Fashion's Black-Up Walks the Thin White Line

When Robert Downey Jr had to black up for the role of Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder, he remarked “If it's done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago. If you don't do it right, we're all going to hell.”
The people who didn't do it right and subsequently are going to hell is the team at French Vogue. Lara Stone, the Dutch glamazon with legs up to her Mick Jagger pout, was blacked up for a series of images in French Vogue’s October issue. Styled by editor-in-chief Carine 'DeVille' Roitfeld and shot by self-confessed controversy junkie Steven Miesel, the spread caused a media frenzy, with blogosphere waxing wild for its derogrative minstrel implications and colonial undertones. [...]
Words: Sarah Bonser
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