AMC: YaYa DaCosta shares cover of newly revamped 'W'

[marceline]

Where's the Wendy Williams "I Can't" gif?

[Cat]

Herb Ritts made those girls into stars! As did Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier and Peter Linbergh. I heard Ritts was a lovely guy, too. Gone too soon.

I read an interview with a booker of models the other day, he said that if a Cindy, Naomi, Claudia or Linda Evangelista showed up at his offices today, he would have to turn them away at the door. Because now they only make Size 00 sample sizes and the fashion houses only want faceless models who can fit into the tiny clothes.

Don't know what to make of this. For one thing, I'm sure the photographer and stylists on that shoot did not mean any intentional disrespect. I think they wanted to show that a model can look and "act" the part of anybody on a shoot. And Claudia looks so much prettier as an AA with an afro than she ever did as a Dussldorf milkmaid.

However... why didn't they just go with a black model? Like, were Chanel Iman and Jordan Dunn unavailable? What about the frankly amazing and unique Alex Wek? Maybe that would have defeated the purpose of the exercise but they aren't used enough and would probably have enjoyed doing some editorial work.

[marceline]

I agree that the people involved probably didn't mean any harm but people can't just ignore history. Blackface will never fly with an American audience because of the history behind it. I always go back to what Larry Wilmore says, "If your black face can rub off on your pillow at night, you shouldn't have it."

[Cat]

I don't think it flies with any audience, not just a US one. Otherwise the Daily Mail (a UK newspaper) wouldn't have singled it out. Europeans of African extraction, for example, make up a comparable % of the population over here and blackface is not something taken lightly. My point was that the editors who did the shoot weren't being spiteful, but you are right, they were being insensitive and ignorant.

And again -- why didn't they just hire Chanel Iman?!

[Sylph]

Gwyneth is African, too.

[marceline]

I'm never sure how blackface plays in other countries. I keep thinking about that Australian(?) talent show where Harry Connick Jr. was a judge and five guys showed up in blackface doing a Jackson 5 impression. There were plenty of people who said blackface doesn't play the same way in Australia. I don't know if that's true or not but Connick, Jr. was clearly disgusted, understandably, while the host seemed genuinely confused.

The damage of blackface comes from the historical context. If you change the history, you change the context and I hate holding the rest of the world hostage to the US's messed up racial politics. We do it way too often.

[SFK]

I think she looks like the ultimate Alexis Carrington/Dominique Deveraux hybrid in that pic.

Did anyone ever see the Top Model where Tyra had the girls be made up as various ethnic mixes? Some girls really get off on that stuff. "You know what's a pretty mix?? Black and Japanese! ... White and anything is pretty much a good mix." [/real quotes]

[SFK]

Unfortunately, not really.