There's Only One Woman of Color on Vanity Fair's Best-Dressed List

By Callie Beusman  |  August 7, 2014 | 10:30pm
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Vanity Fair‘s 2014 International Best-Dressed list is out; as one would expect, the list of the world’s 25 best-dressed women is largely a heap of royals and socialites, women who could play those royals and socialites in artful biopics and some ~artsy~ additions to spice things up. And, in case you’d forgotten that the fashion world is deplorable when it comes to racial representation, the voters chose just one non-white woman (Lupita Nyong’o, duh).

As Styleite so depressingly puts it, “In a list including 25 women, there is only one woman of color. There are four times as many women with their names prefaced by H.M. or H.R.H. than there are women who aren’t white.”

The assortment of rich, thin white ladies is mostly whom you’d expect — Emma Watson! Cate Blanchett! Karlie Kloss! Kate Middleton! You know, all of the women that fashion people normally fawn over and award. What’s really surprising is the glaring oversights. Most notably: WHERE. IS. RIHANNA? Rihanna, whose Instagram was dubbed more influential than a fashion review? Rihanna, who was literally named a Fashion Icon earlier this year? Rihanna, who doesn’t even look dumb in a bucket hat, which is a true fashion feat? Also, what about Erykah Badu, the new face of Givenchy whom Riccardo Tisci called “the most stylish woman I’ve met in my life”? What about Fan Bingbing? Tao Okamoto? Zoe Saldana? Joan Smalls? I find all of these women infinitely more stylistically compelling than most of the Usual Suspects.

And, of course, the only non stick-thin woman to appear on the list was pregnant. Sigh. Fashion, you are incorrigible.

Image via Getty.

 
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