I’m just going to put it out there - Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’ might just be one of the most politically charged songs that many young women have sat up and paid actual attention to. At least recently that is. We’ve already spoken about how important the song is to black British women, and as Queen Bey slayed her way into headlines, Twitter feeds and all of our minds, she managed to direct everyone’s attention to the racial injustices experienced by women.
Unfortunately though, it looks like Melbourne based fashion label, Misha, kind of missed that point.
Earlier this week, Bella Hadid closed Misha’s Australian Fashion Week show along with a troupe of models who were seriously lacking in diversity. While that’s troubling enough, what has really caused frustration in this instance is the fact that they were walking the catwalk to ‘Formation’.
And no, not a single one of them was black.
IMG (Bella Hadid's agency) posted a video of the end of the show on Instagram which as you might expect, quickly received a whirlwind of backlash in the comments section.
From one person commenting ‘Y’all catch on to our songs real quick, but still can’t implement us into your fashion shows’, to another describing the song choice as ‘shady’ it’s clear to see that people are pretty pissed off, and can you blame them?
Beyoncé has blessed us all with great music over the years, and why the hell wouldn’t you want to use a song by one of the biggest artists in the world to close a hig profile fashion show? But to use this song - the one that made headlines for ‘belonging to black people’, that proudly celebrates blackness in all its afro-haired, broad nosed, hot-sauce-in-bag glory, that inherently highlights racial inequality - is really quite insensitive to what Beyoncé is trying to illustrate, and it draws a lot of attention to some pretty negative things.
Yahoo Style reported that 75.25% of the models who walked the autumn 2016 runways were white. The contrast between Beyoncé’s song and the ethnicity of the women walking to it only highlights how far so much of the fashion industry has to go to reach racial equality.
We’d hope it goes without saying that ‘Formation’ can and should be enjoyed by everyone, it is a bloody great song. But perhaps Misha should have thought twice before using it in a show that quite poignantly didn’t feature any non-white models.
And if by any chance to happened to take the world’s longest media detox and missed the weekend that Beyoncé dropped the video, here it is. Watch Bey slay.
Like this? You might also be interested in:
The Forgotten Story Of The Women Behind The British Black Panthers
Beyonce And Jay Z Have Been Bailing Our Baltimore Anti-Racism Protestors. Apparently.
Why Beyonce’s ‘Formation’ Is Important To Black British Women
Follow Jazmin on Twitter @JazKoposha
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.