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Essence first cover

By Elayne Fluker | Published December 28, 2010 | Full size is 406 × 539 pixels

Essence magazine Hires White Fashion Director: National news of the controversial move first broke July 26, 2010, via Clutchmagazine.com. Former Essence fashion editor Michaela Angela Davis summed up the sentiment of many confused readers when they heard that the legendary tome for African-American women had just hired a White fashion director: "I feel like a girlfriend just died." The news (and resulting backlash) from the hire gained so much fuel Anderson Cooper brought Davis on CNN to discuss what it meant for the magazine and the community. Editor-in-chief Angela Burt Murray (who has since resigned) said she chose the fashion director, Elianna Placas, "because of her creativity, vision, the positive reader response to her work and her enthusiasm and respect for the audience and our brand."

Essence magazine Hires White Fashion Director: National news of the controversial move first broke July…