The place of ethnicity in the current fashion industry has dominated much of the conversation surrounding the collections displayed at this season’s New York and Paris fashion weeks. Back in September, Kanye West’s collection provoked mixed responses and heated discussions regarding his decision to arrange his models and their outfits by skin colour. West has since denied that the show was politically charged but in subsequent dialogue about Yeezy Season 2 has found it difficult to avoid its seeming social commentary on the racial politics of the industry and, indeed, America generally. West has repeatedly spoken out against the sense of alienation he feels when trying to being taken seriously as a creative figure within predominantly white fashion institutions and the song ‘New Slaves’ has been widely understood as an exploration of what he regards as entrenched bigotry: “they wasn’t satisfied unless I picked the cotton myself”. He controversially employs the narrative of slavery to make a statement about modern capitalism and his own relationship with fashion: “spendin’ everything on Alexander Wang/New Slaves”. He told Zane Lowe last year that the track was referring to “us, the new slaves, the people who love fashion…’Cause I’m a slave to it”. West has discouraged us from seeing Yeezy Season 2 in these terms and accused any political reading of the show as being inherently racist in itself. West wants us to view it through a purely artistic lens and doesn’t consider the possibility that this form of art can be sociopolitical.

However, regardless of his intentions, the show did invite a much-needed discussion about fashion’s relationship with people of colour. From Kylie Jenner’s cornrows to the appearance of the bindi in ASOS’s Halloween section, there has been a recent rise in trends that have a problematic relationship with race, triggering accusations of appropriation. Cultural appropriation occurs when a dominant hegemonic culture takes elements from a culture of people who have been oppressed by that same group. In the current world of fashion, there has been ambiguity and disagreement about what counts as ‘appropriation’ as opposed to celebratory cultural exchange and ‘appreciation’.

The recent Valentino SS16 fashion show, however, demonstrates that much of the fashion industry continues to have a dangerous and insensitive relationship with non-white culture. Their newest collection was entitled ‘Africa’, featuring what the house described as a “primitive, tribal, spiritual yet regal” aesthetic. Firstly, the use of words such as “primitive” categorises Africa as an uncivilised and underdeveloped world, a process Edward Said famously described as ‘othering’. Secondly, the use of the term “regal” appears to be an attempt to civilize and thus reconstitute the aesthetic into a more familiar, Eurocentric and white archetype of female beauty. The simple title ‘Africa’ fails to recognise the enormous diversity and variation between the fifty-four countries that make up the continent and conceptualises it as one monolithic, homogenous entity. Perhaps the most abhorrent (but normalised) feature of the show, however, is its casting. The house of Valentino stated that the collection was paying homage to ‘African grace’ but featured almost exclusively white models. Out of a show of ninety looks, less than ten models of colour were used to showcase the pieces attempting to celebrate the ‘beauty of Africa’. White models walked down the catwalk sporting dreadlocks and wearing tiger prints, feathers and beaded necklaces. This alone articulates the distinction between aesthetic appreciations of particular cultures to a mindless usurpation of that culture by white hegemony.

In its failure to include black models, the Valentino show is an example of the most dangerous side of the current industry. It is indicative of the all too common desire to select aspects of other cultures to make impressive and beautiful collections alongside a complete ignorance of the origins and meaning of such materials and imagery. It reminds us that the fashion industry continues to have an uneasy exchange with issues of race and ethnicity and is a problem that continues to demand discussion.