UH OH: Vogue Edition

It seems like just yesterday, I was writing about Marc Jacob’s huge debacle during New York Fashion week of sending his models down the runway in dreadlocks. From an outsider perspective, it would seem that the fashion world would have learned its lesson and become more conscious about representation and diversity, especially following the election of Donald Trump.

With the announcement of the March issue of Vogue being centered around diversity, I was ecstatic to see how Vogue would tackle it.  The lucky eight included fashion’s golden girls: Kendall Jenner,Gigi Hadid, Imann Hammam, Adwoa Aboah, Liu Wen, Ashley Graham and Vittoria Ceretti. On paper, the eight seem like a perfectly good group to choose for the diversity issue, coming from multiple countries, different ethnicities and, with the inclusion of Ashley Graham, a plus-size model, diverse body types. But as soon as I looked at the cover of Vogue, my excitement dissipated for multiple reasons. First, in an effort to make them look uniform, the models lose their distinctive beauties with their hair pulled back in a tight bun and black turtlenecks. What is particularly odd about the cover is the lack of racial gradient between the models, looking as if they have all been white washed. Even darker skin models such as Imann Hammam look only one or two shades darker than the fairer skinned Liu Wen, but when exploring their Instagrams and other photographs of them together, it is clear that is not true. Another disappointment from the cover came from the lack of diversity of body types, even though Ashley Graham has made her name off being a plus sized model. Even through the celebration of body diversity it is interesting that Ashley Graham is the only model with her hand resting on her thigh as if to draw attention from her curvier figure.

Even though I was disappointed by the lack of celebration of diversity on the cover, I hoped the pages inside would be better, but only from there did it get worse. In a photo spread, Karlie Kloss dresses in traditional Geisha outfits and makeup posing at various locations in Japan and with traditional elements of Japanese culture, such as Sumo Wrestlers and Buddhist temples. People also found it insensitive to title the spread “Spirited Away”, taken from the Academy Award winning film by Hayao Miyazaki. Although animation is one of the only ways people outside of Japan experience Japanese culture, the culture is richer than an animation film, even if that film is spectacular.

It is extremely disappointing and disheartening to see major publications and figures make these easily avoidable mistakes after seeing the backlash many of their colleagues have received for making similar mistakes. At this point, due to the countless errors made by the fashion industry, it will no longer be enough to just apologize and remove these pieces from the magazines and websites. It is necessary that brands and companies take the necessary action to truly become more diverse and inclusive environments, which begins with who they hire, not only as their models, but those who are a part of their design, editorial and social media teams.

It is easy to believe that the fashion industry will never be able to climb out of this bubble, but Vogue Paris has given readers something to be happy about, by choosing transgendered model, Valentina Sampaio, on the March cover. It is exciting to see how the fashion world can be progressive and create thought provoking content.