The Post Colonial Hangover: The Epic Battle of Fair VS Dark

(Lakshmi Menon)
"It's schizophrenia on a very large scale"- Lakshmi Menon in this video.

(An ad for fairness creams)

This post is a rant, so if you're not in the mood to read a long-winded, semi angsty, poorly written post of the pathetic state of Asian cosmetic industries/European catwalks being whitewashed (yeah, I know, I'm too original to be real), go read some Fashionista and gawk at the genius of Carine Rotfield.

This post was inspired by a personal encounter, much the same as this post. I'm Indian, as most of you know. I'm from the north, and basically, all my life I've been told that I look nice because I'm "fair" by Indian standards. This irks the hell out of me because a) I've always wanted to be gorgeously bronzy and b) I have cousins who are darker and absolutely stunning, but they're never given as much attention because of just that.

Watch this video for an in-depth look at what Indian girls/women themselves have to say about the issue.

It just goes to show the sad state of the Indian (and Asian in general, I am told) peoples' mind to generalize the idea of beauty, equating it to fair skin. A post colonial hangover, it is. After years of being convinced that the white race is superior in every way, it's hard for the masses to adjust to the fact that beauty is subjective and largely relative.

Racism, seemingly is worse in India than in Europe because it's prejudice against people of your own country! I had a friend who was told her whole life that she was ugly because she was dark skinned and when she went to Europe, to a university in Italy, she found admirers and was shocked. She told me later that she was saddened and enraged at the thought that a thing as trivial as complexion has been made out to be such an important factor in everyday life here.

There's a million dollar cosmetics industry thriving on peoples' insecurities because of color. They sell "whitening' or "fairness" creams and the ads show women scoring job interviews, cars, guys and their families' approval because of their new and improved light skin.

It's also kind of comical how most of my friends in the States and Europe spend hours and hours trying to tan themselves, using tanning oils and whatnot. Here, however, people spend countless hours just scrubbing the "tan" off their faces.

Let's take a look at history, shall we? India has been invaded time and again- by Persians, Moghuls and Brits, all with fairer skin than ours. They were lead to believe that being dark was being uncivilized and inferior. This, for some absurd and unidentifiable reason has carried on till date and people still prefer to hang onto that tired notion. And they are, ultimately, being subconsciously and unknowingly driven by racial prejudices.

"Why are our runways so white?"- Naomi Campbell and Jourdan Dunn

(Vogue Italia)

This problem trickles down to the fashion industry, as well. Lakshmi Menon, Diana Penty and

"It's all about what sells clothes, and people aspire to be white, blonde and thin, so there we go. We're being naive if we say that's not racist."- a stylist who prefers to stay anon to thisislondon.co.uk

I don't know about this. I personally do not want to be white, or blonde for that matter. But maybe there are lots who do. The fact that Naomi Campbell is the only massively successful British model speaks volumes. The fact that Chanel Iman is (close to) one of the only contemporary American ones does too. Jourdan's career was given a big boost because of the Topshop deal but would she have got it had it been someone else but Kate Moss deciding? Kate, best friend of Naomi?

And we live in an age when Marina Peres and Raquel Zimmerman are considered "ethnic". The idiocy of that statement is overwhelming. Arlenis Sosa and Indian Lakshmi Menon are, though widely used in the States, mostly missing on European catwalks in favor of their eastern european counterparts. And I'm sorry, but whatever happened to Alek Wek? It's silly and outright disrespectful to not consider ethnic models because, at the end of the day, they're part of their customer base. Even the ever political Miuccia Prada whitewashes her catwalks several times over! Milan just doesn't get it.

Up until the civil rights movement, "flesh colors were the color of white people". Invisible make-up and nude pantyhose were made to suit Caucasian skin. Manufacturers and designers decided to forget about people without chalk white skin; large populations of other continents and even their own!

But these days, with the most powerful man in the world being black (Obama), and ethnic people being heavy hitters in all arenas of society, fashion continues to inch out. The US is probably the most tolerant. In India, the wheel is reversed. While darker skinned people are looked down upon in all other areas of life (I'm generalizing here. The educated class tends to be a bit smarter about such things), the runways are noticeably dusky.

In the US, although black women spend $20 billion on apparel, they are on the whole unrepresented.

“Modeling is probably the one industry where you have the freedom to refer to people by their color and reject them in their work”- Bethann Hardison, owner of the agency that promoted Naomi Campbell and Tyson Beckford

Ivan Bart, of IMG Models who's represented Liya Kebede and Alek Wek says that they have quite a few ethnic models like Honorine Uwera, Mimi Roche, etc. and that they're given the same amount of exposure but they tend to get the same reply from designers' booking agents:She’s lovely, but she’s not right for the show.’”

J Alexander (yep of ANTM) says " Years ago, runways were almost dominated by black girls like the gorgeous mosaic runway shows staged by Hubert de Givenchy or Yves Saint Laurent in the 1970s. Now some people are not interested in the vision of the black girl unless they’re doing a jungle theme and they can put her in a grass skirt and diamonds and hand her a spear.”

(Liya Kebede)

DVF is probably the only label, apart from Baby Phat (which barely counts) and Heatherette that hire tons of ethnic models and Diane has always maintained that "someone has to mark the beginning."

With Oprah being the most powerful woman in media and Obama being the president of the biggest superpower of the world, we continue to differentiate and dissect and be prejudiced. "When did we start going backwards?"- DVF

James Scully, a former agent for Tom Ford says that this is owing to the fact that the current look needed is that of the android. A blank faced girl who gives no competition to the clothes because she's the same as every other girl on every other page of every other fashion magazine in every other country.

You'd think we've come a long way from when whiteness was associated with royalty because it meant not having to go outside to work. But apparently not.

PS- I love how this post started out being about the cosmetic industry in India and went on to become a rant about the fashion industry in general.

PPS-

The Sring 2010 Haute Couture collections are blasting all over the net (Grazia even posted on twitter "Dior from under Tavi's pesky hat :P), and I'm mostly happy. Except for Dior which seemed like a slightly more masculine version of their last collection. Even the make-up and hair was blandly the same. GALLIANO, YOU LISTENING? Where's the fabulosity, eh?

Chanel was stunning as usual (oh, the hair. I'm teasing mine like crazy right now and looking like a total tool) and the block colors at Alexis Mabille were absolutely inspired. My favorite apart from Chanel was probably Christophe Josse. A classier, more high fashion version of J Mendel meets Elie Saab. Very feminine and ... pretty, is all I can say. I mean, THIS is what celebrities should've worn to the Golden Globes instead of that chintzy mess (Sandra Bullock). Armani Prive was, true to form, fabulously tailored and had one overriding accent; this time: the crescent button. I have a feeling it's going to be popping up on in editorials v. soon (ahem, W, ahem).

http://www.coutorture.com/7194258?page=0,0,1

Valentino=Rodarte much?

http://www.coutorture.com/Jean-Paul-Gaultier-Spring-2010-Haute-Couture-7191827?page=0,0,0

Anja looks like a friggin Egyptian goddess.

PPPS- Thanks to Jasmine for featuring me on her blog and sorry for posting this up so late! You can check out my mini interview here.

That's all.

XO

Arushi