The supermodel life seems like a world of glamour, travel, and excitement, but Beverly Johnson is reflecting on her years in the fashion industry — and there were some serious dark times. In 2024, she’s celebrating her 50th anniversary as the first Black woman to have a Vogue cover while reminiscing how toxic her career was in the early years. .
Johnson, now 71, shared with Page Six that the designers and modeling agencies wanted them to be “chiseled to the bone” for high fashion editorial shoots in the 1970s. In order to stay rail-thin, the models were often encouraged to indulge in the use of cocaine, which they were told “was not addictive.” Her use of the drug curbed her appetite and kept her weight down (in an unhealthy way). “Everyone used drugs back in the day but that particular drug for models was used because we did not eat,” she recalled, “I remember eating two eggs and a bowl of brown rice a week. I would be shaking in a cab, and I would say pull over because I have to get a bag of M&Ms.”
What’s shocking about Johnson’s revelation is how people in the fashion industry continually encouraged this behavior even though it was affecting her health. “I would just stop and get the shakes. We did not eat, and every time you came to work, they would say, ‘Yes! Chisel to the bone girl. Yes,’ like congratulating you. Nobody really told you the truth,” she added. It was her mother who was the “major wake-up call” for her after putting her in front of a mirror and pointing out how dangerously thin she had become.
Johnson, who has been sober for 50 years, is now sharing her story about her stellar career in a one-woman show in New York, Beverly Johnson In Vogue. She is happily telling her tale because she believes her supermodel success and history-making moments couldn’t have happened without some of her struggles. “My biggest lessons are in my huge mistakes. I’m happy to be alive; a lot of people didn’t make it,” she told Vogue recently.
And while she’s calling out the fashion industry for its misdeeds over the years, Johnson knows that her life story is still a triumph because of the opportunities her supermodel career afforded her.
Before you go, click here to see celebrities who have struggled with drug or alcohol addiction.
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