Remember the furore over MAC and Rodarte, so damaging that it never saw the light of day? My initial blog post was certainly not in line with the overriding anger and disgust felt by many, though I came to see the mess it became. I have also blogged about "Beauty from an Ugly Source" so the age old question as to whether Beauty has to be borne out of purity is getting tired. Nevertheless, fresh waves of horror greeted the news that Vogue suggests "Slave earrings" are back! To quote the Vogue Italia article, "If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of colour who were brought to the southern Unites States during the slave trade, the latest interpretation is pure freedom."
Like the MAC saga, initially attempts were made to back-peddle. The title "Slave Earrings" mutated to "Ethnic Earrings" but the text still referred to "women of colour...brought to the United States." Outrage was not assuaged, this prosaic description still undermined the horror of the slave trade and unnecessarily glamourised it. Like MAC, the only way was to ERASE it all. the post now stands in picture form, the text simply reads in bold: WE'VE DECIDED TO REMOVE THE ARTICLE FROM THE SITE TO PROVE OUR GOOD FAITH AND TO SHOW IT WASN'T OUR INTENTION TO INSULT ANYONE
The pictures still loom, like the MAC Rodarte ghostly promo pictures, a clear taunt to what was there before. It is even more odd because three years ago Vogue Italia caused a sensation in the fashion industry with its "black issue" featuring only black models. It went on to become the magazine's biggest-selling issue ever.
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