Thursday's Marc Jacobs Spring '17 Fashion Show flaunted a blend of bold metallics, soft pastels, and suspect faux dreadlocs. In the show, many white models wore their hair in the multi-colored and hijacked look. A more popular version of the faux locs are usually worn by black people — crafted by braiding the person's hair in individual plaits and then wrapping each one with synthetic braiding hair. These natural textures offer a more authentic look for black hair textures in comparison to the ones worn by Jacob's models. The chosen aesthetic of pastel colored faux locs on white women is yet another display of the appropriation of black culture in high fashion.
The creator of the look, NARS cosmetic line founder Francois Nars explained the hair and makeup on Instagram, "The look is all about the hair and the makeup really complements that. We matched the color of the eye makeup to the hair and clothes and created six different eye looks using pastel colors." He explained that the look had a couple sources of inspiration, none of which included any black people or parts of black culture.
When asked by The Cut if the look was influenced by Rasta culture, Nars said "No, not at all." He went on to give a fuller explanation that clarified he did not think of the political and racial implications of using the locs in any way. “I don’t really think about that," he said. "I take inspiration from every culture. Style comes from clashing things. It’s always been there — if you’re creative, if you make food, music, and fashion, whatever, you’re inspired by everything. It’s not homogeneous. Different cultures mix all the time. You see it on the street. People don’t dress head-to-toe in just one way.”
According to Fashionista, the locs were purchased off a white woman from Florida via Etsy.
"funny how you don't criticize women of color for straightening their hair" MARC JACOBS OFFICIALLY CANCELED pic.twitter.com/o098M16KOw
— :p (@SLAYLONIE) September 16, 2016