i tend to wonder if it’s just a matter of experimentation on the part of the Art Directors. for example, what if you wanted to dress a particular model in this outfit that highlighted their body/facial structure, but actually went better with a certain skin tone? You might bodypaint to see how it played out.

the difference is that the editors aren’t intentionally blackfacing (or are they implicitly, no matter what?).

why is it that blue, or even multicolored, body painting, as a layer of image creation, is acceptable, but black/brown is not? [rhetorical] obviously the answer is that the black/brown actually coincides with a preexisting social stigma.

to me, i consider these editorials fashion experiments, esp in lieu of having a model that embodies everything that a concept asks for.

people get too crazy about this stuff sometimes, though understandably so.