Gigi Hadid Paints It Black

Gigi Hadid saw a door of opportunity and painted it blackface. You should be upset and outraged according to the internet. No she wasn’t at a college party so this incident won’t end up on another episode of Dear White People. Gigi was doing a cover shoot for Vogue Italia and was looking a little more roasted than usual. This naturally led to accusations of skin color appropriation. A career ruiner for anyone in the corporate world but irrelevant to someone who takes pictures and wears fancy clothes for a living. She was quick to do the obligatory “you’re right, I’m wrong, let’s move on” PR apology and place blame on Vogue for being so bronze.

Gigi Hadid is speaking up about her controversial new Vogue Italia cover shoot. The images, shot by famed fashion photographer Steven Klein, feature the model looking heavily tanned and nearly unrecognizable, which quickly sparked accusations of blackface.

“You can see the level I had been bronzed to on set that day,” she wrote. “Please understand that my control of a shoot 1. is non existent [sic] in terms of creative direction 2. ends completely when I leave set, and anything done to a photo in post is out of my control fully.”

Hadid went on to explain that although heavy bronzing and Photoshop are part of Klein’s “style,” the shoot’s creative direction “was not executed correctly” and that “the concerns that have been brought up are valid.”

It’s instances like these that make me wish the population was slightly smarter overall but most American’s point of reference when it comes to what an Italian should look like is Super Mario and Marlon Brando from the second best mob movie after Goodfellas. There is a such thing as darker individuals from the Italian region. Typically they’re Sicilian. And even then that doesn’t necessarily mean they were trying to emulate a human skin tone. High fashion’s intention has never been to make sense. The selective outrage is getting annoying at this point. The man holding her in the photo is of a tawny hue. I don’t see Donald Trump up in arms over it.

Photo Credit: Instagram