Samira Nasr’s first issue as Editor-In-Chief of ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ featuring Liya Kebede is out Now

Earlier this summer, Hearst named Samira Nasr editor-in-chief as Harper’s Bazaar, succeeding Glenda Bailey and becoming the first Black editor to hold the top title at the magazine. A few months latter, the first print issue under her leadership has landed.

Model and entrepreneur Liya Kebede fronts the November 2020 edition of Harper’s Bazaar, photographed by Christopher Anderson (wearing Dior and Cartier) and profiled by Durga Chew-Bose. The casting is deeply personal to Nasr, as the editor explained in a caption announcing the cover on the magazine’s Instagram page.

“Welcome to my first issue as editor in chief of Harper’s BAZAAR. This isn’t my first issue of BAZAAR, though,” Nasr wrote. “I was a fashion editor at the magazine 20 years ago. My job was to edit and produce the shopping section of the magazine, and the section always opened with a model. Our bookings editor at the time told me that there was a new model who was ‘going to be a star.’ A few days later, I styled @liyakebede for the April 2001 issue, marking the first time she appeared in BAZAAR, and the start of our friendship.”

Though Kebede has indeed gone on to become a major industry player, Nasr continued, she’d never appeared on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar U.S. So, for her first issue at the helm, she wanted to make it happen. In the accompanying story, Chew-Bose speaks to Kebede about her career, her upbringing and her many “firsts,” and unpacks her “staying power” within fashion. You can read the full profile here.

The November 2020 issue of Harper’s Bazaar will be available on newsstands on Nov. 3.

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Photo Credit:  Andrea Raffin / Shutterstock.com