The Racism In France – Redux

Fresh from whitening singer Beyonce for a magazine spread, it seems the French Fashion Industry (along with help from an American photographer who should have known better) Vogue Paris has decided to portray a blond-haired white girl in blackface on the cover of their October issue.

Laura Stone in blackface for French Vogue

Not sure how the crotch shot is a fashion statement – but it appears French Vogue is not only expanding into the Racist Minstrel Rag market segment…

But also to pioneer the Anorexic Gynecological Gazette vertical.

With all the beautiful black models available - why pick an ugly white girl?

Paris Vogue and its fiery editor Carine Roitfeld are at the centre of a race row after publishing pictures of a white model with her skin painted black. The photos of usually-blonde Dutch model Lara Stone did not raise eyebrows in France, it seems, but have provoked outrage among the usually unshockable fashionistas of New York.

The photo shoot was styled by the magazine’s long-time editor, Roitfeld, who – along with controversial photographer Steven Klein – has been denounced as “culturally insensitive” by US fashion site Jezebel.

“What Klein and Roitfeld should know is that painting white people black for the entertainment of other white people is offensive in ways that stand entirely apart from cultural context,” said Jezebel. The French anti-racism group SOS Racisme described the pictures as “tactless”.

Among the shoot’s other critics is Nana A Tamakloe, founder of Confidence Model Management, who said: “It’s horrible, there’s nothing else to describe it.” Shevelle Rhule, fashion and beauty editor at black women’s magazine Pride, commented: “It’s as if we’ve stepped back in time.”

Roitfeld has often been talked of in the past as a potential successor to Anna Wintour as editor of US Vogue. But the current row is unlikely to win her many supporters: a gimmick of this kind might be all right in Paris, but does not go down well in New York.

Speaking of tacky and tasteless – here is Rhianna posing topless for the cover of Italian Vogue, fresh from a beatdown by her boyfriend. Woman go out looking that bad, would make a less restrained man want to hit her upside the head… Makes you question whether Chris Brown beat the usually attractive Rhianna with an ugly stick to pose for this one.

This one is categorized under “Naaaaw” – because it’s hard to believe anyone in an executive position in the publication industry could be that f9889g stupid.