Are colorful, flamboyant dreadlocks on models cultural appropriation? After Marc Jacobs’s high fashion NYFW show, the Twittersphere exploded with criticism for the white designer and his white models, heads topped with piles of neon dreads.
#Fashion industry won't hire #blackmodels but will slap dreads on a white girl?
BYE,#MarcJacobs!https://t.co/vbvJvSmlhY#diversity #style pic.twitter.com/3HlFoCzjmI— Triston212 (@Triston212) September 19, 2016
I wish designers like #MarcJacobs would stop thinking that whitewashing black culture somehow elevates it into "high fashion"
— glucose father (@pimpsaucee) September 16, 2016
His response to the hate was labelled equally tone deaf in the eyes of the media and the general public.
Marc Jacobs's dreadlock controversy reply misunderstands concept of cultural appropriation https://t.co/rkPph0F39K pic.twitter.com/6PILJPwfZO
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) September 16, 2016
#MarcJacobs gives 'dread-ful' response to #NYFW controversy: https://t.co/sesl4CDEFA pic.twitter.com/FMAMH1ocIq
— Kayla Cheyenne Boyd (@kaylacboyd) September 20, 2016
Others couldn’t find the issue. NYFW is about fashion, isn’t it? Some claimed that cultures are meant to be borrowed and make a more dynamic final product while others referred to the history of the dreadlock style.
To everyone upset by #MarcJacobs dreadlocks – did u know locs date back to Indian Culture as early as 2,500 BCE? https://t.co/jLhBKRXshl
— Simone Boyce (@SimoneBoyce) September 19, 2016
Re: #MarcJacobs "controversy" – isn't it better that cultures get co-opted???
If we want to meld, we can't be possessive about cultures
— Rock N' Roll (@dontotter) September 19, 2016
Marc Jacobs seems to have stumbled on a trend that carries a far deeper meaning than he initially realized. His use of the traditionally African American hairstyle made him a culturally aware artist to some, while to others it came off as a profound misunderstanding of the culture clash within fashion, and within America as a whole.