We need to talk about Vogue Black

Garage Magazine's editor-in-chief Dasha Zhukova posing in a deeply disturbing editorial

Truth be told, I believe that certain entities that hold an elite status within the fashion industry do so with such force and extravagance that when we question matters of morality and ethics, they're brushed under the carpet with the manufactured response that "it's fashion - don't take it so seriously!"

In retrospect though, when we consider a multi-billion dollar industry that yields the power to control peoples livelihoods and identities, how is this good enough? The issue of underrepresentation of ethnicities in editorials in magazines such as Vogue are not merely an oversight during the process of creative expression - oftentimes they are visual representations of archaic and deep-rooted themes of segregation and racism engrained in the industry's psyche. 

Let's talk about Vogue Black. A section of Vogue Italia's website launched in 2010, it quite crudely consists of news coverage, street style, celebrity culture and editorial content pertaining to the black contingent of the industry. When we consider that Vogue Italia's editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani, who has been burned before for crossing the threshold of racial insensitivity, it strikes me as absurd that Vogue Black is being heralded as a triumph and a celebration of black people.

Do we need to segregate black models from white models, black celebrities from white celebrities and black journalists from white journalists to actually acknowledge the style, beauty and talent of people who aren't white? Further still, there are a myriad of ethnicities out there who are being excluded by Vogue Italia in this pseudo-celebration of racial diversity in fashion - if you think that such a thing exists at this point, look a little closer. 

The runway shows that models of different ethnicities are being hugely underrepresented by designers who hand pick women to wear their designs during castings.

Images credited to Jezebel

The reality of this is incredibly distressing and I know that I not only speak for myself when I say it's also incredibly disheartening for those who are aspiring to work in an industry that is inherently racist. I think if we understand better that with the sort of elitism of juggernauts such as Vogue also comes a great deal of exclusion and bigotry, the more we should become aware of the ethical issues that are raised in their editorial decisions and not become so passive when we're told not to take fashion too seriously.