Well, I'm Caucasian and my skin isn't that foul, greyish beige... if it were, I'd be scared that I am very ill. It's not that yellow-tinged, jaundiced color, either. Amazing that they would even call such a tone 'nude'; not only does it reject the skin tones of most of the world but it also seems to suggest that being sickly is beautiful... but hey, isn't that why most models are anorexic?

I'm trying to come up with different ways to fix this type of spread. Would it work if the name was changed to something race-neutral like "Beige is the New Black"? What if they included models of color in shades of nude that matched their skin tone? I remember seeing the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater for the first time and noticing that all of their tights were carefully dyed to match their skin tone. It was a really lovely effect. It sort of makes me wonder why magazines haven't utilized it more often.

Some of those look pretty dark to me--the t-shirt with the necklace, for example.

i'm not sure you mean "ironically." i think maybe "offensively." or "disgustingly."

Forget "nude", I'm more concerned by the horrifying photoshop job.

Why is the fashion industry allowed to be so ass backward, sexist, and racist? yuck.

So, what they really mean is "beige" and "tans?"

I think its simply absurd to try to label anything as being "nude." Those colors are based on Caucasian skin tones that (hopefully) don't exist - never mind ignoring everyone else!

I was literally just about to email you and send you this link when I saw this post, so I'll put it here.

http://www2.victoriassecret.com/commerce/onlineProductDisplay.vs?namespace=productDisplay&origin=onlineProductDisplay.jsp&event=display&prnbr=GP-248704&page=1&cgname=OSBRPFNUZZZ

I noticed that in the color options, "Nude" actually refers to the darker of the two beiges, and a color that would likely work for many ethnicities with darker skin tones (though still far too light for any African American woman). At the bottom is a different set of colors for another bra, and this time the darker color is called "Naked" while "Nude" is a medium beige. But both are cases of a color that could conceivably match the skin tone of some non-white women being referred to by a "skin" word.

I like these colors. I think they would look good on women with a variety of skin tones, including very dark. But let's call them what they are: beige, tan, ecru, etc, instead of denying the existence of entire populations of women with darker skin tones. I couldn't resist commenting on Marie Claire's site.

I was at the pharmacy yesterday and saw that the bandages / braces / supports are no longer 'nude' or 'skin' but 'medical beige'. *That* would be a much better term.

Okay, two things.

1. Unless the model has serious muscle tone issues with her jaw, she really needs to close her mouth because that whole My Mouth Is A Flytrap thing is making her look terminally vacant. Of course, terminally vacant is probably what they were GOING for with that whole photoshoot, which...hrmph.

2. Let's just go with their (ugh) assertion that generic pasty beige is 'nude,' or skin colored. Do you want to carry around a handbag that is being marketed as human SKIN colored? One of those purses is already kind of creepy looking without being labeled 'nude'.

I would call those colors 'wheat' but we all know the fashion industry likes anything that implies sexy...such as nudity...so they go with 'nude' ---that only makes me think of the knee high color my 85yr old grandmother wears. Maybe they should call that color 'naked white model'?

I love that they're erasing black skin tones whilst mentioning "black" in the title of the spread. Irony, why yes!

Anyway, they really ought to have called this beige, off-white, cream/creme, wheat, or sand.

Or just for the shits and giggles, they could have called it "nude, if you are a pasty-ass white model mofo like me". But I guess that doesn't have the same je ne sais quoi.

When I saw the word "nude" in my RSS feed, I waited until I got home from work before reading the post. You know, because I've been reading Sociological Images for some time now.

Now I'm just, um . . . Gah!

To quote an old 1960s Mad Magazine, "It's not the heat; it's the stupidity."

what's wrong with just calling the colour BEIGE? is it not?

Just confirms the obvious bias that exists in design and editing of fashion magazines. I mean jesus, they only seem to use black people as a background or an accent piece for whiteness.

The damage that fashion inflicts upon the world is horrible. They create racist and sizest concepts of beauty that are spread to the public, causing shit like eating disorders and self hatred in general, and then they exploit foreign workers (for the most part) to make the products that their toxic advertising endorses. None of us need some kind of different style to come out every season either; the clothing that we need to protect our bodies from the elements do not need to be replaced so often. It is wasteful as hell. I remember reading something about how sean john and other fashion lines had 'faux fur' that actually turned out to be chinese 'raccoon dogs" (they are named this because their fur resembles raccoons, and they are highly profitable animals to breed as a result). I genuinely have a hard time imagining a more unnecessary and damaging industry that flourishes to such and extent.

Ironically (at least to me) I think these colours look much better on darker skinned women. I'm white, but with olive toned skin, and these colours look awful on me - they make me look washed out, sick, jaundiced etc. But I've seen a number of black women looking fantastic in these beigey tones.

(sorry if my use of the terms "black" or "white" offends anyone - I'm South African and these are the PC terms here.)

I find the title of this fashion spread just so offensive, even more so in its ignorant unintended irony. With all the blog discussions about "nude colors" being an utter and complete media racefail, you'd think they'd have gotten it by now. Ah well, guess not!

I wish someone would subvert this trend in a fun way by doing a fashion spread called 'Black is the new nude' with only models of colour wearing something other than BEIGE.

Tan and beige are apparently much, much too boring and un-sexy for ~fashion~

and, by "nude" they apparently meant "emaciated," too.

There are a large number of phenomenons like this found in the beauty industry. Take, for example, L'oreal cosmetics. Their regular line of foundation goes as dark as "one shade" darker than the singer Beyonce, and I guess after noticing this, they put out a new line called "H.I.P. (High Intensity Pigments), whose campaigns used a more ethnically diverse group of models and had a larger array of skin tones to choose from.
Cover Girl has a special line of makeup titled "Queen" 'by Queen Latifah' for women with darker skin.
If you look close enough, you'll see that many popular make up lines have at least ten shades for "Fair skinned" women and about three reserved for the others

Lots of other possible names for these colors. Jute, sand, beige, taupe, maplewood, blond, camel, ivory, eggshell, honey, caramel, almond...

The problem does not lie within the models, fashions being modeled or with marie claire for publishing this fashion editorial. The problem here is with the word nude in which it automatically applies to a caucasian-esque skin tone. That is the only issue.

Look at the "nude" lipstick section at any drugstore. Same as "nude" pantyhose. STFD and realize this phrase has been around for a long time. This isn't shocking.

I realise I'm a little late on this. But what the hell.

I see a lot of people suggesting alternative names for these colours. It seems to me that that is not the fundamental issue. This seems like an aesthetic that is predicated upon a close similarity between the shade of the model's skin and the clothing. The whole point of this shoot is to create a palette of roughly similar pale neutrals, including the woman's skin and hair. that's why the background is the colour it is, that's why the model wore that makeup, that's probably why they chose a blonde model. Yes, women with darker skin could look great wearing these clothes. But the clothes are not for them and nor is the general aesthetic. Is beige inherently racist? Of course not. But this isn't beige, it's "nude", and that's an aesthetic, not just a colour, and it's a racist aesthetic.

for me white people they just look like a ghost in this color this color color is for people of color this it!!