The third instalment of Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty show was immediately met with controversy when it debuted on Amazon Prime Video on Friday September 24.
The 33-year-old singer-turned-fashion-mogul was accused of cultural appropriation at the star-studded fashion show, as some of the white models were walking down the catwalk with their hair styled in braids.
As with all of the Barbadian star‘s fashion shows, Friday’s show was diverse and inclusive, and featured some of the biggest models in the industry, from Irina Shayk, to Joan Smalls, to Alek Wek, and more. However, it was 30-year-old model Emily Ratajkowski and 32-year-old former High School Musical actress Vanessa Hudgens who got people talking the most, as the two non-Black models were called out on social media for appropriating Black culture with their controversial braided hairstyles.
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"I love the fenty show but I think we deserved a trigger warning for seeing this many white women in braids," wrote one Twitter user, while another said, "I wish I could write something as funny as Rihanna putting all these white girls in braids for the fenty show."
Another wrote: "The braids in the new savage x fenty were a choice… haven’t seen the whole thing but the preview was interesting." Someone else added: "Not Rihanna letting nonblack ppl wear braids for her lil underwear line fashion show."
But it wasn’t just the hairstyles worn by the non-Black models that caused controversy, as the music choice also raised a lot of questions on social media too. When American model Ratajkowski walked the runway, she did so with N.E.R.D’s "Lemon" featuring Rihanna playing in the background – and more specifically, to the part that says, "Mad ethnic right now."
As you can imagine, many viewers and social media users picked up on the choice of music and lyrics when Ratajkowski was walking, with one particular comment on TikTok accumulating over 1.4 million views and receiving over 235,000 likes at the time of writing. The viral TikTok post included a snippet of Ratajkowski's part in the runway show, with a comment that said, "MAD ETHNIC?? Oop!! Not the braids lmao."
This isn’t the first time a non-Black celebrity has been accused of cultural appropriation (we're referring to Hudgens and Ratajkowski) although this situation is somewhat unique, because the We Found Love singer most likely signed off on all the styling in advance, which is why the internet is very confused about why she allowed this to happen.
