Racism On The Runway?: Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring 2013 Collection Sparks Questions Of Cultural Insensitivity

Dolce & Gabbana has been under fire after editors and fashionistas began questioning the inspiration and cultural insensitivity behind the Italian fashion house’s Spring 2013 collection earrings. Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabanna say that they were influenced by their native home, Sicily. Garments swept the runway in deep rogue, sand, yellow and ocean blue. Puffed sleeves and potato sack inspired pieces were also part of the collection. Patterns of suited up men armored with swords donned outfits, but other patterns didn’t go over so well.

One in particular portrayed a dark-skinned Black woman, head wrapped in a brightly colored turban and fair lips carrying a basket of fruit on her head- think a darker skinned Chiquita banana. Many of the earrings from the collection bore the same woman painted both black and white. Critiques claim the pattern and earrings are reminiscent of the controversial mammy archetype- an over-sized African woman enslaved or working as a servant. 

Black Woman On Pattern 

Are the designers just grabbing inspiration from the past? Or is it too much?

SOURCE: KRISHINA DAVIS