”You`re never going to have to marry somebody to validate the way you look, how smart you are, to take care of you. You`ll be able to marry somebody you love, which is a luxury. If you don`t have money, you`re at someone else`s mercy.”
This is the philosophy that Veronica Webb`s father instilled in her as a child growing up in Detroit. A philosophy that would give her the confidence and drive to become a highly successful fashion model, actress, writer and, most recently, the ”face” for a major cosmetics company-Revlon Inc.
In person, Webb is less dramatic than her sassy runway strut and more demure than her photostyled appearance. Dressed in a black scoop-neck top, high-waisted pants with an Hermes belt, Webb wears no makeup for an interview at a trendy, downtown cafe. Her shoulder-length hair is pulled into a ponytail and her short bangs give her the air of a young Audrey Hepburn.
”She has incredible personality-she`s a star,” says her friend Isaac Mizrahi, the hot New York fashion designer who features Webb in his runway collections. ”She`s not some vacuous model. She knows how to react perfectly in any situation. Her experience is so broad-not only can she look gorgeous, but she can also speak for many people.”
Go for it
Webb had come to New York in 1984 to study animation at the Parsons School of Design and was ”discovered” two years later while working as a sales clerk in a Soho boutique.
When several hairstylists, a makeup artist and a modeling agent all suggested she get into modeling, Webb-then 21-went right out and bought a one- way ticket to Paris. There, she was photographed by big-time fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh and fashion designer/photograph er Karl Lagerfeld, appeared in fashion layouts for Italian Vogue, French Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle. She walked down the runways for designers Azzedine Alaia, Thierry Mugler and Chanel.
”It was great, you know. All the grooming, all the attention,” she says about her early modeling experiences in Europe. ”For (me), somebody who wanted to be an animator, it`s like being your own cartoon character because basically I`m like this figure making shapes on frames of film.”
Now, she is about to embark on her biggest assignment yet. In September, Webb will begin representing Color Style, Revlon`s new cosmetics line for women of color-in print and in personal appearance promotions.
”We were looking for someone with a lot of credibility,” says Jerri Baccus Glover, vice president of marketing for Revlon. ”She represents a contemporary African American woman.”
Much of the deal-which was offered the day after Revlon`s president Ron Perelman spotted Webb at Princess Yasmin Khan`s Black and White Ball in New York last fall-was negotiated by Webb herself. ”A lot of the negotiating is just horse sense,” she says. (Neither Webb nor Revlon will discuss details of their contract.) ”I did most of the work myself because that`s the way deals are supposed to be cut-principal to principal.”
Webb says she wants this opportunity to work ”especially bad” for herself and other African American women. ”In this business, there`s a glass ceiling that is not based on gender but based on race. You know what I really like is that when I signed that contract, it just broke a big hole in that glass ceiling,” she says with a sly grin. ”I hope that the money that I make from Revlon will be a drop in the bucket compared to like what other black women will be able to make after me.”
Oddly enough, Webb doesn`t consider herself a role model. ”I`m not living my life for anybody but me,” she explains. ”But if somebody can take an example or look at something I`ve done and figure out how to create an opportunity for themselves than great.”
In some ways, Webb lives the dream or ”stereotypical” lifestyle of a high-fashion model. One day, she`s on a photo shoot for Italian Vogue and a week later she`s off to see the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Not bad, for a woman with three careers.
But the jet-setting and glamor aside, Webb is simply a Marlboro-smoking, mineral water-drinking, roller-skating New York woman who takes vitamins (and smart drugs), listens to LL Cool J, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Barry White, and daydreams about men-she used to date Yo! MTV Raps` Fab Five Freddy and film director Spike Lee.
She lives in an ivy-covered brownstone in a neighborhood of tree-lined streets in Lower Manhattan, and she likes to hang out with her circle of friends-which includes an investment banker and more writers and entertainers than fashion types. She also likes to visit her family regularly in Detroit and, like most New Yorkers, she wants it all.
Modeling, she says, was just a springboard. For two years, Webb`s been establishing herself as a writer with a monthly column concerning gender and race issues in Paper, a New York City downtown monthly lifestyle magazine. Occasionally, she writes feature articles for Details and Interview.
She was also recently named special projects editor at Elle and is working on an abortion article for that magazine.
”It had gotten to the point where I had done everything (in modeling). I had done all the covers, all the runway clients, all the editorial and, at that point, there were no major contracts to be had,” she says in her Midwest-cum-New York accent. ”In order to live in America, I had to diversify because as a black model there was nowhere else to go-except sideways. And if you`re moving sideways, you`re going to find the edge and fall off. The writing gave me more credibility.”
She says that she is now focusing on her writing and has given up on her short-lived acting career (she played Spike Lee`s wife in ”Jungle Fever”). Her aspirations not only include making money to produce movies and possibly doing broadcast news but eventually marrying and raising a family.
Don`t think the domestic dreams will squash Webb`s professional drive.
”There`s nobody to take care of me but me,” she says. ”You only live once, so why not relax and do it all.”
