Inspiration: Joyce Walker-Joseph and Barbara Summers

Actress/Model Joyce Walker-Joseph

Author/Model Barbara Summers

Anyone who was a teenager in 1976 should remember these advertisements of Joyce Walker-Joseph and
Barbara Summers from the late '70s. As a teenager I remember them quite vividly because these two ladies were some of my favorite models and anything which featured Joyce on the cover was in my possession and still is. I was digging through my archives until two in the morning having no idea how late it was looking for certain magazines and came across these two photos. I read all the time about women looking for inspiration in women who resembles them in the media, well I had these two women and a host of other's that I was elated to see featured in mainstream publications. It's different today because the imagery that their now selling is that of the unattainable...basically the look of someone else.

The Seventeen magazines featuring Joyce and Whitney Houston were some of their #1 Bestsellers.

I went out and bought that carved rose necklace and earrings that Barbara was wearing because I wanted to look like her. My friend and I copied the whole look from the makeup to the Afro.Today Joyce works as an theater actress and is an activist. Barbara Summers is a highly noted author and historian, especially of the fashion industry with several well known books in publication. Skin Deep:Inside the World of Black Fashion Models is a large coffee table-book that has it's place alongside my other fashion books and is deffinitely worth a read.