Popular fashion magazine, ELLE Germany, is facing criticism for a recent feature highlighting Black models.
The controversial feature piece in the magazine's November issue titled "Black Is Back."
Readers, fashion models and other professionals in the industry called out the magazine for its article for the magazine to treat Black people as a trend.
Instagram fashion blog Diet Prada said its ironic for the magazine to declare that “Black is back”, considering how ELLE Germany and other fashion publications have been complicit in denying visibility to Black models until recently.
"The issue, titled 'Back to Black', also features a white model on the cover," Diet Prada wrote on Instagram. "You can’t make this stuff up!"
The publication apologized in a statement, saying the goal was to approach the color black from different angles.
“One of our focuses was to feature strong Black women who work as fashion models," Elle Germany editor-in-chief Sabine Nedelchev said. "In doing so, we were guilty of several errors [for] which we sincerely apologize."
Nedelchev said it was wrong to use the cover line "Black Is Back“, which could be misconstrued to mean that black individuals are some sort of fashion trend.
"This obviously was not our intention and we regret not being more sensitive to the possible misinterpretations," Nedelchev said.
ELLE Germany also misidentified model Naomi Chin Wing as Janaye Furman.
In response to the magazine's error, Furman posted an Instagram video of herself sipping tea, with the hashtag #blackisback.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell expressed her thoughts on Instagram, saying this is sad to see and highly insulting in every way.
"I’ve said countless of times, we are not a TREND," Campbell wrote. "We are here to STAY. It’s OK to celebrate models of color, but please do it in an ELEGANT and RESPECTFUL way.”
Campbell said she is willing to have a conversation to clarify the guidelines on diversity and it's very disappointing to see a Black model misidentified.
“It’s very important for a publication to be culturally sensitive and give credit where it’s due," she wrote. "We all need to unite on this matter.”
"This has definitely been a learning experience for us and, again, we deeply regret any harm or hurt we have unwittingly caused," the magazine said.
