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Karlie Kloss, an American fashion model who is highly in demand these days, is transformed from a fresh-faced mid-western girl with a genial smile into an anorexic Vogue fashion face who looks Chinese. Her blue eyes have morphed into dark slits, her wavy reddish-blond hair has darkened into a black mop, and even her complexion has changed ("yellowed"?).
Admittedly, she is a bit of a chameleon. Here she looks like Lauren Bacall, and here a charmless Brigitte Bardot. But better Bacall or Bardot than a Bing Bing.
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wearing a $2,570 Miu Miu double-faced wool coat
(From Sept 2011 Vogue)
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The September 2011 issue of Vogue (curiously silent about September 2001, it is after all the tenth anniversary) has this on its cover:
"Made in China: The explosive rise of a style superpower"I was genuinely interested to see what fashion designers and models there are in China. But it turns out there are none, at least according to this Vogue issue.
There are 22 pages dedicated to fashion in China, with nineteen of those in images (here is a blog which has posted all the images). But "fashion in China" turns out to be an elusive term. The model (there is only one) is the American blue-eyed, blonde-haired Karlie Kloss, who has been given the "Asian" look with dark straight hair (it looks like a wig, but that may be the point), her high cheek bones emphasized with careful coats of blush, and her eyes slanted with the help of eye-liner and other make-up tricks. And all the designers are Western, from the American Michael Kors to the British Stella McCartney (but Vera Wang doesn't figure amongst this illustrious group).
There is a parade of Chinese "cultural icons," such as film director Lu Chuan, actors Daniel Wu and Bing Bing, "novelist, race-car driver and renowned blogger" Han Han, and jeweler Bao Bao Wan, who are photographed alongside Kloss. Even the diminutive workers at the Eve NY sweat shop are presented as iconic figures, despite the 5"11 Kloss looming beside them. And her Miu Miu "double-faced wool coat (at $2,570)" resembles their white-collared uniforms. All of Karlie's clothes take reference (in color or in concept) from these "iconic" Chinese.
The locations for these photo shoots are also iconic landmarks : the Great Wall, the Pangu Plaza in Beijing, a sweat shop, in the Forbidden City.
Kloss has already appeared in the August 2010 and May 2011 issues of Chinese Vogue, so it is apt that American Vogue should solicit her help with their China-based article. After all, she is now the Western expert on all things Eastern.
The title of the Vogue article says it all: Go East. This is of course after the famous quote "Go West, Young Man," where going West meant adventure, discoveries, and even wealth (gold, land, etc.). But what does going East do for us now, and especially if it is a young woman (a fashion model at that) who is leading the way?
Western cultural guardians better be careful. The Chinese are not admiring our culture as much as finding ways to take from it, and there is more to take from us than they are able to give. They take our elaborate and sophisticated ideas and throw back at us their cheap and inferior "Made in China" versions. Before we know it, we will all be Chinese.