Ninety-nine point nine percent of models leave this business broke. Don’t be one of them,” a 21-year-old Beverly Johnson was told by Eileen Ford, the late, legendary founder of the Ford Modeling Agency. Johnson took Ford’s words to heart. “She said the average career is five or six years,” Johnson recalls. “And that really made me stop and think, ‘Okay, what am I going to do so that’s not me?’”
Growing up in Buffalo, N.Y., Johnson, now 71, didn’t study fashion. She was an A student and competitive swimmer who, at Northeastern University, intended to pursue law. But when a summer job at the YMCA fell through, a friend suggested Johnson try taking advantage of her 5’9” height and eye-catching features. “I honestly didn’t even know what a model was. My friend picked up a magazine, opened it, and said, ‘That woman? That’s a model. They make $75 an hour.’ I was like, ‘$75 an hour?’ My dad made $75 a week,” she laughs. “So that’s how it all started.”
Johnson traveled to New York with her mother, quickly booking a 10-page spread in Glamour, which caught Ford’s attention. After signing with Ford, her rate increased from $75 to $100 an hour and her budding career flourished. She became one of the industry’s most in-demand faces, walking the runway for designers like Yves St. Laurent, Valentino, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Halston.
She appeared in every top magazine and on numerous covers except for one: American Vogue, which had yet to feature a Black woman on its front page.
“I wanted to do a lot of things — write books, have a cosmetic contract. To do that, you needed a Vogue cover. So, I said, ‘I want the cover of Vogue.’ [Ford] said I’d never get it. She didn’t come right out and say it was because I was Black, but she said I’d never be on the cover.”
Undeterred, Johnson wrote Ford a gracious thank you letter and switched representation, signing with rival agency Wilhelmina. And in August 1974, she became the first Black woman on the cover of American Vogue. “I think we made magic that day,” she reflected in a 2021 interview with the magazine. After the shoot, “I remember getting a phone call a couple of months later from Wilhelmina [Cooper] — and usually, your booker calls you, not Wilhelmina — and she said to me, ‘Are you sitting down? You did it. You got the cover.’”
She returned to Ford, who welcomed her back with open arms. “Of course she did, she was a businesswoman,” says Johnson, “because that’s when I started to make real money.”
Following the historic cover, there was no shortage of opportunities. She dipped her toe into performing, taking classes with famed acting teacher Lee Strasberg and appearing in a range of television series and made-for-TV movies. (In 2014, she went public with a harrowing account of being drugged and nearly assaulted by Bill Cosby following an audition for “The Cosby Show” in the mid-80s, telling Vanity Fair, “Now that other women have come forward with their nightmare stories, I join them.” Cosby sued her for defamation, later dropping the case.)
Rather than indulge in her burgeoning wealth, Johnson heeded Ford’s advice about future financial security and began planning. She put 25% of her earnings into a pension, Johnson told The New York Times in a 1975 profile, and firmly adhered to a budget created with her business manager.
Photos By Michael Letterlough, Jr.
When asked by a journalist how she envisioned her future, Johnson replied: “I want to become a brand.”
Looking back, she has no idea where that answer came from. “All I knew was that if I take a picture with a product and collect a check, I don’t own anything.” Instead, Johnson was one of the first high-profile models to license herself; instead of receiving a one-time fee, she received a percentage of the profits.
She incorporated herself, founding Beverly Johnson Limited (the company is now called Beverly Johnson Enterprises), putting her name on a series of products that over the years have included beauty, cosmetics, clothing, shoes, accessories and home goods. “Because it’s a licensing contract, the more I sell, the more I get. I’m not just earning money on my face, I’m earning it on my name.”
What she learned along the way is to trust her instincts. “Eileen Ford told me, ‘Don’t do wigs and hair.’ But I thought, what do I have to lose? Beverly Johnson Wig and Hair Extensions took off and became one of the biggest hair companies in the nation. So, you have to say yes to the possibilities.”
That included opening her personal life on reality television for the OWN Network’s “Beverly’s Full House,” a one-season show that documented Johnson’s life under the same roof as daughter Anasa from her second marriage to producer Danny Sims (she was previously married to real estate agent Billy Porter), Anasa’s then-husband, David, and their newborn baby. (Anasa and her current husband, Matt Barnes, are starring in a WE TV reality series about their blended family, “The Barnes Bunch,” in which Johnson occasionally appears.)
Today, Johnson devotes a significant time to paying it forward. In 2020, she launched the Beverly Johnson Rule, an initiative dedicated to putting more people of color not only in front of the camera but behind the scenes — from the production staff to the C-suite — in the fashion industry. In an accompanying Washington Post Op-Ed tied to the announcement, she pointed out that Black talent is still not as widely used, invested in or equally compensated.
While there’s still much work to be done, Johnson is proud to have started the conversation, which she says is just as much about inclusivity as it is about smart business. “It’s been studied and proven that having a diverse board is good for the bottom line,” she explains. “Executives are the decision-makers. They’re the ones who make the rules, so a lot of good can come from having different voices in the room.”
She’s an active supporter of the Model Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for rights and protections, including the proposed Fashion Worker’s Act, legislation that would provide more transparency into the business operations of modeling agencies to protect models from predatory behavior.
Occasionally, Johnson still walks the catwalk, both for newer, independent designers and veterans like Dennis Basso’s 40th Anniversary Celebration during Fall 2023 New York Fashion Week, which, she says, “helps keep my finger on the pulse.”
In January, she wed for the third time, marrying financier Brian Maillian in a Las Vegas ceremony. She also starred in “Beverly Johnson: In Vogue,” a one-woman show that encapsulated the lessons and learning experiences from her illustrious career and personal life, which the New York Stage Review said brought Johnson’s “personality, celebrity and high-octane experience to her evening of reminisces.”
As her historic Vogue cover turns 50 this year, Johnson’s most important piece of advice for young models — advice she gave Anasa, now 45, who has been following in her mother’s modeling footsteps since she was 17 — is not to abandon their education. “My daughter, she went and modeled, but then she came back and got an MBA. Brooke Shields and Christie Brinkley modeled but then went back to school. They came back as businesspeople. Get your degree because that’s something no one can ever take from you.”