looking mighty perky in the cleavage department nowadays, especially in that Issa maxi dress.

Other islandistas have been out and about recently.

Caymanian Selita Ebanks made an appearance at the New Yorkers for Children charity ball last night in a gorrrr-geous yellow J. Mendel gown.

And on the less than fab side, Trini-descended former jailbird and (former?) rapper Foxy Brown surfaced at the VH1 Hip Hop Honours last night. Looking ... like this.

What precisely is going on here? Nobody could have told her this was cute. Damn it, Foxy.

Islandista Fashion Notes - Fashion Night Out & Alex Burke's saucy dress

Oh islandistas, so much is happening right now in the world where islandistaness (yeh, just made it up), and fashion intersect, that we can scarcely keep up!

New York Fashion Week is on like boil corn and you know we will be giving you the news from the runways and red carpets.

And of course... the parties. Vogue did it big like only they can last night when they hosted the global Fashion Night Out (FNO) - a night of retail therapy, model mingling and retail recovery in every city and country where Vogue is published.

Naturally, some of our fashionista islandistas made appearances at various FNOs - Rihanna and Estelle were spotted at events for the New York City FNO while supermodel preggy Jourdan Dunn was at the London FNO.

Oh Ri-Ri, what have you done? Fools in the club are still stumbling around wearing those Kanye West shutter shades all two years after the 'Stronger' music video - now you give them this?

Jourdan Dunn 'in' and out of Fashion Week

For a brief moment, it looked like Jourdan Dunn, who is five months pregnant, would be walking the runway at the upcoming New York Fashion Week for the Spring/Summer '10 collections.

The news flew across the internet yesterday afternoon and this morning, when Models.com posted a picture of Jourdan's card, which was included among those for the season.

Fashionologie picked up on it and included the tidbit in a mixer post and then New York Magazine picked up on it from there and off it went, causing a temporary spike of excitement and speculation among fashionistas.

But ... it was all for nought.

Turns out Jourdan will not be walking this season. By 11 a.m. this morning, a rep from her agency Women agency, confirmed that Jourdan will not be appearing in any of the shows.

Move along folks! Nothing to see here...

Rihanna in blackface & Islandistas on I-D cover

Islandistas are all over the place for the September round of fashion magazines.

Islandistas Jourdan Dunn and Arlenis are featured on the cover of the September issue of I-D magazine, along with fellow models of colour Chanel Iman and Sessilee Lopez in a historic all-black cover.

Jourdan, who is five months pregnant (reportedly with a boy), spoke about her baby's father, the pressures on minority models and how she has finally become comfortable with not having the type of body prized in the Afro-Caribbean community.

About her boyfriend:

My boyfriend didn't even know I was a model when I started going out with him and we've been together for three years now. It's hard, you never really know whether people want to be around Jourdan or Jourdan Dunn, and he's been there from when I was just Jourdan.

About her body:

“I’m starting to feel more secure in who I am now. Being from an Afro-Caribbean family, being black, skinny, isn’t really acceptable in that community; it’s all about having curves and stuff.... That’s why I’ve never been comfortable with my body until now, when I realize I can say this is who I am, I’m healthy, I’ve always liked to eat, and I’m now happy enough in my own skin to not give a fuck what anyone says about me any more.

About the pressures on black models:

There are loads of black models working and the idea that there's only a few of us, or four of us, to let in as top models at any one time is just bullsh*t. It creates an unnecessary competition when we should be standing together.

True talk Jourdan. Pity Naomi didn't recognise this back in the day and was so mean to Tyra.

In other islandista fashion magazine news, we have more pics from Rihanna's shoot for the couture supplement of Vogue Italia.

And... we're on the fence about it.

Jourdan Dunn confirms pregnancy

Jourdan Dunn has confirmed what we reported a few days back - she is indeed pregnant.

In an interview with Vogue.co.uk, Jourdan said she was excited about motherhood:

"I'm really looking forward to the future and having my baby... I'm lucky - I'm feeling really well. I'm healthy and happy!"

Vogue also reported that the father is Jourdan's boyfriend of many years and that Jourdan plans to continue working between London and New York after the baby's birth in December.

Jourdan Dunn is pregnant!

[caption id="attachment_1288" align="alignleft" width="234" caption="Photo credit: David Sims"][/caption]

...Or so says Vogue magazine, which casually dropped this bombshell on the fashion public with a piece on Style.com titled 'Expecting in Style : What the pregnant Jourdan should wear this fall'.

New York Magazine's nymag.com followed it up by stating that apparently Dunn is four months pregnant and is due in December.

Whoa.

We're feeling a bit conflicted about this news here at islandista.

On the one hand, Jourdan is an adult - 19 years old. And British women do tend to have children earlier.

But on the other hand ... 19 is still pretty young. And Jourdan's career has just been hitting some amazing highs in the last year. To take a break off from the scene at this point in time could hurt her momentum.

I feel a bit as if a little sister or cousin has done something that you just know could change her life in a big way and you are a bit scared that she's going to have to grow up so much more quickly.

But of course, having been a model since she was discovered at 15, Jourdan has probably grown up quite quickly in recent years and is no doubt more mature than other 19 years old.

Sigh....


Lord knows we love us some Jourdan here at islandista so all we can do is wish our favourite islandista supermodel all the best.

You better WORK! - Islandista models making moves

Islandista models Jourdan Dunn and Arlenis Sosa seem to be taking RuPaul's legendary advice to heart - "you better WORK!"

And work they are, both figuratively and literally.

In the last month, the two have racked up four major ad campaigns for boldface names - Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, Lancome and Maybelline.

First Jourdan was featured in an ad for YSL's La Nuit de L'homme fragrance, seductively sniffing the actor Vincent Cassel.



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Then she was featured in the ad for Calvin Klein's CK fragrance.

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Arlenis, who is the face of Lancome, shot some more ads for the brand as well. See them below.

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And thennnnn, this pic popped up this week of Jourdan on the set of the shoot for her upcoming ad campaign for Maybelline.

Fantastic. I am so heartened to see the next generation of islandista models getting some serious all-round work. It is one thing to rule the runways as Jourdan has been doing but everyone knows the real money and security is in the ad campaigns.

Islandistas at the Met Costume Institute Ball ... at last!

Shame on us - look how long we promised to bring you our take on the Met Costume Institute Ball and we're only now getting to it!

Trust, it has been a hectic week islandista-wise and other stories kept pushing our Met review further and further back.

So now, without further ado, here are some of the islandistas who graced (or in Naomi's case, was supposed to grace) the Met's Costume Institute Ball.

Rosario Dawson was as gorgeous and on point as ever in her coral column gown. I feel like she could have gone a little more high fashion though - the dress was pretty but it was not a standout on a night like that.



Model Arlenis Sosa was in an Alberta Ferretti dress with black booties. Maybe it's the picture, but this dress is not doing for me on Arlenis. You can barely notice the beautiful thread-like material of the dress and it just looks a bit shapeless on her.

 

One of our our favourite islandista models out there, Jourdan Dunn was fab in a gun-metal grey gown.

And Naomi Campbell did not actually show up to the Met Costume Institute Ball. There was a bit of a kerfuffle when her designer and long time friend Azzedine Alaia pulled the seven dresses he had made for the gala, after finding out that his work was not going to be in the exhibition. Alaia had made dresses for seven models including Naomi's fellow 'supers' Linda Evangelista and Stephanie Seymour. Campbell's spokesperson said:

As Naomi has been the muse of Azzedine Alaïa for 23 years, she feels she doesn’t want to attend unless she can represent his work.

However, Alaia did have a post-ball party and Naomi wore this aqua Alaia mini. We are ... not too certain about this dress. It fits beautifully and the colour is great but it reminds us of a mermaid. A very hot, statuesque, fierce mermaid, no doubt but it is still making us hum 'Disney's Under De Sea' very softly.

Everything's better, everything's wetter...

Under de Sea!

An islandista conundrum - Jourdan Dunn and tokenism in Milan

So anyone reading this blog would know that we here at Islandista   Jourdan Dunn. We really do. We love how she's both fierce and gazelle-like, we love that she freely admitted she wished she had a big bamsy when she was younger and we love her refreshing frankness on the paucity of black models in high fashion.

So we are torn... torn we tell you! at her recent success on the catwalk and what it means. On the one hand, Jourdan has been tearing it up - from Vogue and Elle editorials to dominating New York, London and Milan's Fashion Weeks thus far. And we love it.

However it is her dominance of Milan Fashion Week that raises yet again the troubling question of race in fashion for Jourdan was often the token black on the runways at the recently concluded Milan Fashion Week.

[caption id="attachment_755" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Lonellly... I'm so lonnelly... on my own... Jourdan Dunn was the sole black model at Etro's Fall RTW show during Milan Fashion Week. (photo credit: Marcio Madeira for style.com)"][/caption]

 

New York Magazine pointed it out in a much-commented on piece last week, noting:

NY Fashion week gets it : black is the new black

Let's hope we're not putting our mouth on the fashion industry by speaking too quickly but it finally seems like the message of diversity is getting through to the fashion types. Maybe it's the Obama effect, as the NY Times put it, (or as Tracy Morgan  more succintly put it: "black is the new president, bitch!") but the recently concluded New York Fashion Week was far more colourful than any in recent times.

[caption id="attachment_704" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Islandista Jourdan Dunn was one of the big winners, walking in 20+ shows and opening for both old guard designers such as Oscar de la Renta (pictured) and new guard designer Jason Wu, who famously designed First Lady Michelle Obama's inauguration ball gown"][/caption]

Jezebel did an exhaustive (seriously, that must have been time consuming- really got to large them up for taking the time to go through all of the pics on style.com and break it down- whew!) study of the week and concluded that some 18% of the spots in fashion shows were given to models of colour. Their analysis:

There were 116 labels that held shows at the recently ended New York fashion week; that's 3,697 spots in runway and presentation lineups. Of those, 668 were given to models of color — which, at just over 18%, is 6% better than one year ago. (And certainly better than in the fall of 2007, when WWD reported that one-third of the New York shows used no models of color at all.)

They even did graphs breaking down the race of the models of colour used. Of that number, 41% were black, 36% were Asian and 22% Latina, with 1% being other ethnicities.

While this is no where close to being an accurate representation of the racial composition of the United States, which is 26% non-white, it is encouraging progress so let's give credit where credit is due.

Now, it's on to Milan Fashion Week, which, while known for being very vanilla, also produced the iconic all-black Italian Vogue. So here's hoping...

US Vogue hearts Jourdan?

Jourdan Dunn is continuing her domination of the fashion pages with yet another appearance in the February edition of US Vogue. Yes, that would make back-to-back appearances in the fashion bible - is this really a sign of change we can believe in? Say it's so, Anna!

She is in the Steven Meisel feature 'It's a Madcap World' showcasing witty and modern interpretations on the fashion of the 1930s. 

[caption id="attachment_516" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Photo source: http://Sansartifice.com"][/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_522" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Photo source: http://sansartifice.com"][/caption]

And speaking of supermodel islandistas, Naomi Campbell has settled with the most recent maid who accused her of assault back in 2006.

Her lawyer said:

"Everybody's happy with the way it ended and everybody's happy that it's over."

Oh Naomi ... we still love you. Our advice to you - you clearly need help that can stand up to you so get a maid from your parents' native island of Jamaica. Preferably one born and raised in one of Kingston's meanest garrisons. Bet you won't try hitting her then.

Jourdan Dunn conquers US Vogue and French Elle

So yuh know that our favourite islandista fashionista Jourdan Dunn is still running tings in 2009.

Fresh from her Model of the Year victory at the British Fashion Awards at year end, she has landed two major, major magazine appearances to start the year -  a spread in the January edition of US Vogue magazine, alongside Chanel Iman and the cover of French Elle.

Check out her shots from the Vogue spread below.

 

[caption id="attachment_484" align="aligncenter" width="284" caption="Photo credit: David Sims via fashion junkii"][/caption]

 

 



[caption id="attachment_489" align="aligncenter" width="276" caption="Photo credit: David Sims via fashion junkii"][/caption]

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Now while we can see clearly through US Vogue's clunky attempt at finally getting with the 21st century and acknowledging that black has been in style from when, Jourdan is so damn fierce  and bad to rhatid that we are almost willing to overlook the obviousness of their attempt. The world has a black US president now - time to get with it Vogue - tokenism will not do in '09!

As she continues to blaze, Jourdan has also made it onto the cover of French Elle's December issue. Check it out below.

[caption id="attachment_491" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Photo source: Make Fetch Happen"][/caption]

And we have finally been able to pin down which island Jourdan's family hails from - though if we had studied the last name, it should have given us a hint cos Dunn is a pretty yaadie surname and sure enough she is of Jamaican descent, as is mentioned very obliquely in this Sunday Observer profile on her.

Dunn named Model of the year and Rihanna publicist drama

Hurray! One of our favourite 'nuh tek back nuh chat' islandistas - British model Jourdan Dunn, won the Model of the Year award at the British Fashion Awards two nights ago.

[caption id="attachment_418" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Jourdan Dunn (style.com)"][/caption]

Just 18, Dunn was spotted two years ago in Primark (our kind of girl!) and has swiftly risen to the top - an all the more remarkable feat when you consider (as we have discussed ad nauseum on this blog) the still glaring lack of black models on the fashion scene.

Pretty amazing too when you consider that Dunn doesn't hold her tongue and make folks feel it's alright. After all, this is the girl who said:

"London's not a white city... so why should our catwalks be so white? I go to castings and see several black and Asian girls, then I get to the show and look around there's just me and maybe one other coloured face."

Congrats from Islandista!

In other islandista news, some publicist named Jonathan Hay has claimed ... nay boasted that he is the one behind the ugly Rihanna/Jay-Z affair rumours that swirled around the Barbadian pop star at the start of her career and still track her.

According to Hay, he did it on behalf of a producer friend Vada Nobles who was the man behind Rihanna's first hit 'Pon De Replay' so as to build buzz and interest around Rihanna and the song.

According to Hay:

At first nobody seemed to really feel the song so I started a publicity campaign single-handedly. The whole idea behind the campaign was to get Vada Nobles out there as a producer so that ultimately people would forget about his past lawsuit and conflict with Lauryn Hill on her album the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

 Anyway, I sent the song to Jennifer Vineyard, my contact at MTV. She did me a favor and broke the story on Rihanna, “Pon De Replay” and Vada Nobles. Along with one of my partners, I then began to fabricate stories of Rihanna and Jay-Z, leaking false rumors to tabloids, working internet message boards, etc. We started to get an insane amount of media coverage very fast. There are so many things we did that people don’t even know about, not even Rihanna herself. She was completely unknown and I was paid by Vada Nobles to generate publicity. The mega Island Def Jam deal rumor, we fluffed and fabricated. Rihanna and Vada had no idea what I was doing behind the scenes, but my whole agenda was to get media for the song.

He goes on to say that "Rihanna had nothing to do with any of that nor did she know what we were doing. I was just trying to break the single and stay employed" and says he feels "awful" and looking back is "ashamed" because "there was zero integrity in that maneuver".

But he freely admits that "I was only thinking about the end result... gossip sells and even goes on to boast that "it worked" because "every artist needs a launching pad and there is nothing better than a good scandal to get the public's attention."

Hm. We all know how insidious the publicity game can be in showbiz and that things like this are not below publicists. But to start such a vicious rumour about a 16 year old girl without her even knowing? That is wrong.

Islandistas in Italian Vogue's all-black issue

(photo credit: New York magazine)

So every fashionista worth a damn has been buzzing about Italian Vogue's all-black issue which came out this week.

We all know how hard it is to find women of colour in the fashion industry - whether on the runways or in the editorials. And there has been a lot of debate and hand-wringing about it in recent times. Everyone agrees it's terrible but no-one quite seems to know where to point the finger... perhaps because they are trying to make sure it's not aimed at them. Is it the editors? Is it the designers? Is it the advertisers? Is it the readers?

Anyhow, Italian Vogue editor Franca Sozzani and photographer Steven Meisel got together and decided now was the perfect time to make a real statement about this. Sozanni was fascinated by the candidacy of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama (can we claim him as an islandisto since he was born in Hawaii? :) I mean it's not the Caribbean but still...) and Meisel had long been frustrated with running up against brick walls when he would push black models for shoots.

So they did the damn thing with several islandistas making the cut. Naomi Campbell (of Jamaican parentage) of course led the charge, as one of four models on the fold-out front cover. Fellow Brit and suspected islandista by extraction (I am so sure this girl is of Caribbean parentage or grand parentage - black, British, with an Anglo last name? Sounds like a West Indian to me but being that she's relatively new on the scene I have not found any confirmation as yet) Jourdan Dunn is also featured on the cover.

Jamaican model Jeneil Williams (of Caribbean fashion powerhouse Pulse) is on the inside.

Personally, I think the editors of American, British and French Vogue in particular should HANG THEIR HEADS in shame that the editor of Italian Vogue beat them to this. After all, Italy has a black population of less than 1% whereas the USA, the UK and France all have significant black populations. Why should Italian Vogue have been the first one to confront this ugly issue when these editions all have much larger black populations?