Alexandra Collins | Ross Garrett | Marie Claire South Africa December 2011 | The Orient Express
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For starters, I love this editorial ‘The Orient Express’, starring non-Asian Canadian model Alexandra Collins, lensed by Ross Garrett for Marie Claire South Africa’s December 2011 issue. Sharon Becker styles Alexandra in a range of geisha-inspired prints and sash dressing, with the result being a global culture mix fit for any fashion queen.
But is this fashion editorial politically correct? Or it a cultural fashion appropriation gone terribly wrong and an insult to Asians everywhere?
Don’t take me seriously for a moment, but I am running out the digital door to our dear Jezebel and a few other fashion bloggers to be sure I’ve not walked into a hornet’s nest — the equivalent of liking those ‘slave trade’ earrings on the Vogue Italia website that warranted being tarred and feathered in hot wax if you failed to see the offence as racism on a level worse than female misogyny in the Bible.
The truth is that we’re working on our new V-Day 2012 jewelry collection, and I am sure to be hung from the rafters and spanked silly for my most egregious styling sins. I have a strong feeling that Mami Wata’s collection in particular will get us in such difficult straits with the censors, that those poor bead makers in Africa will never see a darn cent.
Thinking … thinking … thinking …
Now until this moment did I make the profound connection that when men call me Mami, I am being honored as a true goddess. Wow! Then again, Urban Dictionary says it’s not so honoring ‘Mami’. No problem … at my age, I’ll take it. Just please don’t call me a ‘slut’. Anne
