I remember loving my Crayola crayons collection and always being fascinated by the names of the colors. One color called “flesh” was a peachy beige that mimicked my blonde Barbie dolls’hair. As a black woman it never occurred to me that the color of flesh tones and nude tones did not involve my brown skin. Call me unaware or not connected to my blackness, but finding reflections of myself in fashion and its images was so rare that it became part of the status quo. Thankfully, bursts of consciousness of color and diversity as of late have become more frequent and the term nude used to define white skin only is less frequent a practice. Case in point designer Christian Louboutin whose nude collection of footwear this year is rooted in a #Nudesforall social media campaign highlighting diversity in flesh tones. Nudes for all launches this August.
