On Friday, designer Junya Watanabe presented a menswear show with models draped in beads, bones, masks and other tribal accoutrements. The African-inspired pi?ce de r?sistance: headpieces piled high with braided, twisted hair.
And none of the models appeared to be black. The disconnect prompted immediate outrage Twitter, including tweets that cleverly highlighted the appropriated hairpieces with Rachel Dolezal comparisons:
The collection was created in collaboration with Vlisco, a Dutch company that is among the biggest fabric suppliers to West and Central Africa.
Vlisco, which creates African-inspired prints, is hugely popular with female African shoppers, according to the Business of Fashion. While the company started selling in Europe in the 1800s, it quickly turned to the African market including countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast, spreading "to such an extent that Vlisco is now an authentic part of the cultural fabric" in West Africa.
Despite that connection to the continent, the collection's blatant use of African symbols and styles reeked of appropriation.
Critics on Twitter have pointed out how establishment fashion critics, such as Tim Blanks of
Style.com and Miles Socha of Women's Wear Daily, seemed to bend over backward and sideways to avoid mentioning race in their reviews.
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