As the thick of Fashion Week in New York persists, the essentially buried news item of Vogue‘s longtime former creative director, Grace Coddington, being photographed by Brian Ferry for Les Echos Série limitée with a bevy of Mammy jars behind her as she smiles, blithely oblivious to causing any offense, while holding a cat-shaped teapot seems to speak volumes about how easily dismissed “innocent old white lady” racism is in American society and in general.
While, of course, Coddington comes across as nothing but a perfectly lovely person (just re-watch The September Issue for perspective and contrast against the, evidently, less ostensibly racist Anna Wintour), is there anything “perfectly lovely” about showcasing grotesque symbols of prejudice as chic with one’s interior decor? In a profile of her work for The Guardian, her style was described as having “produced some of fashion’s most memorable imagery. Her pictures might be jolly and decadent or moody and mysterious.” And yes, this “Grace at home” imagery she’s “unwittingly” produced of late has eclipsed all of her most recent and memorable shoots (at least to those not willing to sweep it under the rug), favoring the adjectives “jolly and decadent,” to be sure–if we have to classify accepted racism as anything marketable.
Coddington’s lack of understanding of just how offensive the Mammy stereotype is (just like the Sambo one) is made even more strangely apropos as a result of being Welsh, perhaps the epicenter of “no diversity”–which, accordingly, should make a place less racist for having no one to scapegoat. But no, evidently this is not what happened to Coddington. Just Diana.
And alas, we can’t chalk it up to the head injuries from her car accident at the age of twenty-six. This is something deeper. Something more innate. And it only grows stronger when, as white ladies get older, society shrugs and says, “They’ll be dead soon anyway. Their opinion is irrelevant.” Coddington’s opinion, however, has been tastemaking for one of the most influential magazines in the world for decades (stepping down from her role in 2016 in favor of being “at large” and collaborating with another old white lady go-to, Tiffany & Co.–unless you’re Ariana Grande buying rings for six of her bitches).
The director of The September Issue, R.J. Cutler put it best when he remarked, “Every billboard, fashion magazine spread, every advertisement we see today has been influenced by Grace Coddington.” And now, because of just that level of influence, the presence of Mammy jars in a spread highlighting her East Hampton home is being written off as simply a “careless oversight” on the part of the photographer and not, say, Coddington’s egregious oblivion to proudly exhibiting such a “kitschy” kitchen. She’s just an innocent old white lady, after all. Anyway, this defense seems to be working for old white men as well, or at least radioactive orange ones who would rather enact a Mexican genocide over putting his hand in a Mammy jar. To each geriatric blanco/a their own “innocent,” “can’t be helped because of their generation” prejudices. Though they certainly won’t seem to give a pass to anyone else.
