French Elle accused of racism after suggesting that the Obamas are first African-Americans to be fashionable

Fashion forward: The Obamas are the subject of a contentious Elle blog suggesting that black fashion has finally been given a chic makeover. Mrs Obama wore Alexander McQueen to a state dinner in 2010

French Elle may be a fashion authority, but the glossy magazine is certainly no leader in race relations.

In what has been interpreted as an outdated and insulting move, a fashion blogger for the magazine’s site posted a piece about Michelle Obama’s sartorial prowess and the rise of a ‘black-geoisie’.

New York Daily News goes so far as to brand the magazine as ‘racist’, while elsewhere online, the blog has caused uproar.

Writing about the first family on the magazine’s site, Nathalie Dolivo claims that the Obamas are the catalyst for a ‘black fashion renaissance’.

She suggests that America’s first black president has finally given the black community a ‘chic’ option other than ‘streetwear codes’.

She writes: ‘Michelle Obama sets the tone, focusing on cutting-edge brands … revisiting the wardrobe of Jackie O in a jazzy way.’

She believes black fashion in 2012 comprises a ‘black-geoisie’, a formula of fashion-forward black dressing that mixes ‘white codes’ – whatever they may be – with touches of African heritage, such as shells and ‘boubous’ (West African robes).

‘There is always a classic twist, with a bourgeois ethnic reference (a batik-printed turban/robe, a shell necklace, a créole de rappeur) that recalls the roots’ the writer notes, as translated by the Daily News.

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