Gigi Hadid Apologizes For Vogue Italia's 'Black Face' Cover

Supermodel Gigi Hadid was recently faced severe backlash when the Vogue Italia cover featuring her went horribly wrong. Readers slammed the magazine for putting a black tone on Gigi's photo. On May 3, the 23-year-old supermodel issued a public apology after fans slammed the cover.

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A post shared by Vogue Italia (@vogueitalia)

Explaining the reason in the Instagram post, Hadid said there were some post-production editing faults and wasn't "executed correctly", leading to the controversy.

The May issue of Vogue Italia is shot by Steven Klein. It features Gigi Hadid and male model Justin Martin

"Excited, honored, and grateful to cover @VogueItalia's May Issue," Hadid captioned a photo of the cover on Instagram. "Thank you so so much for an amazing shoot, I am forever inspired by you all !!! & can't wait to share the full story !!" she added.

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Soon the cover went viral online, drawing brickbats from fans who slammed Hadid's styling, specifically her heavily bronzed skin. Others were furious because her looks seemed artificial and they argued that it was purely photoshopped.

“Your worst cover in years. You had to make her look black and her expression is so bad. Just hire a model of colour to do the job,” one person wrote.

“Another blackface attempt failing miserably,” quipped another

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The 23-year-old catwalk queen addressed the issue saying, "This is a photo of me returning home from shooting my Italian Vogue cover on April 3^rd…you can see the level I had been bronzed to on set that day. Please understand that my control of a shoot 1. is non existent in terms of creative direction. 2. ends completely when I leave set, and anything done to a photo in post if out of my control fully."

She further explained, "The bronzing and photoshop is a style that S. Klein has done for many years and I believe was what was expected from the shoot (to show me in a different way creatively), BUT, although I understand what Vogue Italia's intentions were, it was not executed correctly, and the concerns that have been brought up are valid."

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She continued, "I want to address this for those who were offended by the editing/retouching/coloring of the cover. Please know that things would have been different if my control of the situation was different. Regardless, I want to apologize because my intention is never to diminish those concerns or take opportunities away from anyone else, and I hope this can be an example to other magazines and teams in the future."

Gigi concluded, "There are real issues regarding representation in fashion—it's our responsibility to acknowledge those issues and communicate through them to work towards a more diverse industry."

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The image has since been taken down from her page.

Feature Image credit: Bustle

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