GOING NUDE
TO SHOW YOUR TRUE COLOUR
A CONTINUUM OF COLOUR: Cosmetics and underwear manufacturers are learning that they have to cater for a wide range of skin tones
WHEN women take off their makeup and their clothes, who gets to decide the colour of the skin tone underneath? Because — let’s be honest — “nude” has always meant beige in the beauty industry. And beige has always equalled white.
Darker or non-Caucasian skin tones have historically been ignored by the top beauty brands, which see the world through the prism of “whiteness”.
From makeup to underwear, people of colour have taken to social media to express their frustration about the lack of inclusion when it comes to their skin tone in beauty products. This has led to one of the most popular hashtags on social media, #Melanin, pioneered by black American women. Darkskinned people can have 43 times as much melanin per skin cell as light-skinned people.
According to author Hlonipha Mokoena, an associate professor at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, the resurgence of #Melanin is a millennial version of black pride, post-Black Panthers, post-independence and post-apartheid, since it involves much more than political rights. “It is about body, mind, hair and spirituality, and so it is much more complicated since it is also not organised under a political slogan,” she said.
Nude vs melanin is one of the topics that trended in 2016 and, A NEW TAKE: Crusading black model Deddeh Howard, right, recreated famous fashion pictures with a black slant, imitating Linda Evangelista in an advert for Chanel spectacles thanks to the power of social media, brands have had to change. It remains a hot topic this year.
Social media was instrumental in propelling the movement, and companies such as Apple and WhatsApp have responded by including racially diverse emojis.
Skin foundation is a particular stumbling block for many beauty brands, which have so far failed to cater for all ethnicities. But the tide is changing, albeit slowly, as skin-care companies including Chanel and Lancôme look set to widen their shade ranges in 2017 to ensure they have products on offer for everyone.
The JWT Innovation Group, in its 100 Trends and Changes to Watch in 2017 report, includes beauty brands breaking down the walls between “general” and “ethnic” ranges of makeup. LEGS ELEVEN: Shoes and skin tones can come in all shades
Mokoena believes this change in attitude is pioneered by wealthy, successful black people who have become influencers. She said the recognition and marketability of black people had always been a problem for the fashion industry. From the limited range of black characters in films to the reluctance to put black models on the covers of magazines, brown to black skins had traditionally been excluded from this exposure.
“Although it is tempting to think of it as just being about either racism or ignorance, it is much bigger than that because it is also about money and perceptions,” said Mokoena.
“The likes of Willow Smith becoming the face of Chanel, Lupita Nyong’o representing Lancôme and Rihanna appearing in Dior advertising doesn’t mean that the fashion industry has transcended its ‘racialised’ understandings of consumption.”
Freelance beauty editor and The Matte Project founder Mathahle Stofile said many international beauty companies were falling over themselves to penetrate the African market, because it had occurred to them that African women had the means and the desire to buy their products.
“For the longest time, beauty brands have catered to and targeted white women as their main market. I suppose this is VICTORIA’S DOUBLE: Deddeh Howard takes on the Candice Swanepoel look to mimic a Victoria’s Secret underwear advert. Boyfriend and photographer Raffael Dickreuter helped Howard recreate the images because they viewed white women as the ones who had the means to purchase these products — or perhaps black people were just not on their radar enough for them to care.”
The reason for this trend could be that beauty brands had run their course in many developed countries and it made sense to milk a new or emerging market — “what I like to call the ‘ignored’ market because we were always here”, Stofile said.
“Thankfully, this is changing as more of us are becoming vocal and demanding to be seen and heard.”
In 2015, Sudanese model Nykhor Paul voiced her frustration on Instagram, saying she was done apologising for her “blackness”.
At the London Fashion Week autumn/winter collection last year, black British model Leomie Anderson called out a makeup artist for being illequipped to work with black catwalk stars.
She voiced her frustration on Twitter: “Why is it that the black makeup artists are busy with blonde white girls and slaying their makeup and I have to supply my own foundation?”
Forward to May 2016. Finally some brands decided to lead the way in diversifying underwear for all skin types. Lingerie brands such as Naja and Björn Borg expanded their ranges to include seven nude matching skin tones, proving that nude MELANIN MAKEOVER: Deddeh Howard, right, recreates a Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses advert shouldn’t just be beige. With the campaign “Nude for All”, Naja stated on its website that it wanted to change the idea that there is only one nude. The mantra of the campaign was “Why try to fit into someone else’s skin when you can shine in your own?”
In 1994, supermodel Iman started her own cosmetics line, Iman Cosmetics, for women of colour after retailers told her that “black women don’t buy liquid foundation”. Today, the brand is worth $25-million (about R338-million).
Brands that cater for women of colour such as Black Opal and Bobbi Brown followed and are pioneering the black market.
Late last year Liberia-born and Los Angeles-based model Deddeh Howard recreated iconic fashion photographs to promote racial diversity in fashion advertising.
Mokoena believes there are still many wrongs involving cultural appropriation, and Stofile said there was also misuse of the word “ethnic”.
“Ethnic in beauty refers to anyone who isn’t white. Which is ridiculous, right? Because white people also belong to ethnic groups.”
US designer Marc Jacobs was surprised by the backlash recently when he used white models with candyfloss-coloured dreadlocks on the catwalk.
“There are still many controversies involving cultural appropriation and the excessive use of white models to represent all men and women,” said Mokoena.
Attitude change is pioneered by wealthy, successful black people Why try to fit into someone else’s skin when you can shine in your own?
STAR APPEAL: Actress Lupita Nyong’o has been signed as the face of Lancôme