Donyale Luna did not ease her way into the fashion world — she broke through it. Born in Detroit, she grew up in a difficult home. Her father was abusive and an alcoholic. Her mother, who was of Indigenous Mexican descent, wanted her daughter to pursue nursing. Luna had other plans. She set her sights on modeling, and the industry would never be the same.
Her rise was swift and striking. In January 1965, Harper’s Bazaar featured a sketch of Luna on its cover — a major milestone at a time when Black women were almost entirely absent from mainstream fashion publications. Then, in 1966, Time magazine ran a full article about her titled “The Luna Year,” cementing her status as one of the most talked-about faces in fashion.
In March 1966, Luna made history by becoming the first Black model to appear on the cover of British Vogue. The image, however, reflected the racial anxieties of the era. Her hand was positioned to cover nearly her entire face, with only one eye visible, dramatically framed by bold eyeliner. The magazine’s editors made this choice out of fear that readers would react negatively to a Black woman on the cover. Even in her most groundbreaking moment, Luna’s visibility was deliberately restricted.
Luna relocated to London, where she worked with some of the most respected fashion photographers of the 1960s. David Bailey, William Klein, Helmut Newton, and William Claxton all photographed her. Their work captured a model who was truly ahead of her time — tall, dramatically expressive, and completely at ease in front of the camera. She frequently wore blond wigs and colored contact lenses, crafting a look that was otherworldly and wholly her own.
Her personal life was complicated. In 1966, she married an actor whose name faded from public record, but the marriage ended in divorce after just ten months. She later became engaged to Maximilian Schell, the Austrian-born Swiss actor. She was also romantically involved with German actor Klaus Kinski for a period.
In 1976, Luna married Italian photographer Luigi Cazzaniga. Together they had a daughter. The couple eventually separated, though they remained legally married. By this point, Luna had been living between Europe’s fashion capitals for over a decade, a long way from Detroit and the nursing career her mother had once imagined for her.
When Luna first arrived in New York, she did not drink, smoke, or use drugs. That changed after her move to London. Alcohol, heroin, and other substances became a regular part of her life through the late 1960s and 1970s. Kinski ended his relationship with her in 1969, directly citing her worsening drug use as the reason.
In the early morning hours of May 17, 1979, Donyale Luna died of a heroin overdose at a clinic in Rome. She was 33 years old. Below is a collection of fashion photographs from across her modeling career — images that show the full force of her presence in front of the camera.
