David Shankbone, CC BY 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons
Beauty is not simply biology. While numerous books and articles have found common traits across human beings that suggest we find certain things more attractive than others, studies have also shown that beauty is largely culturally determined. When you live in a society that is sexist, racist, ageist, etc., that impacts what we are trained to see as beautiful from the moment we are born. When Veronica Webb became the first Black American supermodel to have a major cosmetics contract, it showed beauty in a new light to us all.
Webb was born on February 25, 1965, to Marion and Leonard Webb of Detroit, Michigan; her mother was a doctor, while her father was an electrician. Webb and her two sisters all had drive and intelligence, though each took different paths in life. Webb was attracted to both the fashion industry and the models she saw in print and on screen, but she also loved comic books. The two fields are not unrelated; both are about creating a new image of the world or for the individual through artistry.
Webb was able to attend the Detroit Waldorf School, one of the first integrated schools in Detroit but also a private school. The grades covered in the school have changed over the years, but when Webb was attending it seems to have included high school as well. She had great artistic talent, so at just 15 years old, she moved to Los Angeles to study for half a year at the Otis Institute of the Parsons School of Design. After graduation, she went to New York City to study design at The New School, Parsons School of Design. She was discovered by a trio of folks in the fashion industry while Webb was working in a housewares boutique. At that point, Webb turned her ambition toward modeling in 1984.
At 5’10”, Webb fit the slender tall ideal for the fashion industry. She was quickly signed by Click Model Management, Inc., which was fairly new, created in just 1980, but they got her working fast. She spent two years in Paris working with various magazines and as a runway model for different fashion designers. She became particularly tied to Azzedine Alaïa, a Tunisian designer known for building clothes around women, not merely to hang on models. Parisian high fashion was all about glamor, and the makeup routines consumed a great deal of a model’s daily time. That didn’t really appeal to Webb, so in 1986 she returned in New York City and signed with the Ford Agency, one of the most powerful modeling companies in the world.
Even with Ford behind her, Webb figured that her race would keep her from the major contracts, even though she had regular work on the runway. She clearly saw other Black models failing to land cosmetics and fashion contracts that routinely went to white models. Webb turned toward other aspects of the fashion industry and wrote an occasional column for Paper, a now-defunct Manhattan fashion magazine. Slowly she introduced topics that went beyond fashion, such as abortion rights, AIDS, birth control for teenagers, and sexual harassment. By 1990, the magazine hired her as a monthly columnist. That led to her getting assignments to write for Elle, an interview magazine where she not only wrote about subjects but did interviews with movers and shakers across society. By 1990, Webb was able to take some acting jobs as she continued to be a model, columnist, and interviewer.
Webb’s rise to supermodel status was not a forgone conclusion. She has dealt with melasma, a common skin discoloration condition, since she was a child, and it worsened over the years. In 1992, Webb signed to become one of the faces of Revlon and broke the color barrier. While in 2021, we may think of cosmetics companies as showing women of all different skin shades, that simply was not true until Webb’s contract. To be fair to Revlon, the company was seeking a face for their new line of products for Black consumers, but they also wanted someone who could be more than just a face; Webb’s writing and outspokenness on social and health issues probably gave her the advantage over other models.
Webb herself claims that she has never written about subjects or taken jobs to be a role model, but to live her true self, to do the things that empower her and let her exercise her talents and skills. However, she also values that her work has made her an icon and an example of what Black women can achieve.
Webb has been married twice: first to George Robb, Jr., a marine archeologist, from 2002 to 2009, with whom she has two children (Leila and Orpheus). In 2013, she married Christopher Dean Del Gatto. Webb is still considered a fashion icon with a personal style worth praising. She is a member of the Black Girls Coalition, which tries to increase and maintain gains made in the fashion and cosmetics industry as well as a member of Planned Parenthood, which focuses on reproductive rights and healthcare. Other organizations she actively supports include LIFEbeat, focused on sexual health, Product Red, which supports research to fight HIV and AIDS, and RPM Nautical Foundation with her ex-husband George Robb. She also has a website where she discusses beauty, fashion, and sometimes lifestyle issues. In 2020, she used her Instagram account to show the world what she naturally looks like with melasma.