Karlie Kloss covers the April issue of Vogue Australia. If this cover vibe seems familiar, it’s because Korean girl-group Black Pink member Jennie Kim wore the exact same thing – down to the CHINESE TASSEL earrings!! – on the cover of Dazed:
Karlie Kloss vs Jennie Kim
Vogue vs Dazed
I just choke pic.twitter.com/eh5EZm3FSC— bab (@blackkkbpb) March 20, 2017
What’s funny to me is the last time Karlie has any kind of Vogue editorial, American Vogue literally dressed her up in “yellowface” as a Japanese geisha. And now Vogue Australia dressed her up like a Korean girl-bander’s Dazed cover? Maybe it was just happenstance. Who knows? Anyway, Karlie speaks in this issue about… coding and such. Some highlights:
She’s over modeling at the age of 24: “Instead of giving up because I was not challenged anymore, I actually reversed it on its head and saw all the opportunities to use this as a platform to do so many other things that I am passionate about, even if I don’t have anything to do with fashion.”
Launching Kode with Klossy to encourage girls to go into STEM fields: “I feel a real responsibility to get the girls who are paying attention to me interested in these important skills that can transform their future and help bring them into an industry where there is a real disconnect and disproportionate number of men to women in the field. I underestimated how many girls would be aware of the importance of it and there are so many bright young minds who are aware of how powerful it can be to take part in shaping the future with technology.”
She wants to be more than just a model: “I don’t want to be complacent, and I don’t want to just be one thing. I’m sure people underestimate me all the time, but that only motivates me to prove them wrong and to actually beat them at their own game. I have this sense of competition with myself to be the best I can at whatever I’m trying to do, and to take the path less trodden.”
This is what all of her interviews sound like, it seems. Not that I dislike her for her work – I think it’s great that she’s using her platform to encourage her young fans to go into STEM fields. I think it’s great that Karlie is going back to school and learning how to code and all of that. Brava. I just think that she should be able to do all that and NOT agree to pose like a geisha for Vogue. Sorry, I’m still pissed about that.
Also: I think Karlie looks ridiculously like Taylor Swift in this editorial.
Photos courtesy of Vogue Australia.
Taylor Swift wishes, omg. But how is Karlie in any way responsible for the styling on a photo shoot? As the model, she’s literally the last person in the chain of command. She shows up and puts on the clothes. That’s her job.
I do not understand why a stylist would do this knowing that it was bound to be called out. With all the clothing and accessories available, why diminish impact by copying someone else’s work?
Kylie Jenner does it all the time. People do it because most of the time no one notices.
Here’s my question: is it the same stylist at the shoots? And is it possible that the designer of the dress paired it with the earrings on their end? Realistically we’re talking about a dress and a pair of earrings, it’s not the most complicated styling.
The Dazed cover was only revealed 6 days ago. This Vogue cover was revealed a couple of days ago. If anyone was copying anyone it was via inside info, because both magazines came out within a few days of each other and magazines don’t have that kind of turnaround.
Magazines like Australian Vogue and Dazed Korea usually just get sent what they get sent, they don’t have the pull of bigger magazines and struggle to call in specific items from bigger designers. They probably just got the dress and earrings as a package at the same time and both thought it was a good look.
@Jeesie, this is what I was thinking. The exact (1980s ugly) same dress and (lobe ruining) earrings? If they’re by the same designer, they came together.
Did they used to look more alike? I don’t see it and I actually find Taylor prettier , karlie is not the only model I don’t find pretty though. I know it’s not exactly about who is prettier for vogue editorials
Yeah you seem to always be pissed at one or the other. The eternal malcontent
she and taylor are a bit lookalike, always have been. they also both look a bit like kirsten dunst so there you go.
agreed on the posing like a geisha.
Does Vogue own Dazed? Otherwise, that is just straight up plagiarism.
Never forget: she loves Destiny’s Child, their song Waterfalls
I think I’m missing the levels here…
Waterfalls belongs to TLC, it’s not Destiny’s Child’s at all. Which she would know if she really loved the song.
I’m going to let her slide on this one on the basis that she likely has very little input into what’s actually shot and it’s not openly racist, but that is some unsubtle plagiarism (?) there. How hard could it have been to find a different dress?? (The pose isn’t even flattering! It makes her look so gangly and weirdly proportioned.)
I’m so sick of this appropriation talk. Come on. Emulating, borrowing, story telling, admiring, fantasizing, embodying those around us should not be limited to only the images of ourselves. It has been around since the beginning of human time. I am from a number of racial cultures that has had oppressions in its history and I could not care less if anyone emulated or took pages from my culture. One should have the freedom to tell any story they chose and others can have the freedom to comment to their liking.
Amen!
Thank you, this overly sensitive crying about nothing is so silly, it was a beautiful shoot and nothing more.
I agree with you… until I see Miley Cyrus strut up in a Biggie/Tupac tube dress, this after singing about Jay Z then admitting she never heard his songs. When privileged people appropriate the “cool” parts of less privileged people’s culture, especially to make a buck, I get itchy. At the very least, we have to pay attention to how we lionize white artists and ignore the people they’re actually copying.
Agreed but this still is plagiarism really when she looks the same.
I agree with Lexie and Kaiser. There’s a good reason to condemn appropriation. Miranda Kerr did a Vogue Japan spread I think last year and it was playing on Japanese design without crossing into appropriation territory. It was a really stunning spread.
@Kriz, I think that there’s a lot of misunderstanding about what cultural appropriation really is. It’s not as simple as dressing up in the fashions of a culture other than your own. It’s about respect and not objectifying other people.
The Ask a Korean blog has a decent explanation:
“Expressed as simply as possible, here is why: cultural appropriation is bad because using cultural artifacts as a prop leads to treating the people of that culture as a prop, rather than whole persons. This is the core principle behind cultural appropriation.
Understanding this core principle alone answers many tricky questions that are emerging cultural appropriation. For example: take this infamous instance of Katy Perry’s kimono get-up. Asian Americans were nearly unanimous in their denunciation, but the Japanese in Japan seemed not to care. This disconnect is easier to understand once we understand the core principle: what matters is objectification, humans being turned into a prop. Asian Americans are constantly surrounded by non-Asian Americans who always stand ready to objectify them. Japanese in Japan belong to the nation of 127 million of the same ethnicity, and are almost never in danger of being objectified by the person next to them. Of course there will be a difference in reaction between the two groups.”
(To be fair, I think there’s a world of difference between Karlie wearing Chinese earrings and Karlie dressing up as Japanese woman in Vogue’s Diversity Issue. The former isn’t a problem while the latter is problematic.)
Exactly! I love Japanese culture and i would HAPPILY dress as a geisha if i ever get the chance!
One of my goal in life is to live a few years in Japan and make as many Japanese friends as possible. So if a Japanese person feels offended by me loving their culture to the extent that id dress as a geisha, i’d feel pretty hurt and unwelcomed i guess
There are a lot of initiatives both private and governmental who encourage girls (and sometimes boys) to go into STEM or into academic education at all.
You never read about them because they don’t have some celebutante doing the advertising.
Why not join forces with one of those initiatives? They are far more long-lasting and far more substantial than Kloss’ idea.
You need a lot more committment and education and money to get young people to go into STEM subjects. And I am talking about “getting them in” and not just about “encouraging” them. Some small initiative just isn’t enough.
What happens if one of those pupils who feels inspired and encouraged by Kloss has a question about coding? Kloss will not answer them. And if there is no teacher or STEM geek who can help then to whom can this pupil turn to? What if equipment is needed for some more advanced forays into STEM subjects?
Public libraries, you might think. The problem is that these libraries have their funds cut which affects both the staff and the books and materials and programms at the libraries. Kloss isn’t doing anything about that either. She isn’t raising funds. She isn’t pointing at the government for cutting funds for libraries.
She isn’t doing much at all when it comes to more substantial contributions which would actually make a country a better place.
She isn’t supporting teachers nor parents who fight for more funds for schools. She isn’t even pointing out that STEM subjects at schools are in danger because of certain policies in education politics.
I have had enough of some celebutantes who think that all they need to do is invent a snazzy title for some charity idea to make the world a better place and then demand I don’t criticise but admire her for that.
A good indicator are results: What are the results of Kloss’ initiative? Numbers please.
I want more substance in such matters.
Good point. And it’s true she’s talked about her advocacy enough for people to ask some questions about results. Think market forces are going to solve this issue anyway, sooner or later. The demand for software engs, etc, will be huge until AI becomes sophisticated enough to replace these jobs.
👏👏🏽👏👏🏿👏🏼👏🏽
Couldn’t have said it better!!
I love her work for women in STEM. There need to be more of us. I’m sick of the boys club and the automatic acceptance mediocre and even poor performance men get.
Women engineers usually get much better scholarships than men in college. They also have an easier time getting work after college and they get paid much more than men.
No.
Um, not even close.
Her face is really…thin and pinch-y. She reminds me of a mummy.
She should just do and stop talking so much. Exhausting. Christie Turlington did a successful pivot into public policy (health, I think) and I don’t remember her talking about how she was going to change the world in every interview while still posing for Vogue and whinging she was above the fashion world. Karlie is ANNOYING and comes across as an airhead despite constantly talking about how women coding is such a big deal and how she can code.
All I can think is – they sat her on concrete, at Bondi, in Summer? Damn I bet her bum cheeks were burned.
Both the dress and the earrings are St.Laurent.
The house would most likely have guidelines when sending options to a magazine of what can be paired with what. Apparently they want this dress with these earrings.
Karlie had no say.
The magazines would not have known that the other was going to shoot the same look for their cover. But they may also have not cared even if they did. One is made for people in Korea and the other Australia.
It’s not the first time multiple publications have had the same piece of clothing on the cover. Sometimes things are popular.
I honestly don’t understand how she’s a model, let alone a super model.