Donyale Luna

01 / The Detroit story

The Detroit story

Luna was born Peggy Ann Freeman in Detroit in 1945. She attended the Detroit High School of Commerce and Cass Technical High School, where she studied languages and performing arts, acted in local theater productions and hung around the coffeehouses near Wayne State University dressed in black and often barefoot. She later said that back in Detroit she was not considered beautiful. In 1963 the English photographer David McCabe, in town on an assignment for Ford, spotted her near the Fisher Building and urged her to try New York. She moved there in 1964, appeared as an illustration on the cover of Harper's Bazaar in 1965 and in 1966 became the first Black model on the cover of British Vogue. Photographed by Richard Avedon, David Bailey and Helmut Newton, she also became a Warhol Factory star and appeared in Fellini's Satyricon. She died of a heroin overdose in Rome in 1979, aged 33, and is now honored as a pioneer who opened doors for Black models.

Highlights

1. First Black model on the cover of British Vogue (1966)
2. First Black model on a Harper's Bazaar cover, as an illustration (1965)
3. Discovered near the Fisher Building in 1963
4. Attended Cass Technical High School
5. Appeared in Warhol films and Fellini's Satyricon (1969)