It was bad enough that Paris Vogue had Lara Stone shot in blackface.There was also a photo in the spread with Lara painted white, and the photographer, Stephen Meisel, shot Vogue Italia’s all black issue (more here).

Now V released a blackface story for its December issue, photographed by Mario Sorrenti.

I love that fashion transcends pedestrian morals, but this premise goes beyond some fun transgression.  It’s awful, and it’s also in bad taste, fashion-wise.  That point is now very easily proven – Tyra Banks staged a similar idea at an episode of America’s Next Top Model.

I’m guessing race issues are surfacing because of Obama’s election.  There have been some other editorials that attempted to cover this momentous event.  Bazaar had Tyra Banks pose as Michelle Obama with a Barack lookalike, for example.

Okay, it’s exciting that there are black people in the white house.  But that’s not news.  There’s more of a consensus now is that there are also black people outside the white house to get excited about.  Lately, you really have to show that you embrace different races in order to seem like you’re up to date.  Looking like you’re current is super important in fashion.  It’s sometimes difficult to get into things like high waisted jeans, which used to be mom jeans and maybe still are.  Getting a different race sounds harder than figuring out it’s time to put away your skinny headbands and shave half your head.

We have different ways for tackling challenging new situations/subjects.  Some people might go with education, but there are also people who only learn by experience.  They won’t take your word and they def wouldn’t read.  Those are the people who only quit a drug if they personally witness an OD.

You can’t normally experience life as someone from another race, but in fashion, a white model can do a shoot as a black model.  In fashion, you can demonstrate an experience, which is the most valuable learning lesson for some.  The blackface photos are like instructions for experiencing another race, for the purpose of the greatest display of humanity – a fashion shoot.

They wouldn’t book a black model because the point of these shoots isn’t to show how to hire minorities (but really just black people).  These shoots actually attempt to demonstrate how to embrace others, which should rank high in their top sins.

Tags: ANTM, Bazaar, fas, Fashion/Design, Mario Sorrenti, Steven Meisel, Tyra Banks, V, Vogue