Racism in Fashion

Fashion is not the most politically correct industry. Rarely will you find anyone who is fat, short, ugly or poor being made much of, and people with darker skin are often treated like curiosities, brought in to illustrate exoticism and then shown to the door.

Yet it's not clear that anyone has a workable solution. For example, bloggers frequently demand more women of color in fashion shows. But how many is enough? Should fashion shows be like universities, where a certain number of spots are reserved for minorities? Ideally, modeling would be a color-blind job. The best girls would be hired regardless of skin color or quotas.

Another time, I heard someone ask when an Asian woman would be featured on the cover of Vogue - with the same tone with which one might ask, When will I be free of these shackles? The answer that I didn't quite have the heart to give her is that it will happen whenever an Asian - American actress or model becomes famous enough to warrant it.

Then I came across this, an article at the Guardian in which the writer angrily takes Christian Dior to task for this advertisement, shot by a Chinese photographer and on display at the Dior store in Shanghai.

What do you see? I think it's a perfectly sensible depiction of the sameness of Mao-era China contrasting with modern splendor. Since the photographer is a Chinese artist, I don't see the neo-colonialism angle. Isn't the multiplication of identical faces a theme in contemporary Chinese art?

The writer also seems to lack a basic understanding of what drives the luxury market in China. Criticizing a Chanel ad, she writes, "The message couldn't be clearer – the Chinese are ignorant of their own history, desire to imitate the West, and need a cultured European to educate them." Now, I don't know whether Chinese people are ignorant of their own history or not, though according to the New York Times the answer seems to be yes.

As for the idea that they imitate the West, there's not much to dispute - how else do you explain the explosion of French and Italian luxury goods in China? Ditto for acquiring European tastes.

In short, I doubt that any of Dior's actual Chinese customers (as opposed to Chinese-Americans) will be bothered. After all, they're hardly buying Dior out of a desire to celebrate Chinese heritage.