Former Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson says she “downgraded” herself from a first-class plane cabin after she was sat surrounded by “white middle-aged men” — and faced “micro-aggressions” from a male flight attendant.
Karefa-Johnson, who has styled New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, wrote on Threads Wednesday that she “downgraded myself to business class” on a flight to Milan for fashion week.
“In a cabin of 6, 5 of the passengers were white middle-aged men… then there was me, a 30-something black woman who travels in that cabin often,” she wrote.
She noted there was “a male flight attendant who thought I’d be okay with substandard service and persistent micro-aggression from the moment I sat down. He was…wrong.”
Karefa-Johnson did not divulge what the micro-aggression was, but said she would rather “sacrifice physical comfort to protect my emotional and mental well being any day.”
It was not immediately clear which airline Karefa-Johnson flew with, but her post about the experience quickly went viral on social media, with users on X mocking her for being “just like Rosa Parks.”
“The microaggression: ‘Would you like a glass of champagne, madam?’” wrote the satirical newspaper The Sunday Sport on X.
Karefa-Johnson, who was the first Black woman to style a cover shoot for American Vogue, made headlines in 2023 after resigning from the publication in protest of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
“I resigned as kind of a material action of solidarity and because it was just time for me to move on,” Karefa-Johnson told The New York Times. “Everything I said was attached to the institutions I worked for. Not only was that not fair, it was also distracting.”
During her time at Vogue, the fashion editor worked on the 2021 cover featuring Vice President Kamala Harris — a photograph that prompted widespread controversy and scrutiny.
The cover showed Harris wearing a black pantsuit and a pair of black and white high-top Converse – her favorite everyday shoe.
Karea-Johnson told The Business of Fashion podcast in November 2023 that Harris’ photograph was captured in just 25 minutes, because that was all the time Harris had for the day.
More recently, Karea-Johnson made waves after she dressed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, for his inauguration in January.
“This look is honest. Real. Regal in the punkest way,” she wrote on her Substack at the time.
Ex-Mail on Sunday editor denies ‘nonsense’ claims over private investigator
'Love Story' is revealing just how much Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's style has endured
ICE releases Columbia student hours after Mamdani urged Trump to set her free
US-Cuban tensions rise after four killed on ‘diabolical’ speedboat mission
Nearly blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol agents found dead in Buffalo
LA Board of Education sets closed-door meeting to discuss superintendent’s FBI raid
