Model agents told her she’d never make it, hairdressers refused to touch her hair and Kodak didn’t even make film that could cope with her skin tone, but somehow 40 years ago Beverly Johnson became the first black woman on the cover of American Vogue.

“You mean there’s never been a woman of colour on the cover of Vogue magazine? Are you kidding me? We’re in the 1970s.”

When Beverly Johnson found out that she’d made the August 1974 cover of the fashion bible she was ec