Beverly Johnson returns to a changed catwalk

By BROOKE LEFFERTS
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Beverly Johnson has a simple answer for why she decided to walk the runways of two buzzy designers showing at New York Fashion week: They asked. Johnson returned this week to her modeling roots and strutted the runways for designers Sergio Hudson and Bibhu Mohapatra. The 69-year-old is one of the original supermodels. She broke down barriers and widened the conventional ideal of beauty at the time by being the first Black woman to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974. Mohapatra’s show included only models of color. Johnson said it was a welcome departure from the early years of her career.