Huffington Post and several other sites are asking if a new fashion pictorial in Interview Magazine is racist. The photo spread features model Daria Werbowy (who is considered “The Next Gisele”) and is shot by photographer Mikael Jansson, a long-time contributer to Interview, and the photographer behind many ad campaigns, like Gap, H&M and Chloe. I’ll let HuffPo explain why this could be/probably is a racist photo shoot:

This Mikael Jansson-shot editorial titled “Let’s Get Lost” for Interview Magazine is provocative, without doubt, and really got us thinking about what exactly it means for Daria Werbowy to “lose” herself in a throng of black partygoers.

From the differences in their dress (Daria’s in ethereal, angel-like gowns, the others are in knits and leathers) to their body language (A limp yet super-sexual Daria is the main focus, the others feel almost like props), the whole spread has a rather racist vibe that we can’t get down with despite the gorgeous art direction of the spread. Don’t you agree?

After all, regardless of what some say, fashion is at its core a political and social product–how power relationships are set up in editorials can speak volumes. So while the super-sexy, ethno-traditional thing is very of the moment, it all seems to be setting up a 21st century colonial construct that makes us very uncomfortable. What do you think?

[From HuffPo]

You know what it reminds me of? That old Bill Pullman horror movie, The Serpent and the Rainbow, where Pullman plays an anthropologist studying Haitians, and the drugs that are given to some people that turn them into zombies. Daria looks like a drugged-out zombie, and the dark-skinned people look like they’re the ones who drugged her. Racist? Yes. But I’d put it more in the category of “just cheesy, inappropriate and stupid.”

Interview Magazine photos courtesy of HuffPo & Interview online.