WYD, Olivier? Balmain Is Under Fire For Painting Light Skinned Models In Blackface

Source: Victor VIRGILE / Getty

Balmain Uses Blackface In Couture Show

Balmain closed out Couture week in Paris Wednesday, but instead of everyone talking about the haute designs, they’re calling the designer out for using blackface on some models.

In the show, certain models had their skin painted white, mainly the white and Asian models. But a handful of Black models, with naturally light skin, were dripped in black paint. In contrast to the painted women, many of the models rocked their natural skin tones. Was this done just for the art of it?

To be specific, this is a model Ysaunny Brito. She is from the Dominican Republic and has a natural bronze complexion.

Here she is without makeup.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsytdG2hUsG/

Although Ysaunny is still considered Black, people offended are saying that Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s mixed raced creative director, should know better than to even come this close to blackface given its history. The other point was there are models who are naturally dark who could’ve achieved the same contrast in the Couture get-ups — if that was the point of the paint.

Another model below, Cindy Bruna, rocked the ebony paint too. She’s Italian-Congolese.

For context, Rousteing was raised by white adoptive parents and has said that he does not identify as Black or white — “just human.”

In a 2016 interview Olivier called out the industry for more incusiveness: “I think the industry needs to start working harder. When you see critics talking about a show that has no [models of] color and they call it ‘modern’? I wouldn’t call that modern, I’m sorry. We have the chance to represent the world and how we want that world to be.”

Hit the flip to see how folks are upset over Balmain covering models in blackface. What do YOU think of all of this?