Two years ago, his models wore no makeup. Last winter, black lips and Goth lipliner raised eyebrows.
Related: Marc Jacobs’ Bad Week: Allegations Of Drug-Fueled Grindr Orgies And Professional Collapse
Each season, Marc Jacobs closes New York fashion week and always manages to cause a scene. But for his spring/summer 2017 show on Thursday, he caused a scandal by decking out his predominantly white models in rainbow-dyed dreadlocks.
Related: Marc Jacobs’ Ex Harry Louis To Sue Starbucks For Telling Him To “Become A Man”
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Twitter went into overdrive, providing a nearly instantaneous backlash:
so now I have to stop carrying my Marc Jacobs bag. Oh well
— Desi (@DesiLinda1) September 16, 2016
Black women straightening their hair isn’t appropriation, it’s assimilation. A means for survival. Fuck Marc Jacobs.
— L. (@omglaurstfu) September 16, 2016
You ain’t shit Marc Jacobs, never been shit. I ain’t forget about your foundation bullshit too. https://t.co/81xgEEcigx
— Shimmy (@ShimShimmy) September 16, 2016
We’re supposed shut up and sit down cause Marc Jacobs only included 1 black model. You done lost your rabbit ass mind.
— #WeMatter? (@TheMelaninPlug) September 16, 2016
Who’s in charge of Dr.Seuss’s “The Grinch” as of now because marc jacobs slaughtered mad grinch fingers for his fashion show props hairstyle
— DeVante S. Porter (@AhChieveGolds) September 16, 2016
Marc Jacobs took to Instagram to comment on the controversy, and ill-advisedly used the “I don’t see color or race” line:
“TO ALL WHO CRY ‘CULTURAL APPROPRIATION’ OR WHATEVER NONSENSE ABOUT ANY RACE OR SKIN COLOR WEARING THEIR HAIR IN ANY PARTICULAR STYLE OR MANNER- FUNNY HOW YOU DON’T CRITICIZE WOMEN OF COLOR FOR STRAIGHTENING THEIR HAIR. I RESPECT AND AM INSPIRED BY PEOPLE AND HOW THEY LOOK. I DON’T SEE COLOR OR RACE- I SEE PEOPLE. I’M SORRY TO READ THAT SO MANY PEOPLE ARE SO NARROW MINDED… LOVE IS THE ANSWER. APPRECIATION OF ALL AND INSPIRATION FROM ANYWHERE IS A BEAUTIFUL THING. THINK ABOUT IT”
The comment appeared on this post, but it looks like it’s now been deleted:
Prior to the show, several people predicted this outcome:
*sits back and waits for my timeline to fall apart once they see Marc Jacobs is featuring a dreadlock only runway. pic.twitter.com/GvuQBu3fFb
— Colin Anderson (@BallinWithColin) September 15, 2016
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
What a dull, joyless, straightjacketed world these authoritarian twats would condemn us to.
zimmy88
The rage is strong with these nobodies.
Black people do not have a monopoly on dreadlocks. Plenty of other races and cultures have traditionally had dreadlocks. And I call BS on the whole ‘black women have to straighten their hair to survive!” Really queen?
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Civilisation by its very nature is the history of so-called “cultural appropriation” or rather “cultural transmission” , for good and for ill, and is as inevitable as it is unavoidable. These idiots are cultural troglodytes
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Wouldn’t surprise me if the greater part of Human existence most people’s hair looked like albeit in a less stylised version..I mean someone had to invent the comb first, non?
mastik8
I think I missed something. White people cannot wear dreadlocks? What kind of fakakta BS is that?
JamJewel
I spent the morning enveloped in the Lionel Shriver controversy only to come to Queerty for some piece of mind and relaxation to find the effing issue trending here as well. So! This is how I ended my participation in the earlier discussion about ‘cultural appropriation:’ “I still think it is the nature of the beast for a fiction writer to create art, even when that art is re-enactment. Is a white sculptor limited to ones of white people, for arguments sake? Can an American write the libretto for an Italian classical opera?” And don’t get on my case about fashion being about art because it is in the design phase.
DDstar1me
Hhhhh..can one of y’all read these wonder-breads for filth please. I can’t today lol..I just can’t. lol…
csports286
What a ridiculous double standard. Women of color don’t have to straighten their hair to ‘survive’. Locks are a universal hairstyle. My brother has them and we’re Latino. Not that race even matters!
DDstar1me
And Marc.j, why did you punk out and delete your post. Be a boss about it and go at these bitches hard. LOL. Just say look, African-American women just don’t sell fashion. Vogue said this many years ago about black women on the cover of magazines. It’s about making money. It’s not a color issue right? Whatever people promote as socially acceptable, is what will be marketable. Am I not right?
Thad
People, it’s only fake hair.
dwes09
In a sick sort of way it is refreshing to see tiny little minds on both sides of the political spectrum. Though the resurgence of identity politics is upsetting.
Dreadlocks are not the exclusive property of black people (I have friends “of color”, though not black, who have dreads down below their waists and never get grief over it; none of my black friends currently have dreads, though several have in the past), and those who think so are being silly and petty. If you look at the hair of both men and women in African tribal (as opposed to modernized or urban people), many used mud, oils and other things to straighten their hair long before contact with whites or modern cultures. Fashion and novelty is human. Fashion is about being novel and provocative, and has little or no substance. Those who think otherwise are naive. Bitching and moaning about models with obviously fake dreads will do nothing to alleviate real racial inequity in society and are not in any way a symptom of it. Perhaps the %age of models of color is (though that varies wildly from year to year and designer to designer), but even that is not clear or obvious.
I am very progressive but nonetheless will call BS when i see it and where I see it. I hate to see it on the left, but it’s there and no less foolish than it is on the right.
dwes09
I think a more important issue is how unfunctional, stupid and yet bland the clothing looks. Get a load of the first model shown with a jacket on her shoulders that has sleeves so long it would be impossible to wear, or the stockings that even in the short stroll on the runway are bagging up and looking sloppy. That lack of craftsmanship and concern for users is much more upsetting.
Brian
Black women straighten their hair all the time. It’s called “not proud of being black”. There are tons of black women who lack pride in their skin color.
As for Marc Jacobs, I have never bought his products. Silly women might want to but not me.
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dre23222
As a black man this was just too stupid for people to say something about. I have not a problem at all with this show. It was awesome!! That hairstyle is not just worn by blacks, but a lot of races wear it. Why should race matter? Come on people. Wake up!!! Its 2016 and this is why we still falling behind and in the past instead of moving ahead. We cry over nothing. Marc Jacobs is a talented designer who only see styles for what they are and not someone skin or who suppose to wear this or that.
Last thing, its made out of yarn. Come on!!!!!!!!!
dre23222
@DDstar1me: Not true about black models not selling fashion. Naomi and Iman have covered many fashions magazines and sold garments for many fashion houses. Just wanted to correct you there.
dwes09
@Brian: White women curl their hair all the time. Is that called “not proud of being white”. Most women die their hair at some point. Is that called not being proud of being human? You really need to learn to both think and look at reality outside of your imagination.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
If that’s an issue then ever black woman in American needs to stop stealing white culture with their wigs and weave to make them look like white women’s hair.
Alistair Wiseman
Hysterical screaming and whining about cultural appropriation is the latest rubbish from the regressive left.
The basic translation of this leftist nonsense is:
“You dirty white people, you. You’re not good enough to aspire to my culture. I disrespect you solely based upon your color. Who do you think you are to pretend to be like me?”
Foolish, narcissistic leftism.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
The illiberal Left is “Left” in name onlly. These are horseshoe left and have as much in common with the authoritarian, totalitarian Right who want to strictly enforce certain forms of patriotism and religious observances and language police things like terms we use for Xmas etc etc.
dre23222
@Alistair Wiseman: Not sure if you were sleep when you wrote this comment, but this has nothing to do with politics. Just people being crazy over nothing. It was just a show, nothing more nothing less. So your politics may need to jump in a river.
Alistair Wiseman
@dre23222:
“Not sure if you were sleep [sic] when you wrote this comment, but it has nothing to do with politics.”
I don’t think I was “sleep”, but I’m not naive enough to think that this has nothing to do with “politics”.
“It was just a show, nothing more nothing less.”
EXACTLY!!!
Jack Meoff
People who go through life just looking for the tiniest of things to reinterpret and misinterpret only so they can complain about them have nobody else but themselves to blame for their misery. Not everything is designed to make a political or cultural statement yet people still look for such statements even where there was no statement intended. Lighten the fuck up it’s just bullshit fashion.
Brian
Many of Marc Jacobs’ products are expensive and over-hyped. I wouldn’t buy them if you bribed me.
minnix2
WTF Ever! People it is just some dipshit that thinks he is important bcause he designs clothes. Hell, Kathy Lee thought the same thing 20 years ago! %
jag4313
It’s a fashion show about the fashions? He’s not selling fucking dread locks. Get over it, people. He’s an amazing designer and will continue to put out amazing fashions every years. Keep it going, sir.
jag4313
Isn’t a fashion show about the fashions? He’s not selling fucking dread locks. Get over it, people. He’s an amazing designer and will continue to put out amazing fashions every years. Keep it going, sir.
ErikO
I’m not sure who this guy is but why are people flipping out? It’s fake hair or a wig.
zimmy88
@DDstar1me: Please tell me how your overt racism is any different than that which you supposedly hate.
UltimateSin
*Eat popcorn and read the comments from ignorant as fu(k white people*.
Stilinski26
I am more offended that he hired Kendull Jenner to walk on his show. shes only getting jobs because of her family. Silver spoon.