A series of blunders in the latest issue of Elle Germany are creating havoc for the company, who has issued an apology after being accused of being racially insensitive. These include a tagline of “black is back” atop a feature of models of color and the wrong photo of a black woman against someone else’s name.
The publication is being called “culturally insensitive” after a number of question editorial decisions. Posting a photo of Elle Germany’s models of color feature, Instagram account @diet_prada wrote:
Ironic when they, along with much of the fashion industry, have been complicit in denying visibility to black models until relatively recently.
Readers also spotted that a profile on model Janaye Furman instead featured an image of Naomi Chin Wing.
The November issue features a cover tagline of “Back to black,” with a white model on the cover. Many on Instagram have called the issue “disgusting” and “disgraceful,” with user @gracevenescaffi writing: “that’s crazy that it managed to go through all the levels of editors and made it to print."
Supermodel Naomi Campbell also posted about the issue, saying it made her “so sad to see,” and publicly offering to make clear “the guidelines of diversity” to the editorial team.
Expressing deep regret, the magazine issued a statement which included the following:
In our current issue, we are approaching the color black from different angles. As one of our topics, it was our aim to feature strong black women who work as models for the fashion industry. In doing so, we have made several mistakes for which we apologize to anyone we might have hurt. It was a mistake to use the cover line 'Back to black' which could be understood as if black persons would be a kind of fashion trend. This obviously wasn't our intention and it was our mistake not to be more sensitive about this.
So which is it - “black is back” or “back to black”? You typed both.
He meant both. One was on the cover, the other was on an inside page.
Thanks.
Well since you edited the ignorant shit you said, I guess I'll edit this now
I didn’t edit this. They just deleted my comment.
rightfully so
First I wanted to write African-American but then I realized that they may not have anything to do with America. What would you say?
Thanks for this vital piece of information but I didn’t ask how you judge people. I asked which term you’d use.
I’ll look it up after you answer my question. How’s that?)))
I guess for some newer generations Grace Jones never existed. Close your eyes, see, it never happened. Strange
If I could photograph any famous fashion model, it would be Grace Jones. She's sooooo cool.
Total control. Unique and not afraid.
Debatable. Surely didn't start with her own style as a model when modeling for Yves St Laurent, but moved on quickly to her own personal style and moved to music. She never really left modeling entirely, in fact she still does some at age 71.
Being the devils advocate here, I checked out Naomi and Janayes Instagrams... and I'm not entirely surprised that the wrong photo was used, they look quite alike one another, at least in the few IG posts I took a glance at. There's even a picture of the two together. Seems like an honest mistake? Not to excuse the editor, because it is their job to get it right, but not knowing who either of those two people are or what they do, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart at first glance.