The male Vogue reviewer who took on this collection wrote a mere two-paragraph review, the first of which is this:
These are culturally sensitive times, and those sensitivities are culturally relative. This afternoon, Elie Saab put out a typically va-va-voom collection that his press release described as “a reflection on the diversity than animates the great savannas of Africa.” As a white English male, I’ve got so much privilege I have to check in excess at the gate when approaching such issues as a Lebanese designer dedicating a collection to a very broad-brush interpretation of the African continent. Is “expedition chic” or “safari chic” featuring “African bead necklaces and bracelets” okay today?
I often don’t know the reaches of these things either, and so don’t always know what to do beyond merely bringing something up for discussion. This is not anywhere close to the most eyeroll-inducing collection invoking a broad cultural inference, so wherever you land on the above question, at least… we have that?
