“Let’s Get Lost”
The editorial for Interview below, photographed by Mikael Jansson and styled by Karl Templer was accompanied by the tag line; “Let’s get lost. The hour is late, the air is thick, and the evening is charged with a steamy sensuality. What works? Tone-on-tone swimsuits, slithers of silk, and plenty of skin, as flesh meets flesh, body meets soul, and Daria gets lost in the heat of the night.”
However, since being featured, the shoot has created a divide in which some love it and some reading into it as a glorification of white against black. A member of TFS commented: “I expect more from Interview than some stereotypical, white person enters into strange and exotic world of brown people editorial.” and a commenter on Fashionologie retorted: “As a person of African descent I applaud Interview Magazine, Karl Templer, Mikael Jansson and all other creatives involved in this shoot for putting black models in their issue…What is so strange and exotic about a white person entering a room full of ‘brown people’…Personally, I am excited to see so many black models in a single spread and hope that it inspires other publications to take a step forward and embrace models of color in their own fashion editorials.”
Hmm interesting.
What do I think? I think the shoot is aesthetically one of the most beautiful I have seen in a while. I wanted to look at what all the girls were wearing, black AND white. I think everyone looks damn sexy and your eyes aren’t simply drawn to Daria (white model). I think that I feel really sorry for the fashion assistants who had to get all those clothes on and off with minimal oil damage. Been there, done that and wanted to cry.
Anyway, enough about me. WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK?
photos via TFS
I LOVE IT! I don’t see it as racist it in any way. The clothes are amazing and their well oiled bodies look great. It’s just a beatifully shot series of photos with beautiful people.
The fashion world doesn’t use people of colour as often as it should
so when I come across a great editorial it makes me ecstatic.
I don’t share the view that this white woman has enetered a ‘strange, exotic world’.
That view is itself stereotypical and quite offensive.
Why are the brown people seen as exotic?
Maybe I’m just a naive black woman but I don’t go looking for racsim where it isn’t.
I’m not saying it doesn’t exist but this shoot isn’t it.
I see a place where the majority of the people are black but the white models are just as comfortable and at home in that place as their black counterparts.
I have been to clubs/bars like this but if the vibe is great and everyone is having a great time, nobody cares or sees colour.
I agree to an extent with the comment above. However I do feel , though not rascist, there is an agenda to show the “white lady” in a strange , dark , black place. It is a pretty set up , but you would never find a shoot where they take arlenis sosa , naomi , chanel iman, or other top black models have been shot in an enviroment where they are specifically standing out against their white counterparts as part of the set up. Imagine Naomi cambell draped in a field surrounded by white men with blonde hair in oil with sunflowers surrounding them? where she looks like shes entered some underworld…I think not. Apart for alex wek(lets not start that discussion) Black models are never presented in a manner like this. More imprtantly , even though not rascist , this shot is very remenicent of some sort of dodgy 70s propaganda i can imagine southern american parents would fear would happen to there inocent children if they mixed with the blacks… very obvious in concept, and based on old skool shock values, but too fashionista to be rascist..
It’s dope. Stranger in a strange land perhaps. Everything doesn’t have to be political.
I thought all the commentary was ‘much ado about nothing’…. I’ve seen FAR more controversial editorials that don’t have half of the beauty of these Interview shots…
It’s the PEOPLE commenting, such as that person on TFS who are making out that the set-up is exoticising black people…
At first glance, I thought it was racist but then I changed my mind. It’s visually arresting and it’s hot. Fear of black sexuality is what’s bothering people, I’m guessing.
this is epic, reminds me of 5th element for some reason. i first glanced at the images and race didn’t event enter my mind, D&G adverts did though