Does Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring 2013 Collection Glorify Racist Imagery?

Dolce & Gabbana’s most recent collection touts charicatures of African women printed on burlap dresses and dangling from earrings. The images harken back to the days of minstrel shows: African women with extremely dark skin, large red lips, and fruit baskets on the head. Adding insult to injury, no black models were cast for the show.

The collection was inspired by colonial imagery, but unfortunately, it went too far. Here’s what Sara Ilyas of The Guardian had to say:

“Some might argue that they’re harmless, even cute, but there’s nothing cute about two white men selling minstrel earrings to a majority non-black audience. There wasn’t a single black model in Dolce & Gabbana’s show, and it’s hard not to be appalled by the transparent exoticism in sending the only black faces down the runway in the form of earrings. Pandering to a long-gone era is hardly surprising in 2012, when people can’t even take a photo of a baby without sticking a “vintage” sepia filter on top. Bygone eras and cultures are constantly drawn on by fashion designers to re-appropriate on a whim. But when you’re explicitly pandering to such a shameful era of western racism and colonialism, it’s time to move on to the future.”