campaign: ARLENIS SOSA FOR DAVID YURMAN

Arlenis appears in the FW09 campaign for jeweler David Yurman. It’s always dope to see a woman of color on a major campaign. And I'm telling you, these other girls better watch out because Arlenis is giving them a run for their money. Photo by Peter Lindbergh.

I-D FIRST FASHION MAGAZINE TO SHOWCASE WOMEN OF COLOR ON SEPTEMBER 2009 ISSUE

The "major surprise cover" and "major moment in fashion" Sessilee Lopez and Chanel Iman both teased in April is finally here: They are joined by Arlenis Sosa Pena and Jourdan Dunn on the September 2009 cover of i-D, photographed by Emma Summerton, styled by Edward Enninful, marking the first (and so far only) major fashion magazine to go with women of color for their September issue this season.

ARLENIS PENA RULES!

Arlenis Pena covers Trace Magazine’s annual Black Girls Rule! Issue. This is just another milestone to add to the long list of accomplishments for the 19 year old Dominican model. The issue itself is chock full of amazing spreads and great reads.

ARLENIS SOSA PENA COVERS GERMAN VOGUE

Model Arlenis Sosa Pena looks fantastic in Lanvin on her solo cover of Vogue's German edition. She is featured inside in a spread called "Magic Black"also photographed by Alexi Lubomirski.

SNEAK PEEK | VICTORIA SECRET'S FASHION SHOW 2008

The focus of this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was "glamour, sophistication and the return to elegance," said chief costume designer, Todd Thomas. The annual flesh fest was filmed Saturday at the newly renovated Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami. Usher performed twice. Adriana Lima modeled the $5 million, 1,500-karat bra, yes, Selita Ebanks and Noemie Lenoir strapped on some giant wings for a strut, but the highlight for me was seeing Sessille Lopez and Arlenis Sosa Pena take to the runway. The show airs December 3 on CBS, but you can see a peek of the sophistication and elegance for yourself right here.

ARLENIS TO WALK IN VICTORIA'S SECRET SHOW

The Victoria's Secret girls had a beach photoshoot in Miami yesterday, we got to see of the 30 non-Angel faces that will be participating in this weekend's fashion show — 19 of them, to be exact. No sign of Jessica Stam or Natasha Poly, but after missing yesterday's event, Noemie Lenoir was there. There are plenty of new faces — but we are most excited to see fav Arlenis Sosa Pena in the mix.

THANK YOU MR. GALLIANO | DIOR S/S '09

Don't think words are necessary for this one...

ARE RUNWAYS BECOMING LESS WHITE???

Marcus Lloyd, Arlenis Pena, and Ty Ogunkoya at 3.1 Phillip Lim

Runways are becoming more diverse, but not by much. Modeling agent Bethann Hardison told the New York Times, "The business was dry as a desert for a decade, and now you have Thom Browne, who makes clothes for skinny white boys, putting a very dark-skinned black boy in a show. That says a lot." However, George Brown, who owns modeling agency Red NYC, said, "We’re still stuck in tokenism. I thought this season, with [the all-black] Italian Vogue, we would see a more dramatic uptick. It didn’t bear fruit.” The Shophound has been tracking diversity quotients for each show, which seem to support Brown's sentiments. Minorities in Reem Acra's show, for example, included just two Asians and zero black models; minorities in Chris Han's show included two Asians and one black model.

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF ARLENIS

... neither can Oscar de la Renta.

First on his arm to the Met gala, then walking his resort collection, and now she does the honors of opening AND closing his show.

Fashion Week continues... And these three continue to beat up the runway. Check out Chanel Iman, Jourdan Dunn & Arlenis Sosa dazzle in the Peter Som show on Monday.

A SPLASH OF COLOR AT DVF S/S 09

The Diane Von Furstenburg show was as pretty as always. The resort 2009 collection was based on the designer and her friends when they were in their twenties, and also pays homage to fashion icon Diane Vreeland, who taught us we could be "a little bit [god]/goddess, a little bit rock star."

JLo showed up, and pretty much brought down the house. Paparazzi flooded the runway to the point that front-row editors were steamed about the presence of too many actresses in their midst, and so the PR girls started kicking photographers out.

When the show finally begin I was delighted to see a little color in the mix. A number of black faces were cast- including Vogue Italia girls, Sesilee Lopez, Arlenis Sosa and Chanel Iman.

Sesilee Lopez

Arlenis Pena

Chanel Iman

RAG & BONE ROCKS FOR SPRING 2009

The Rag & Bone show changed venues this season from the upscale Cipriani to the more hard-edged Pier 94 — a change from polished to slightly edgy that you could also say was reflected in the clothes.

Black wraparound leather belts with threateningly sharp silver spikes accented so many of the looks, and are sure to be a must-have — but even the typical Rag & Bone tweedy suits were rock-n-rolled up with a leather mini or a silvery silk sheen, like Jessica Stam's blazer.

The model cast was full of high notes — stalwarts like opener Sasha Pivovarova or Coco Rocha. Arlenis Pena was there too: she's had a big week so far, between being named as the new face of Lancome and slipping up at BCBG this yesterday.

IT'S BEEN CONFIRMED | ARLENIS TO LANCOME

The news we broke way back in July - that Arlenis is indeed the new face of Lancome - is absolutely true!

Lancome can't say exactly for how long the Dominican beauty will front their array of mascaras and lip glosses, but they can say that her ads, shot by Dusan Reljin, will break some time after the new year.

We're elated that one our choice best new models got such a huge (and coveted) contract so fresh out of the gate - remember that just at the beginning of this year, Arlenis was still a student without any idea she'd be posing for several editions of Vogue and walking for big shows like Oscar by the end of what would have been "next semester."

And do we even have to mention how much we love that Lancome seems to be diversifying their stable of models more and more?

DIVERSE RUNWAYS DURING FASHION WEEK | OR IS ETHNIC AMBIGUITY THE 'NEW' BLACK

Daniel Peddle has cast runway shows for everybody from Alexander McQueen and Thakoon to Phillip Lim and YSL. He is regarded as one of the top casting directors in the fashion industry. Here lately, he’s been busy casting for Fashion Week, which we all know is a little over a week away. Two looks, as he explains to Models.com that will dominate the runway this fall -- the tomboy look and ethnically ambiguous models.

I was very anxious to see how they were going to tackle the issue of diversity this season. I guess this is the answer. The new "aspirational model" is a woman who is vaguely ethnic -- just not too much as to offend or stand out even. It seems that this is the industry's way of getting around casting models who actually look unmistakably Black, Asian, or Hispanic. He mentioned Dominican newcomer Arlenis Sosa as one of his new favorites. (One of our favs as well)

"...Another thing this season is trying to discern from all the girls out there the ones that are ethnically ambiguous. Girls and boys that have faces that you can’t just put in a certain place or race or geography. I think it’s very helpful to see those types of faces in our conflicted world because you can see that we’re still evolving as humans and they are the results of people willing to go beyond the socially constructed notions around race. I think that’s really important and were going to see even more of those as the population changes."

ARLENIS ROCKS!!!

Arlenis Sosa shows us her classy side in the September issue of Harpar’s Bazaar with her editorial shot by photographer Greg Kadel. She wears designs by Oscar De La Renta and Bill Blass. Gorgeous.

LANCOME GETS A NEW LOOK IN ARLENIS SOSA

Arlenis Sosa is taking the fashion industry by storm. A newcomer, she is fresh off the heels of her appearances in both Italian and US Vogue, has already had major bookings, such as the Christian Dior Resort '09 show and was said to have garnered a lot of attention at this year's Costume Gala at the Met. Now she has landed a lucrative Lancome contract. Did we mention she has only been working as model, for four months? She is simply amazing.

The 19-year-old Dominican beauty will make history by being the second women of color to be featured in a Lancome campaign, with supermodel Liya Kebede preceding her.