FSH 6.0 (Fashion Six Point Oh) is a weekly post-paris news and shade round-up.

HALLOWEEN: white people keep dressing as The Problem that we are.

Let’s start with Peak Problem. “A father dressed his son as HITLER for Halloween, and was shocked at the backlash he received.” That’s the actual headline. The Dad of the Year contender also went as an accompanying Nazi officer. Because, white imagination is a historical anesthetic. This week Internet is bracing for all the blackface enthusiasts, onetime Indians and other “slutty” whatnots. “My culture is not your costume” has been a regular topic since Ohio University students launched a viral campaign in 2011. That’s seven years ago, enough time to grow a human child past the age-appropriate developmental milestone of basic moral judgement. In 2018, there is zero excuse except (y)our knack for a bit o’ racism, Islamophobia, misogyny. The real scary stuff. Please, get schooled by a Teen Vogue video or go learn the Megyn Kelly way.

Jenner Apologetics 101: oops, they Vogued it again!

At this point, every issue of Vogue should come with a well-designed we-sorry sticker right on the cover. Kendall Jenner starred in yet another afrogate editorial this week. While I agree with @diet_prada explanation in this particular case, when one’s entire career history is marked by cultural appropriation… Basically, how to know if content is racially insensitive? If there is a Kardashian-Jenner-Hadid offspring making money off it, it’s most likely racist profiteering. The more you know. Cue, rainbow swoosh.

Dress to Impress: Who, How, Why?! A Race & Fashion Exhibition

Parsons has mounted an exhibition Fashion and Race: Deconstructing Ideas, Reconstructing Identities (now through November 11). I so wish I could swing by NYC for it, because it offers a brilliant how-to challenge to fashion academia. There is a pressing need to re-evaluate teaching fashion history as a white-centric aesthetic force. Parsons alumni Stevens Añazco, Katiuscia Gregoire, Cecile Mouen, and Avery Youngblood examine their identities and the processes that have shaped our racialized ideas of style, beauty and creative worth. Can I have some more, please! 

Vivienne Westwood Vs. Fracking. Here For It! 

Occasionally, Vivienne Westwood regains some of that punk credibility she’d traded in for her Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire title in 2006. Last week, her protest against fracking had everything: ABBA-soundtracked satire of the Prime Minister, fashion as resistance art, actionable calls to action. My students (rightfully) loved it. LOVED. IT. Now, come to think of it, a truly harrowing Halloween costume would be going dressed as a recent UN Climate Change Report. Boo!

The End of Art Everything: A.I. Breaks Christie’s

Something else terrifying for Halloween 2018?! Meet Edmond de Belamy. A painting by Artificial Intelligence sold at an auction for $432,500. That’s nearly half a million dollars going to a literal no-body. I was thinking of fashion as post-paris, but it’s time to upgrade entire creative economy to post-human. We had it coming. Here it is.

I guess, this is fashion, I guess. #Catogram

Another student blog alerted me to Grace Coddington putting her cats Blanket and Pumpkin on Louis Vuitton merch, calling it a collab of the season and retailing this purr-fect collection (Vogue words, not mine) for giveaway prices from $150 for a key chain. My reaction? “So we are doing this now, ok!” Somewhere AI is facepalming itself. At 77 years strong, Coddington is a legit legend and I am all for folks cashing-in. Her and Vivienne Westwood could’ve been pranking people as twins at some luxury retirement community, but they be protesting and launching talk shows on digital platforms. More power to ’em. AND. How to reconcile reverence for an individual with clarity on this collab being just an easy corporate cash grab?! Ka-ching Meow.

There you have it. FSH 6.0 / FASHION SIX POINT OH. October 28, 2018

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