Amy Lefevre, an African American model at a Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), stood up to designers who asked her to wear blatantly “racist” accessories, including “monkey ears”, bright red, synthetic lips and bushy eyebrows at NYFW. The lips were also made out from sex toys, side note.
In a statement made to NY Post, she said; “I stood there almost ready to break down, telling the staff that I felt incredibly uncomfortable with having to wear these pieces and that they were clearly racist… People of colour are struggling too much in 2020 for the promoters not to have vetted and cleared accessories for the shows.”
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She was met with substantial resistance when bringing the issue to authorities, saying “I was told that it was fine to feel uncomfortable for only 45 seconds.” Shockingly, however, she wasn’t the only person that brought the issue up.
Another student anonymously said, “We brought it up to [Richard Thornn, the producer of the show] multiple times… We said, ‘She cannot wear this. This is wrong.’ He screamed in my face, ‘You need to back down and get away.’ It was such a grave lack of judgment.” The student also said that other classmates made objections to the show’s director, Jonathan Kyle Farmer, on the day of the show.
The designs of the NYFW aesthetic in question came from FIT graduate, Junkai Huang. Observers claimed that the student did not understand the racial overtones of his own work, as he was from China. A witness said that the concept wanted to highlight “ugly features of the body.”
The FIT President, Dr Joyce F. Brown, defended the student’s designs, saying the “program protects a student’s freedom to craft their own personal and unique artistic perspectives as designers, to be even what some would consider to be provocative so that they find that voice.”
While it’s extremely sad and disappointing to see this kind of behaviour at NYFW, it’s unfortunately somewhat expected from these antiquated, old-timey designers. But what is incredibly upsetting is that this kind of behaviour is coming out of students, aka the future of the fashion industry.
But, knowing that quite a few students stood up to racism does give me hope for the future. It’s very inspiring to see people stand up for themselves and for what’s right. Let’s just hope that it gets easier for them.
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