Misidentifying black models, black is back, and hypocrisy with a white model on the cover.

Now, I don’t pretend to be a fountain of knowledge when it comes to fashion journalism and content creation. However, I really can not seem to fathom how whilst publishing a headline that proclaims, ‘black is back’, ELLE Germany somehow thought a good way to put this mantra across was to put a white model on the cover.

If using a white model on the cover of the magazine was not idiotic and racist enough, ELLE Germany then misidentified black models, proclaimed that ‘black is back’, and released a half hearted apology calling the work as a learning curve. You literally could not write it (and clearly their writers can’t either). Regardless of the cover being problematic, and had there been a black model on the cover, the problems burrow deeper with the, ‘black is back’, headline.

In failing to fact check properly and ensure that the correct models were paired with their name, it highlights the idea that the editors have a half hearted approach to content when it involves black models.

Whilst it appears that basic fact checking is out of ELLE Germany’s journalistic competence, completely disregarding the humanity of race and colour is not something that can be overlooked so lightly. The idea that being black is a fashion statement that comes and goes surpasses being merely racist and disrespectful and becomes a question more of how those inside ELLE Germany view people of colour within the fashion industry.

To reduce skin colour to little more than a fashion trend is entirely dehumanising and suggests that prior to now being black has not been on trend. Race is not a fashionable feat that comes and goes. Chime bells ring of Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks being pitted against each other relentlessly by the media, suggesting there can only be one black supermodel, because black is not fashionable.

Racism in the fashion industry is still very prevalent, with an unequal representation of people of colour being seen in fashion months of 2019. The fashion industry needs to awaken to the fact that todays consumers identify more and more with equal representation and throw their support behind brands that champion inclusivity and representation.

It is not enough to simply apologise for the issue and move forward, as evidently the content stems from deep-rooted ideas within the magazine in which editors clearly saw no issue in the magazines content.

It raises the question of how diverse ELLE Germany’s editorial team is. When Edward Enniful was announced as the new Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue, Naomi Campbell famously and very rightly outed the then Editor-in-Chief Alexander Shulman for her lack of diverse editorial team.

Simply featuring black models will never be enough to combat the systematic racism prevalent in the fashion industry, and if people of colour are not hired across the industry at a multidimensional level then the fashion industry will never positively and accurately voice and represent the views of an equal demographic. While white people are still the sole creators of content on black topics, the standards of the fashion industry with remain stuck in a perpetual imbalance of colonial ideals. Perhaps if more were done to incorporate the voices of black people, ELLE Germany would not have made the mistakes they did.