Black Fashion Model Refuses to Wear Oversized Lips and Monkey Ears

One step forward … two steps back. Racial stereotypes and racially insensitive fashion and art statements continue to populate runways and galleries. But thanks to a black fashion model’s refusal to wear bright-red oversized lips and monkey ears as “accessories” on the runway – yes, that’s on a so-called “fashion” runway – the show went on sans the accessories.

Amy LeFevre, a 25-year-old black model, reports that she was pressured to wear these demeaning accessories and told that, after all, she’d only feel uncomfortable for about 45 seconds as she wore them. LeFevre has been modeling for four years, and she’s modeled in more than 24 shows.

LeFevre did model in the show after she refused to wear the “fashion accessories,” but she reportedly stormed out afterward. Attesting to the bigotry that LeFevre notes is still rampant in the fashion world, she said that after she was asked to wear the “accessories,” she “was literally shaking.” “I could not control my emotions. My whole body was shaking. I have never felt like that in my life.”

Adding insult to injury, the oversized red lips and monkey ears were reportedly part of a sex toy. Fashion? Art? Or just plain racist imagery, intended to be paraded in full view on a runway?