Kim Kardashian and Vogue are being accused of copying Black fashion for cover photo shoot

• Kim Kardashian West and Vogue are facing a firestorm of criticism online over her recent cover shoot with the magazine.
• Some people have accused Kardashian West of appropriating Black culture in her March cover shoot.

Kim Kardashian West and Vogue are facing a firestorm of criticism online over the TV star's recent cover shoot with the iconic fashion magazine, which people say appropriated Black culture.

Kardashian West was revealed this month as the cover star for US Vogue's March issue, and in the issue she poses donning apparel from Balenciaga and Givenchy, among other luxury fashion designers.

However, some social media users, including the popular Instagram account Diet Prada, have pointed out similarities between Kardashian West's looks in the shoot to those of Black fashion models, such as Naomi Campbell, and Black singers like Beyonce and Nina Simone.

"Kim and Vogue said 'Black History Month,'" quipped the account, which has more than 3 million followers, along with several hashtags, including "#blackfishing."

Karen Attiah, a Black columnist for The Washington Post, wrote in a comment on the post: "In the middle of Black History Month, they drop this on us. So *tired* of being told a Kardashian is 'redefining beauty' when Black women have been setting beauty and style trends for decades."

"Also, where's the Andre Leon Talley appreciation Vogue edition?" Attiah added, referring to the late former Vogue editor, who died last month.

Her comment received more than 13,000 likes.

Diet Prada has previously posted about Kardashian West wearing looks that Campbell had debuted decades before, as W Magazine reported in 2019. Kardashian West later acknowledged the inspiration, posting photos of herself in a Versace dress that Campbell debuted in 1996 with the caption "Naomi Forever." She later told People that she had "always been so open" that Campbell is "the ultimate fashion and glam muse."

In the past, Kardashian West has also sustained accusations of appropriating Black culture, blackface, and blackfishing, a term coined by journalist Wanna Thompson for when "white public figures, influencers, and the like do everything in their power to appear Black," as Thompson told CNN in June.

In a conversation for i-D published in December 2021, playwright Jeremy O. Harris asked Kardashian West how she had "navigated criticism around things like blackfishing" as the mother of Black children.

Kardashian West said that she "would never do anything to appropriate any culture," but addressed the criticism she's sustained for wearing her hair in Fulani braids, a style that originated in West Africa. She told Harris that "a lot of the time" when she wears her hair in braids, it's because her daughter asked her for matching hairstyles.

"I've had these conversations with her that are like, 'Hey maybe this hairstyle would be better on you and not on me,'" Kardashian West said. "But I also want her to feel that I can do a hairstyle with her and not make it that big of a deal either if that's something that she's really asking for, and really wants."