Beyoncé’s Ivy Park faces “blackfishing” allegations over promo photo
10 December 2020, 13:17 | Updated: 10 December 2020, 13:23
The brand has been accused of using "blackface" with Russian models.
Beyonce's clothing collaboration with Adidas, Ivy Park, is facing backlash after posting a promotional photo, which sparked the debate of "black fishing".
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On Tuesday (Dec 8) Ivy Park's official Instagram page @weareivypark, shared an image which featured two models wearing pieces from the new season.
In the promotional photos, there wasn't anything exceptional which stood out at first glance.
However, when fans realised the models, who initially look like they are women of colour, were infact Russian, the company received backlash for "black fishing".
The two models are tagged in the photos, so fans were surprised when they went on their personal profiles and saw they were not women of colour or Black women.
One model, Anastasia, who is tagged as @anastasia1102 on Instagram, sports big, black, afro curly hair.
Many fans also pointed out that her skin tone looked way darker in the promo photos than her Instagram photos.
The other model, tagged as @alena_biuni, sported long thick braids. The promotional photo quickly was flooded with comments questioning why the brand would have non-black women have the aesthetic of Black women.
One fan wrote "y’all are so out of touch... does bey and her team even have internal conversations about anything? this is embarrassing", while another wrote "This is black face basically. Super disappointing.".
Another Instagram user wrote "not yall posting blackface...".
While many fans accused the company of cultural appropriation and black fishing, other fans called for the photo to be deleted.
See other comments on the photo below.
Beyoncé and her team were also accused, due to the singer promoting pro-Black and pro-African messaging in her music and visuals.
While the 39-years-old singer is often hands on with her projects, many fans argued that she must not have been across this one as she would not approve of this happening.
Many other fans argued that although the models are Russian, it does not mean their ethnic background is exclusive to their nationality.
Beyoncé nor the official Ivy Park account have responded to the backlash for the photo.
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