Style blogger VicStyles and friends were among the thousands that attended this year’s Coachella festival. Over the weekend, her Instagram feed was filled with images of #blackgirlmagic in the Palm Springs desert under her creatively coined #froachella tag.
Popular online clothing retailer AmiClubwear took note and reposted this image to their Instagram account…but not before applying a filter that lightened the features of the women pictured so much you could barely see any definition in their face.
VicStyles responded to the AmiClubWear post by requesting they repost the original image or take it down and cited the #froachella tag was created because there aren’t enough black girls represented in all of their glory at Coachella.
Amiclubwear defended their edit in their comments by claiming they applied the filter to make it look more like “Coachella”
A brief snapshot of the AmiClubWear Instagram feed shows numerous Coachella photos which they reposted. None of which were filtered to the degree of the one photo they used with VicStyles and friends, the only black women posted during this time.
One has to wonder exactly what AmiClubWear meant when they said the only Coachella image of black women on their feed was filtered to look more “Coachella”? In all actuality, the poor filtering makes the photo look even more out of place in their feed.
Many women have taken to the AmiClubWear instagram page to express their disdain with the brand’s choice to over-filter the image:
The original photo is a true representation of the beauty in these women. #posttheoriginal#blackgirlsrock#blackgirlmagic#melanin
Quickly unfollowed you guys for this BS & definitely won’t be supporting this business. Did they really need a filter? I guess you guys are majorly offended by their melanin? Why don’t you just delete this picture all together?
This is so wrong and sad that you can’t see that @amiclubwear you clearly have offended a lot of people by your un needed “vintage” filter. It was not necessary at all and if you really love black girls like you say then you would have appreciated the beauty in the original. I suggest you remove this and post the original ! Looks extremely bad on your brand
@amiclubwear if you truly meant no harm you would post the original picture as it was beautiful before the filter you added! Obviously many people find offense to the editing and has expressed that to you. Stop the excuses and be responsible for your actions because as of now, it only reflects poorly on your business!
No other pictures on your page are edited this much. Why is this one? Also, vintage filters lift the shadows, not the highlights. Try again.
This is the only photo in your grid that has such poor editing. Why is that? The light is far too bright. All of the other photos look pretty natural,not this one. We don’t see a need to make this photo look “more Coachella” their outfits are Coachella enough.
If you loved black girls and #froachella so much you would appreciate that the women featured took offense to this post and take the necessary steps to rectify the situation. Whether the filter was put out of malice or not is no longer the point.
Agreeing with the last comment here, regardless if the filter was applied with malcontent, if the owners of the photo are offended by it, they should work to correct the issue at hand.
As of Wednesday, April 20 at 7:45AM PST, the post has not been removed from their feed.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
There are dozens of black owned online retailers who are not adjusting the skin color just to fit a demographic. Find them on any of theses sites
http://blackownedclothingstores.com/
http://blackownedclothingbrands.com/
http://www.blackownedclothing.com/
New Day.…good job, thank you
pretty sure AMIClubwear was started and is owned by a self made Asian women who came to this country with nothing http://stylemag.amiclubwear.com/2014/03/08/ceo-yang-yang/
White washing at it’s finest.Funny they had every excuse in the book.
Not sure if it was intentional or un-intentional. But the before picture looks way better. The after picture has a glare and does not even show their face.
White people will never accept black people,they show us this with every chance they get.This isn’t surprising.But we should know that by now.
Black people need to pratice group economics and establish strong industries.Black have little to no economic power,we rush to give our money to whites and asians who do not respect us but take our money cuz we pratically throw our money at them.Ever heard of the phrase’the white man’s eye is colder’ ?
Wth my comment won’t show or was deleted,do you have a racist white moderator erasing messages of black empowerment,self-love and consciousness or a confused black person doing it?
I’ve been loyal fan of bglh but seriously,I’m seriously dissatisfed with the content lately.It’s a well know fact that the media/advertising uses white or white-passing people to promote products,so it’s no suprised they lightened those girls.The truth is white people don’t care abt black representation and we should know that ‚so we need to uplift each other.
Wow, just wow. Support black-owned business is all I have to say. That original photo is gorgeous.
So true!
they look SOOO much better in the first picture!!!
Messy messy. They had them looking like Jesus during the transfiguration LOL. I cannot.
Can’t respond to white saviour barbie comments directed at me so I’ll respond here. This is for the the the self-righteous prick Naturally me. “My parents mentality”, even though my parents endured more blatant and horrorific racism than I have, they still taught me that Black people and White peple are equal, even though some White people and non-black Poc see us as inferior.I don’t see the horrific racism that older Black people have gone through as a joke or forgettable, so I don’t what the hell you mean by my parents mentality. I respect the civil rights activists, work… Read more »
“We have a lot of Black employees” is basically the same as justifying the use of the “n word as “I can say it because I’ve got Black friends.”
Agreed! Exactly what I was going to say. And that picture is lightened to the extreme, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
‘To be more Coachella’.…culturally appropriating other elements of other cultures…apples and oranges! Smh
We look fine as is color-wise and anything else. The first picture looks better and is better. We are NOT all THE same color, shape, size, and do not think the same way. It’s BEYOND me why people do this. We are beautifully colored as is!
Her picture is unnecessarily bright unlike the others on the instagram. I was at Coachella and it was nice to see more black people there enjoying themselves and not just working. (I was working)