Poverty and homelessness in Thai model’s tasteless fashion shoot
Model Natthaya Boonchompaisarn posted a photo from fashion shoot in Instagram - later taken down - showing her posed as a homeless person begging on a street
While some people bemoan the overzealous political correctness of some media, in fashion there are still occasions where the industry descends into a parody of itself.
Remember the evil fashion designer Mugatu from Zoolander who designed a fashion collection, Derelicte, as “a way of life inspired by the very homeless, the vagrants, the crack whores that make this wonderful city so unique”. Well, life imitated art this week in a homeless-themed fashion shoot featuring 22-year-old Thai model Natthaya “Grace” Boonchompaisarn, who won the third season of reality TV show The Face Thailand.
The model posted a shot from the shoot on Instagram. As reported by Coconuts Bangkok, she’s sitting on a street, legs akimbo, wearing a plaid shirt with a cardboard sign on the floor that reads, “Homeless just trying to get through another day any help greatly appreciated thank you.”
Unbelievable, I know. Take a breath. And then you look closer and realise that she’s also clutching a brown paper bag in one hand and holding out her other palm in a begging gesture, while, bizarrely, wearing black lipstick ... because black lipstick is clearly the make up du jour of the homeless.
Then there are the hashtags #Homeless #Project #NYC #HardLife #Photography #BlvckB #JilSander that accompany the post. Yes, you’re allowed to vomit now.