Buona sera tutti. This is
Oliver B. Styles with an important public service announcement. Tonight’s airing of The Fine Print: We're Calling "B.S." is on playing the race card. And while I rarely play the racial game, I do like to
honor those that have played their hands beautifully and benefited our world
at the end of the game. Amazingly, the world of fashion has taken up the cause
of battling racism … and showing the world the beauty that comes in color. My post tonight is in praise of a particularly dutiful servant of the fashion industry.
How many of you out there read
Italian Vogue? I’m guessing here in the United States not many do. Well, as much
as I adore our American leader, Anna Wintour, at Vogue, she has certainly
faltered on race relations in the magazine. Faltered? I'd dare to say failed. Surprisingly the celebration of
color has now thrice come from Italian Vogue.
The July 2008 issue featured only black models, photographed by Steven
Meisel, and the articles pertained to black women in the arts and
entertainment. The magazine decided to showcase black models in response to
anger caused by the disinclination of fashion magazines to display black models
on their covers. Instead of the issue not selling as predicted due to a disinterest in black models, it became the
highest selling issue of Italian Vogue ever, and has run out of print
twice, which marked the first time in Condé Nast (the publisher of such gems like Vogue and GQ Magazine) history that the magazine
reprinted an issue to satisfy demand.
In July 2009, BARBIE scored a starring role in Italian Vogue's most
iconic edition, the Black Issue, as the magazine styled the iconic doll
in a collector's supplement. This was an incredible play by Italian Vogue. To
make the iconic American symbol of beauty all shades of Black, and just as
beautiful as the White Barbie, was a stroke of genius. Barbie has been a mirror
of the times for 50 years and continues to reflect the trends of the day. And
the trend now is “My Black is Beautiful.”
Italian Vogue has even taken to adding to their website a Black Beauty
page. It has the new fresh faces of Black models, style tips, and so on. All-in-all, it has been the Italians who have been better to race relations than the land of the “Melting Pot.” And this should be pointed out and celebrated.
You want “racy” fashion? Just go to Italian Vogue. It has all the race
you’ll need. I myself have felt more beautiful to Germans than Italians, but
that’s me.
There you have it. The Italians have played the race card, and proved that
although it has been completely unwarranted, most of the world feels that
most of the world won’t accept Black beauty. And even after that was disproven,
most of the world still feels most of the world won’t accept Black beauty. So
this race card play was completely justified, and we all won from it.
Sorry tonight wasn’t a style tip, but I’ll end my blog with a special
tip based on tonight’s show: The greatest style in the world comes from
diversity. If you can’t mix Abercrombie with Phat Farm, Miu Miu, or even
Carolina Herrera, you’re a lost soul in the fashion world. Find yourself in
other cultures and you’ll find the kind of style that transcends the ignorance
of the world.
Here’s to style. Cheers!
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