Fashion Faux Pas: Italian Vogue Promotes ‘Slave’ Earrings

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If Italian Vogue is trying to drum up interest in boring old hoop earrings, they’ve certainly chosen a controversial way to go about it.

The Guardian reports that the fashion magazine featured an online spread on gold hoops which they had dubbed “slave” earrings.  “Jewellery has always flirted with circular shapes, especially for use in making earrings. The most classic models are the slave and creole styles in gold hoops,” the accompanying text originally said.

Unsurprisingly, the description sparked backlash on blogs and Twitter, as angry readers accused the fashion bible’s Italian arm of racism. The incendiary name has since been removed — the hoops are now labeled “ethnic earrings”— though the text still bizarrely includes a reference to “the women of colour who were brought to the southern Unites States during the late 18th century.”

Franca Sozzani, Vogue‘s Italian editor-in-chief, has said, “We apologise for the inconvenience. It is a matter of really bad traslation from Italian into English.”

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