Tag Archives: fashion

Project Runway’s Chicana: Deported from the runway

Designer Beatrice Guapo from Season 10 of Project Runway

In recent months, I have made a dramatic change in my life: I have been watching much less television than ever before. The only time I watched less than I do now was in my senior year of college, when I moved in with my then-boyfriend, a history grad student who saw himself as far too intellectual to partake of pastimes that entertain the masses. By contrast, the all-time high came when I was married, because watching television was more or less the only thing my ex-husband and I did together; each night came with a particular schedule of shows. It was very depressing. Lately, though, I’ve been so busy that I made an inadvertent, surprising discovery: The less I TV watch, the less I miss it. I realize now that for the most part, TV provided a background chatter so I didn’t feel so alone during the day as I worked from home.

That being said, however, there are three shows that I commit to watching, no matter what: Mad Men, Top Chef and Project Runway.

So you can imagine my excitement that a new season of Project Runway just debuted last night. Woo-hoo! And–hold onto your seats, folks–there was a Chicana contestant vying for the ultimate prize!

She is 28-year-old Beatrice Guapo from Southern California. Pretty, personable, and seemingly down-to-earth, totally not one of the attention-hogging diva designers. In the hour-long “Road to the Runway” preview that aired before the season premier, we saw pictures, like the one below, of Beatrice with her family, and in one touching moment, she tearfully spoke of losing her father.

La familia Guapo, rockin’ classic ’80s style.

The clothes she designs are drapey jerseys and knits, comfy-but-stylish concoctions designed for the chic, modern woman-on-the-go. (An incredibly skinny white woman-on-the-go, but still, I get it.)

What more did I need to see? I was on board: Her clothes look like something I’d wear and, as a bonus, she’s Chicana. Go, Beatrice!

I began to get worried, though, as soon as Beatrice admitted to having trouble sewing and needing more time for her designs than the challenges would allow. And sure enough, the dream of a Chicana designer actually walking away with the top honors ended all too soon. Beatrice was the first contestant to whom Heidi Klum bid “auf wiedersehen” on behalf of the judges’ panel.

It turns out that the judges were not a fan of what she sent out onto the runway. First, there was a gray knit dress paired with a printed cape:

And a gray knit skirt and shiny, gauzy shirt combo:

The judges didn’t like the “sad” colors of her designs and didn’t think she effectively articulated a larger design vision, beyond an enthusiasm for knits and jerseys.

Michael Kors went as far as to describe the cape from her first look as an “Aztec bathroom rug”:

One online commentator (I can’t seem to find the link now) wonders whether there’s a racial meaning behind Kors’ description: Beatrice is Mexican, therefore an ugly pattern she picked must be “Aztec.” The viewer who left the comment thought that the pattern could be better described as “Navajo.” Though his choice of words didn’t strike me as racist when I saw the show, it’s an interesting read. I thought I’d throw it out there…discuss amongst yourselves. (Btw, I googled “Aztec bathroom rug” and actually found one here.)

To me, an even more critical, unexamined racial moment is when Beatrice gives a walk-through of her apartment and holds up a glass monkey designed by her grandfather:

Woah! Note to Beatrice: Please educate yourself ASAP on the history of minstrelsy and racist sambo imagery, mmmkay? I know that your grandpa made it and it has sentimental value for you, but this is not something to proudly display. Yes, Mexicans have their own terrible history of racism towards people with African ancestry. Check out Afro-Netizen’s post about sambo stamps printed in Mexico in 2005. Yikes!

Okay, back to the show: To her credit, Beatrice took the news of her elimination like a trooper, politely thanking the judges for the opportunity and managing not to shed a tear on camera as she bid farewell to the other contestants. In her exit interview, she calmly shrugs and expresses a wish to have simply experimented with her fabrics while she had a chance. She seems like she has a strong sense of self, and I wish her good luck in her future endeavors!

Nevertheless, even though Beatrice left the competition before getting to show us her broader range, it was just a thrill for me to finally see on television a positive representation of a real-life Chicana pursuing her passion. For one wonderful, ephemeral moment, here was on national TV a Chicana to whom I could relate. Of course, I don’t know Beatrice in real life, and despite the “real life” they claim to portray, reality television shows are highly crafted fictions who exploit certain kinds of characters for drama and entertainment. All that (plus one horrible glass sambo) aside, though, it was cool to see a Latina like me, someone who started out as a sweet but dorky, glasses-wearing kid:

to a teenager involved in extra-curriculars in school:

and finally to beautiful, successful and ambitious woman pursuing her passion:

Why can’t we see more Chicanas and Latinas like Beatrice? Someone who is not representative of the cholas and maids that we’re usually portrayed as, but instead this other kind of Chicana, one you actually might encounter in every day life. A real person, not a walking stereotype.

I must admit that the significance of this point is forever lost on some people though, like a blogger who describes Beatrice as a “spicy, exotic Latina.” Excuse me while I barf. What exactly is so exotic about her? She’s from friggin’ Marina del Rey, not Amazonia. She has blond highlights, for god’s sake!

Tonight I’m going to light a big ol’ Virgen de Guadalupe candel, light some copal and blow a conch shell to the four cardinal directions in the hopes that next season, Project Runway and/or any other reality competition might feature another Chicana, and maybe next time, she’ll make it past the first episode. Dare I continue to dream that one will make it all the way?

American Apparel’s “Cowboy” problem

An image from American Apparel’s “New & Now: Men” site.

Just like yesterday, I have on my mind today another post inspired by something I read on Colorlines (what can I say? Even on the days I don’t read Colorlines for myself, I see a number of friends’ facebook posts pointing me to their great articles). On May 21, Jorge Rivas contributed a brief but pointed critique of American Apparel’s use of a ‘California Farmer’ as a fashion accessory. This particular ad campaign, from June 2011, features Robin, a USC student, posed alongside Raul, a Mexican immigrant. Here’s one of the images used as an example in the article:

As Rivas explains:

There is something that feels off in the ad that stars Raul and Robin. Both subjects look uncomfortable with each other and as a result both subjects look like props. . . . [S]omething feels off with the ad. Maybe it would have been better if they had taken both subjects in to the studio and shot them behind a plain backdrop like American Apparel does with most ads and included a caption about agricultural workers and how they’re paid so little that chances are they can’t even afford a plain $18 American Apparel t-shirt.

I share in Rivas’ discomfort with the image and am glad to see him point out that as a California “farmer,” Raul very likely doesn’t have the money to spend on the overpriced clothing he’s been called on to model. In fact, it’s ironic because in the first paragraph of the text that accompanies the images of Raul and Robin, American Apparel pats itself on the back for “celebrating” California’s diversity and for not resorting to sweatshop practices:

I want to add to Rivas’ critique by also pointing out how thinly “diversity” is represented in the images, as we can see if we continue on to read the second paragraph. What stands out to me first is the disparate descriptions of Robin and Raul. In addition to her student status, we get a snapshot of “Cali girl” Robin’s hobbies and personal tastes, which include “bon fires and hot dogs.” So not only is this girl athletic (pole vaulting!), but she’s also got quite a bit of free time on her hands to pursue such fun activities like singing and hanging out on the beach. By contrast, what do we learn of “Cowboy” Raul? As mentioned, he’s an immigrant from Mexico who rose from picking strawberries in the fields to a job preparing seeds and . . .that’s all. What are his “bon fires and hot dogs”? We’ll never know, because apparently he has no hobbies to pursue or favorite foods to eat in his leisure time. American Apparel defines him only through his labor status and menial jobs.

The company gratuitously describes Raul and Robin as an “unlikely pair.” Why do I say their choice of words is gratuitous? First, because they don’t need to say that the two are  unlikely compared to their other male/female model pairings, which usually look like this:

Interestingly, these two models stand near to but apart from each other, equals in modeling the clothes. In the previous image, however, Robin has her hands wrapped around Raul’s biceps, as if to say, “Hey, this is my Mexican!”

Another reason why the description of Robin and Raul as “unlikely” is gratuitous: American Apparel clearly intends for the models’ skin color to function as a short-hand for their different lifestyles and socioeconomic status. The company’s formulation is simplistic and lazy: White skin means education and leisure, an assumption of US birth, and a someone with unique tastes. By contrast, brown skin signifies a lack of education and low labor status, recent immigration to the US, and no distinguishing traits.

It’s such stupid logic. There’s no reason why Robin isn’t the working class immigrant, maybe even one of the 40% of visa overstayers who are Canadian, English or Australian in origin (FYI I do have a citation for this statistic…I will find it and link asap). And there’s no reason why Raul can’t be an immigrant, former farmworker and a USC student. However, the ad is predicated on our inability to see such statements as true.

In my view, Raul is there as an accessory, as shock value. In the online catalogue for the clothes he models, we can see that he was a one-time fluke, as American Apparel prefers instead its regular, skinny-boy models:

These guys must all be USC students, too. They probably also enjoy bonfires. By contrast, the Mexicans selected for the ads sit, muscular and unamused, in the back of a pickup, which looks to be parked in a field (see the image at the top of the post). Again, contrast that image with the “matching” models above, standing in front of a domestic, landscaped backdrop.

Finally, Robin and Raul are a supposedly an unlikely match because we are supposed to be unable to imagine the context that would ever bring them into each other’s spheres. I mean, just look: they’re photographed against a plain, white cinderblock wall, devoid of context. I imagine there is supposed to be the shock value of Raul’s brown skin; we are meant to ask ourselves, “How would someone who looks like Robin would ever want to be–and lay her hands on–someone who looks like Raul?” Maybe we are supposed to infer a backstory in which Robin, seeking revenge on her overbearing, rich father, giggles, “Just wait ’til Dad sees me making out with Raul! He’ll be so pissed!” (much like burnout Judd Nelson proposes to prom queen Molly Ringwald at the end of The Breakfast Club.)

The lame moves American Apparel has to make in order represent interracial/inter-ethnic relationships calls to my mind the movie Spanglish. In this film, in order to make audiences believe that Adam Sandler’s character would be attracted to a Mexican housekeeper–named Flor Moreno, or “Brown Flower”…come on, folks, really?!–they had to cast someone like Spanish actor Paz Vega:

And I’m sorry, but for all her beauty, Vega does not exactly represent the majority of hard-working Latinas who keep those Cali girls’ homes so immaculate and clean, the very women Ramiro Gomez celebrates in his artwork:

Ramiro Gomez, “Nancy and Carmelita’s Luxurious Lifestyle” (11 April 2012)

What do you think, folks? What other aspects of mainstreams view of race, socioeconomics and education can you identify in the Robin/Raul images? What do you make of American Apparel identifying Raul as a “cowboy”? I’m interested to hear your thoughts…