As an institution of fashion media, Vogue needs to do justice to women of colour
Some sparks of controversy flew this past week when photos of vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, came to light for the cover of Vogue. At first glance many may not notice anything problematic about the photo; Harris is in a black blazer and black pants, looking upbeat, and plus the background is a pretty pink and light green, the colours of her university sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. She looks content and pleasant.
But backlash erupted because of the overall casualness of the shoot. Upon closer inspection of the photo, it becomes clear that it’s not a formal black pants and blazer Harris is wearing, but actually just regular street clothing, something fairly uncommon on a magazine cover. Since Vogue is one of the main leaders in fashion media, people usually grace the magazine’s cover in high-end brand names, couture, and all that is fresh off the runway — not an everyday outfit. In fact, the clothing in the cover photo is Harris’own. Critics have argued that the shoot was unflattering and disrespectful. With Harris being the first elected official on a Vogue cover, America wanted to see professionalism and a strong Black woman, and to feel assurance in their choice of elected representative. Since Vogue continuously dresses their cover stars in the best of the best and makes them look flawless, it seems odd that they didn’t do the same for Harris.
Karen Attiah wrote in the Washington Post that “in a world where strong Black women are often maligned as intimidating and unfeminine, the image Vogue chose reduced Harris just as she is taking her rightful place at the heights of American power.”
Last year, Vogue got some well-deserved heat for its lack of diversity and poor treatment of BIPOC employees under the direction of the editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour. According to the New York Times, many current and former employees of Vogue agree, “Ms. Wintour created a work environment — and there is no facet of Vogue that she does not control — that sidelined and tokenized women of color, especially Black women.” It’s also been said that Wintour only encourages a “thin, rich, and white” standard of beauty.
On top of that, Vogue was highly criticized for hiring a white photographer, Annie Leibovitz, instead of a Black photographer for the magazine’s cover shoot for the August 2020 issue featuring American gymnast, Simone Biles. Many claimed that Leibovitz was unfit for the role because of the poor lighting decisions on the shoot. The photos of Biles resulted in muted colours and washed-out looking skin. Some on Twitter even added their own edits of the photos to show how good Biles could have looked.
As of right now, Harris’ team has declined to comment, but the magazine stands behind the photo, saying, “The team at Vogue loved the images Tyler Mitchell shot and felt the more informal image captured Vice President-elect Harris’s authentic, approachable nature — which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden/Harris administration.”
Amidst the backlash, Vogue quickly released another photo of Harris. She’s wearing a pale blue suit with her arms crossed — a much more professional take. The magazine has said that this will be the “digital cover.”
Of course not everyone can be happy with every decision Harris and her team agree to, but this cover shoot seems like a poor choice in judgement all together. Like Harris, Michelle Obama and Hilary Clinton have also posed for Vogue, but they were the first lady when the issue was published, not an actual elected official. With so much of Vogue’s problems related to racism coming to light over the past year, I’m very surprised that Harris even agreed to the shoot to begin with. I thought Vogue was already not respected in the social justice realm by this point.
This cover could have been an excellent opportunity for Vogue to do a better job at making amends with the Black community in America, but once again, Wintour and Vogue have failed us.
