Black Cosmo Editor Speaks Out After “Alice In Ghetto Land” Show

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An African-American fashion editor as Cosmopolitan Magazine spoke out after designer Philip Plein’s “Alice In Ghetto Land” fashion show in Milan.

Tiffany Reid told her boss, editor-in-chief Joanna Coales, that she felt uncomfortable with the runway show, which featured models dressed in denim, wearing gold chains and carrying boom boxes.

Reid covered the show for the women’s lifestyle mag during Fashion Week in Milan, Italy and was shaken by what she saw.

“For me, the takeaway is that it happens, and we’re not going to be able to stop designers from pulling from our culture, but when it’s done in a distasteful way, we need to have a discussion about it.”

Reid said she enjoys a positive professional working relationship with Plein and hopes that it’ll stay that way. And although German Plein may not have known that the collection and it’s seemingly cultural misappropriation may have made people of color uneasy, Reid said it’s important that she made her feelings known. She said she wants other black women to know that they can speak out about racially tinged issues in their job and not be viewed as anti-establishment.

“Even if it wasn’t done in a malicious way, it still needs to be addressed,” she said. “I just hope people take that from that conversation.”