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Note to Fashion World: Michelle Obama Is Black
Womens' Wear Daily commissioned top designers to 'dress' Michelle Obama in her role as First Lady. I'm with Slate's Julia Turner: Why'd so many draw her as a shiksa?
I get that these drawings are stylizations but, to design for someone individually sorta requires you to deal with their skin tone, right? Would they drape a 'winter' in 'summer' colors? A few of the drawings make her downright Nubian, but a suspicious few too many have re-imagined her no darker than a color best described as "geisha".
Why? When they design for white folks, do the skin tones in the drawings vary far from alabaster? One hates to get all psychological on a Thursday, but are these artists 'helping' her by making her whiter (and thus 'capable' of beauty) or are they so squeamish in imagining a sister in couture that they have to whitewash her to make her 'worthy' of high fashion?
Check out the drawings yourself. Maybe I'm overreacting.
Nah. We're looking at some Freudian slips here.
You can see the original sketches here: http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/dressing-the-first-lady-1875632?src=nl/n...
yawn!! you people bore me
yawn!! you people bore me with this topic!!! they are just sketches!!!
You're overreacting to the racial aspects. Not one of the drawings were of a _human_being_, much less a human female.
The whole of the fashion industry is one large mass of misogyny, isn't it? Women are supposed to hate themselves, and most or all of them do. Your hips are too wide or too narrow. Your breasts are too big or too small. Your skin is the wrong shade of whatever color it is, which is the wrong color.
My observation is that this is doubly or triply true for black women. You have my sympathy if not understanding.
DanZ
Way overreacting... Half the drawing depict her with reasonable accuracy(these are SKETCHES), another portion used a generic model figure(manikin), and one or two were even borderline offensive(big lips, intentionally white toned).
If you really want to know, ask the designers... But to call attention to the exercise because of the eccentricities of a few is kind of silly. Oh wait, that's media...
Why do I think that, was she being consistently depicted as "dark", there would be criticism about the "racial undertones" contained in "emphasizing her blackness"..?
Seriously overreacting, Dear!
Since when has the vast majority of the Fashionists designed for real women anyway? BTW- Christian LaCroix's renderings are pretty darned good portraits of Mme O. The question is: who will she choose?
I'm with Debra. One of those girls looked a little like Michelle Obama...as being played by Wynona Ryder in a made for BET movie. It is true that a few did a fair depiction of her blackness in as much as those stylized depictions allow. Still, a lot of them that were detailed enough to have included some realistic coloration were noticeably devoid of it. Can we please stop playing the 'racism is all in your head, Debra' game? I'm tired of people on this leftist blog site acting like country club morons.
Don't forget that many designers don't go to art school. Design school is totally different. Most designers are lousy sketchers who have never had a life drawing class.
I was more impressed with how most did a good (and artistic) job of imagining M.O. in their clothes. Many seem to a non-artist/fashionista (like me) as a fine representation of art in general. I am impressed with the artistic merit and if I was M.O. I'd hang a few of these on my wall.
Since 'white' people are not actually the color white, and 'black' people are not exactly black, I'd say just a reference to skin color is enough to design clothes for a particular skin tone. Or just ignore it and draw them on a mannequin.
My vote: Non-issue.
Thank you, Paul. Criminy. Apparently these folks can't or refuse to grasp the idea that it's totally condescending and inappropriate to tell a POC that something they experience as racist actually isn't. (And obviously I don't know the racial make-up of the commenters, but IMO it's still wrong no matter who it comes from.)
Yes, not ALL of them drew Michelle as a white woman (or bronze...wtf, Kors?), but some of them did. And yes, as someone mentioned, fashion sketches don't even look like actual human bodies most of the time...but that is beside the point. If you don't get that, you're missing a whole lot more than any blog post can tell you.
Speaking as an amateur designer myself - I was generally appalled at this 'collection'. Not because of the white/black thing but because for the most part none of them addressed Michelle's real figure. One of the first lessons of design - particularly if you are working for/with a known individual - is that you look at the person's physical shape and design accordingly. Some of these designs were completely and totally wrong for Ms. Obama because they did not address the fact that she is a real person - and her shape is not one of the standard runway model.
Just a thought though - Ms. Obama apparently already has a designer who does make a lot of her high-end clothes. Those outfits always look spectacular on her - and I see no reason for Ms. Obama to switch from a relationship she has with someone who actually looks at HER before they do anything. In fact, I would be completely and totally surprised if Ms. Obama did not wear a dress/dresses from her current designer.
If you work in fashion, then you are familiar with the croquis--a standard but stylized figure on which various designs are sketched and planned. This figure often does not resemble anything other than various looks of clothing. It's not meant to represent the human, but the clothes.
On the other hand, the croquis is sometimes drawn very closely to the form of the proposed model (in the case of this article, Michelle Obama). If you are a designer, you often must put your creations--drawings and clothes--on the actual figure to see how it would really look.
Folks are just too touchy over the blackness of our new first family. Black is not a pariah. Big lips and big hips are not a shiksa, a goddess or whatever lascivious ideas are going on in some people's heads.
Michelle Obama is a beautiful, curvacious woman. There's nothing wrong with recognizing, or even applauding that, and designing clothes that fit and flatter her sexy, luxurious heights! Bravo to the designers.
I just wanted to say that I agree with you for the most part; but I did find some that picked up better than others on Michelle's height, high-waist, and A-line shape. Again, as someone used to looking at croquis, I'm not perturbed by the color of her face or arms, whether she had them or not. I personally liked most of the designs.
I am an interior designer and know how to appreciate detail and variation. I also understand a stylized sketch. I've already weighed in on the 'black thing', so won't repeat that. All I wanted to say was how intermittently bored and bemused I was with most of the designs. One or two were intriguing, but as someone who has doodled women in fancy gowns since I could hold a pen, I have to say that the test of whether it is actually a good dress design comes when it goes from drawing to mock up. Most dresses look pretty as a drawing, especially with the wasp waist, the overly long legs, the disproportionate flourishes. To echo another poster, I hope that First Lady-elect Obama sticks with her Chicago designers.
I'm with Loky Woky. Most of these outfits are made for Michelle...if she was 120 lbs...which she is not. Give me a break.
I did like the Oscar De La Renta sketch for it's artistic quality.
As for the racial undertones...as others have already said, only a few were offensively off base. Most of the skin tones were either fairly accurate or mannequin style. If you look at the designers as a cross section of western culture it only stands to reason that a few are racist because we all know that there are still some racists out there, whether they are public with their opinions (overt misrepresentation) or it is internal (subconcious misrepresentation).
"shiksa" The word shiksa is derived from the Hebrew term sheketz, which means "abomination," "impure," or "object of loathing", depending on the translator.
I found several very pretty. As far as color, Michelle Obama can select the color of her choice.
My bigger concern is why anyone should assume that I know what a shiksa is. I still don't.
I hate to admit it but I actually looked through the slides of all the offerings to see what all the fuss was about and few of them look like Mrs O with similar coloring, so it's hard to see what the color would look like on her.
That said, I didn't see anything that doesn't look like the same thing that has been "created" for the past 50 years. She should just save some cash and buy something off the rack that looks just like all these new creations. How many designs can there be for a ball gown? A dress? We've already seen them all many years ago. Yawn............
yes they were of a human being. They certainly did not look like animals to me.I agree some did not match her skin tone,but I would like to see the designers draw a gown for Joe Bidens wife with a black woman skin tone. She will not be happy either. It's not a big deal,it's just the principal.
mkemp, yes I am familiar with a croquis. You missed the point. When you are designing for an actual person you MUST take into consideration HER shape. Ms. Obama does not have a standard runway-model shape. Your designs should reflect that. I found the designs that focused attention on her hips were very distressing, and any with very low cleavage also since Ms. Obama has (to my knowledge) not appeared in public in anything like that. Color - well, you have to use colors that do not deepen or accentuate the undertone of her skin (anything yellow or orange) and focus on those colors which will enhance her natural coloring (blues, purples, blue-reds).
Ms. Obama appears to really like sheath-type dresses, and all the ones with the little-girl fluffy skirts were not appropriate (and I'm not talking about the ones for Malia and Sasha). I could go on but won't. Like I said before - I found this collection appalling.
I was ready to jump on board and start hating on all those eurocentric designers until I looked at the drawings and say plenty of brown skin tone. Three of the designers who rendered her skin very light were Monique Lhuillier, Koi Suwannagate and Rachel Roy. Each of these designers are non white and have darker skin themselves.
But I did see some BAD sketches. Maybe Christian Lacroix can give the the designers (especially Posen, Badgley and Mischka) some classes.
I think the original post misinterpreted fashions hatred of the body as hatred of the black body. Fashion hates all bodies baby. Thats why they love Kate Moss. Maybe someday they'll have transparent anorexic robots with glowing nipples to show the clothes.
Note on the Badgley Mischka sketches that some people have called out as potentially racist because of the exaggerated lips - most BM sketches seem to have that caricature of a face regardless -
http://www.daylife.com/photo/01E062N9S5csP
But, in that example they do give a more accurate skin tone. Maybe they are racists after all.
Bush committed hate crimes
Speaking of First Lady Michelle Obama:
Michelle Obama is a racial-minority individual, and in her heart and mind she inevitably does not endorse hate crimes committed by George W. Bush.
George W. Bush committed hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism (indicated in my blog).
George W. Bush did in fact commit innumerable hate crimes.
And I do solemnly swear by Almighty God that George W. Bush committed other hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism which I am not at liberty to mention.
Many people know what Bush did.
And many people will know what Bush did—even to the end of the world.
Bush was absolute evil.
Bush is now like a fugitive from justice.
Bush is a psychological prisoner.
Bush has a lot to worry about.
Bush can technically be prosecuted for hate crimes at any time.
In any case, Bush will go down in history in infamy.
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
“GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG
_____________________
I am not sure where I had read it before, but anyway, it is a linguistically excellent statement, and it goes kind of like this: “If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Oh wait—off the top of my head—I think the quotation came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.