Update 9/27/12: Following the controversy over these earrings, Dolce & Gabbana has given an explanation: the jewelry is “a reference to Sicily’s traditional Moorish-inspired artifacts.” Vogue UK explains, “The show jewellery is reminiscent of ornate ceramics that often appear in Sicilian homes, restaurants and hotels. The head is inspired by traditional Moorish people, a term used to describe the Medieval Muslim inhabitants of Sicily.” [Vogue UK]
Lots of conversation in The Frisky offices just now about whether these Dolce And Gabbana earrings of a black woman with a basket of fruit on her head are straight-up racist or just … odd. On the one hand, the earrings depict a very stereotypical, some might say colonialist, idea of a black woman: very dark skin, a head scarf wrapped on her head, the basket of fruit. The earrings are worn by a model who appears at first glance to be Caucasian and Dolce and Gabbana is a European luxury company, which makes it seem as if wearing “black women’s heads as earrings” is a fashion statement about how “exotic” black people are. (Another “exotic” example? Victoria Secret’s “Sexy Little Geisha” outfit.) And it’s not just the earrings that raised eyebrows; style blog Refinery 29 reports Dolce and Gabbana’s spring 2013 collection included “burlap dresses” and “fruit cornucopias” which suggested an ode to “a long-lost colonial era.” Keep reading »
