The Most Groundbreaking Black Supermodel You’ve Never Heard Of

If Donyale Luna stepped onto the scene today, she would be an instant It Girl. An ethereal beauty over six feet tall with doe eyes and an otherworldly charisma, the model and actor was a muse of Salvador Dalí, a favorite of famed fashion photographer Richard Avedon, a collaborator of Federico Fellini, and a part of the glamorous group of art world iconoclasts that orbited Andy Warhol’s Factory in the ‘60s. Donyale Luna: Supermodel explores her life and influence via a trove of diary entries, archival footage, and interviews with those who knew Luna best. But unlike the supermodel documentaries of late, which detail the careers and legacies of various household names from Bethann Hardison to Naomi Campbell, this film seeks to explain to the viewer why exactly it is that they aren’t familiar with Luna, given that she was the first Black model to cover Vogue.

Celebrating their looks, loving clothes, and being athletic are not threatening to one another. The LSU superstars may be laying the groundwork for a new way for women to make money in sports.