Jourdan Dunn at Castle of Mey for Bazaar UK June 2024 Cover by Richard Phibbs AOC Fashion

Supermodel Jourdan Dunn made major fashion waves in February 2015, when she became the first woman of color since Naomi Campbell in August 2002 to cover British Vogue.

This week Jourdan Dunn owns a worldwide, fashion first; and it’s her own crown-worthy moment in the spotlight. Harper’s Bazaar UK [IG] travels to the ancient Castle of Mey in Caithness, Scotland for its June 2024 cover story.

She is the first model to be photographed at the castle, and — AOC assumes — the first fashion shoot of any kind at the castle.

Jourdan is styled by Cathy Kasterine, as a key figure in Bazaar’s ‘Best of Britain’ issue. / Avril Mair provides fashion direction; makeup by Alex Babsky; hair by Isaac Poleon

The Castle & Gardens of Mey, originally purchased by HM Queen Elizabeth in 1952, served as a royal residence for the Queen Mother for about three weeks in August and another 10 days in October.

Dunn reflected about her global-first photography shoot with Richard Phibbs [IG], when she met Lydia Slater in Bloomsbury for the followup Bazaar interview, which is part of today’s fashion story ‘Queen of the Castle’.

“All seals, and water, and sands – it was a wonderful escape. I understand the attraction, to be so far away from everybody. My gran loved the Queen Mother – they shared the same birthday – so this would probably have been her proudest thing.”

An Emotional Interview That Inspires . . .

AOC is deliberately underscoring this earnest statement from Dunn, about her gran’s likely response to the supermodel’s honor as muse of the fashion shoot. I can’t imagine living in Britain as a young girl of color, and my beloved grandmother shared the queen mother’s birthday — and expressed her love for this national figure to our family.

And now I — the granddaughter and a woman of color — am shooting a ‘Best of Britain’ Bazaar fashion story at her castle.

Dunn’s tearful reflection underscores the complexity of our modern world and our collective global history. Polarized populations with brains that operate on a single, push-button mode of binary thinking might condemn this very fashion story, even when Dunn is called a ‘national treasure’ on the cover.

. . . But Never Into Self-Indulgence

Few fashion writers will highlight the deep emotions revealed in this interview. And it comes in a week when our top models are revealing their misery faster than I can type. AOC isn’t trying to play divide and conquer, but my own ethical standards force me to put Jourdan Dunn’s self-doubts on a higher rung of the ladder than others’.

Banishing Self-Doubts & No Turning Back

Jourdan Dunn became very emotional in this interview. She shared the major self-repair the mother of one son Riley, experienced working with a life coach during the pandemic.

"It helped me to realise what my purpose is and what my passions are. I love beauty, I love art and that’s what the fashion industry does. I never used to believe I was creative, but my life coach said, 'You’re creating all the time!'
"Even getting this cover –" she breaks off and wipes her eyes, apologising. "I feel a bit emotional about it. Three years ago, I'd have thought, 'Why would I get that?' This time, that little voice did try to pipe up, and I was like: why wouldn't I be best of British? I've learnt to quieten those doubts."

Jourdan Dunn: the UK’s Black Martha Stewart?

After the online success of her cooking show ‘Well Dunn’, the supermodel is focused on becoming “the UK’s Black Martha Stewart’.

"That’s the next step to building an empire and creating generational wealth, and having the Dunn name live on past me,” she tells Slater. A Carribean/British gastropub is on her mood boards. Being a role model to Riley is important to her “Especially because he already feels limited.”

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