Daily Fashion Dish #31

M.A.C. and Rodarte Make Light of Racial Issues

M.A.C. Cosmetics and Rodarte have teamed up for a new makeup line inspired by the deadly border town of Juarez, Mexico. The line that was inspired by the dead female factory workers feature eyeshadow, blush nail polish and lip gloss in shades like "Sleepless", "Factory", "Ghost Town". 

When Fashion Bloggers received their press-kits and pre-viewing photos last week, they were outraged. And they began complaining until M.A.C. and Rodarte issued an apology, and promised to donate part of the proceeds to charity. M.A.C. is also planning on changing the names of the collection. And rightly so.

Since 1993, 800 bodies of women and girls, many of them indigenous factory workers have surfaced on the Chihuahuan desert. Considering these unjustified murders, what made Rodarte (2 women designers Kate & Laura Mulleavy) decide it would be a great collection?

The sisters have explained. “We are truly saddened about injustice in Juarez.”
I don’t doubt that the Mulleavy Sisters feel sorry for the factory workers in Juarez, but that didn’t prevent the duo from  exoticizing — and marginalizing — the women in their cosmetics and fashion lines. In the runway show for Rodarte’s newest collection, models in pale foundation and heavy eye makeup donned layered pieces featuring goat hair, chiffon, shearling and lace. Think Olsen twins meet Mexican peasant.
If only Juarez was made up of peasant women. In fact, it is a city of 1.5 million people. The women there don’t herd sheep or look like extras from the set of a trite Mexican period piece. They wear jeans and T-shirts and heels and sneakers like women do in any big city. Let's hope that using stereotypes for fashion is now a thing of the past!