When the Australian Vogue December 2011 was on stands there was an uproar on my Facebook news feed.
The issue was titled ‘Fashion Gone Wild’ and it was dedicated to fighting aids in Africa. Vogue Australia travelled to Botswana, shot a few spreads with their ambassador Australian actress Isabel Lucas (wrong choice) and another Australian model as part of an initiative with Belvedere Vodka, who were supporting The Global Fund (an organization working to help fight AIDS in Africa). ‘Fashion Gone Wild’ also the trigger to launch the new iPad application for Vogue Australia.
For something which was geared at Africa, why weren’t black models used? Why didn’t they use pieces by African designers like Christie Brown, Jewel by Lisa, and Duro Oluwu rather than the likes of Burberry and other non-African designers? Why did they use tribesmen? Do they think only tribesmen live in Africa? Why didn’t they use an African-Australia model like Tina Johnson or Ajak Dang? Why was fashion wild? Are they suggesting that the whole of Africa is wild? What does the iPad launch have to do with Africa? So many questions were raised.
I admitted in ‘Fashion Gone Wild’ that visually the spread was pleasing. I was thinking in terms of photo work, the use of colours and the setting of the spread. However the theme as a whole was redundant. White girl in Africa with tribesmen and posing around a village. We have seen that before and therefore eliminated any sense of meaning in the spread.
My dear friend Amy Iheakanwa, the Style Editor of HauteFashionAfrica and one half of the up-and-coming label Shekudo was less forgiving than I was. She ranted on Facebook and others joined. They were angry that once again Africa was shown in the wrong light and the richness of the African fashion culture wasn’t utilized!
Amy took a stance and started writing letters to Vogue Australia. Below is her second letter to the editors.
I applaud Amy’s stance, but at the same time I am sitting on the other side of the fence as her. As a reply to this letter and the Facebook rants on this issue, I stated that seeing spreads like these should be motivation to support African publications, or produce publications/spreads which show Africa in a different light. The way it needs to be shown! We can complain and that’s all well and good, but this is the time to fight fire with fire. In this situation, we as Africans in Africa and the Diaspora need to visually show them how we Africa’s story needs be told rather than someone else dictate the story for Africa. Otherwise perceptions won’t change and we will still complaining!