In the October 2010 issue of Numéro, model Constance Jablonski appeared in a fashion spread photographed by Greg Kadel wearing darkened makeup and an afro hairstyle. The imagery was widely condemned as blackface, transforming what the magazine apparently presented as an experimental beauty editorial into a public controversy over racial caricature, cultural appropriation, and the fashion industry's persistent use of Black identity as a visual costume. The incident was particularly damaging because it appeared in a publication that marketed itself as intellectually sophisticated and internationally minded. Rather than being an isolated runway misstep, the spread became part of a broader pattern in fashion magazines in which non-Black models were styled to evoke Blackness while Black models remained underrepresented in editorial and commercial work. The backlash established a damaging precedent for Numéro, which would face another blackface controversy only a few years later.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2010s
Numéro’s 2010 Blackface Editorial Ignites a Racism Backlash
Numéro magazine and photographer Greg Kadel / 2010s
In the October 2010 issue of Numéro, model Constance Jablonski appeared in a fashion spread photographed by Greg Kadel wearing darkened makeup and an afro hairstyle. The imagery was widely condemned as blackface, transforming what the magazine apparently presented as an experimental beauty editorial into a public controversy over racial caricature, cultural appropriation, and the fashion industry's persistent use of Black identity as a visual costume. The incident was particularly damaging because it appeared in a publication that marketed itself as intellectually sophisticated and internationally minded. Rather than being an isolated runway misstep, the spread became part of a broader pattern in fashion magazines in which non-Black models were styled to evoke Blackness while Black models remained underrepresented in editorial and commercial work. The backlash established a damaging precedent for Numéro, which would face another blackface controversy only a few years later.
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