Gigi Hadid causes stir with Vogue cover

Director defends magazine’s Arabian cover as model in partial veil and hijab prompts claims of ‘cultural appropriation’.

Vogue magazine has defended its cover featuring top model Gigi Hadid wearing a partial veil as ‘one of the best of all time’, after controversy surrounding its publication. Inez and Vinoodh / Vogue Arabia
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Vogue magazine defended its cover featuring top model Gigi Hadid wearing a partial veil as "one of the best of all time", after controversy surrounding its publication.

Mohieb Dahabieh, a director from Vogue Arabia, sought to explain the decision to launch the new regional edition featuring Hadid wearing a veil on the magazine's cover and a hijab on the inside pages.

The stylish launch edition cover was well received by readers and fashion commentators.

But some social media users claimed the model was “using the hijab as a fashion statement”, while others suggested she was taking advantage of her Palestinian roots for the shoot, despite not having publicly spoken about them before.

Hadid, 21, was born in California to a Dutch-American mother and a Palestinian-American Muslim father, Mohammed Hadid.

Dahabieh, who is Syrian and works on Dubai-based Vogue Arabia, wrote on the magazine's website that the cover came at a time when "the burqa debate continues to surface in Europe".

“Visually, undoubtedly, this is one of the best Vogue covers of all time, but the sentimental value that it bears for the Arab world makes it all the more iconic and transcendent than that. It resonates with us.

“And for me personally, it makes me proud in a way that only editor-in-chief Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz could do.

“Deena’s original vision was to have the late Zaha Hadid share the cover with Gigi. To feature two women aware and proud of their Arabic identity coming together to celebrate the diversity of Arab women, from captivating brunettes of the Gulf to breathtaking blondes of the Levant and beyond.

"A Vogue editor's job is to find a balance between the future of fashion and what's existing right now. But Deena has the added responsibility of chronicling the style heritage of not just one country, but 22."

He said that owing to political and economic issues, “we’ve had to look outwards to other cultures for design and architecture”.

“Somewhere down the line we seem to have forgotten where we came from. Sadly so,” Dahabieh said.

Ahead of Vogue hitting the stands in the Middle East on Sunday, Hadid wrote of her pride at being part of the project.

“Being half-Palestinian, it means the world to me to be on the first-ever cover of @voguearabia, and I hope that this magazine will show another layer of the fashion industry’s desire to continue to accept, celebrate, and incorporate all people and customs and make everyone feel like they have fashion images and moments they can relate to ... and learn and grow in doing so.”

Among UAE residents, however, opinion was divided.

Tala Bitar, 23, is a Muslim Jordanian designer based in Dubai. She is a fan of Hadid, although she has mixed feelings on the magazine’s choice of the Los Angeles-born model.

“Gigi has always represented herself as half Arab and was proud of it, but I also think she’s not the most Arab model out there for the cover,” she said. “They could have chosen someone who represents the Arab world in a much better way.”

Dubai-based stylist Teresa Karpinska works with models and brands from Cartier to Chanel.

Having met Hadid, she said: “She is really well spoken, humble, eloquent and seems to have substance.

“Having said that, not once have I ever heard her refer to or act on her Arab heritage for as long as I have followed her on social media. Yes I raised an eyebrow when I saw her write about this being a tribute to her roots because it’s the first time her roots were ever mentioned.

“I think there was an element of cultural appropriation in this cover for sure.

“By the same token, if it raises the awareness of the fact that for most women the hijab in its beauty and femininity is a choice, even if it convinces a handful of uneducated people who simply haven’t been exposed to the Middle East enough, then it was for a good cause.”

mswan@thenational.ae