‘I didn’t read the room’: Adele addresses Jamaican carnival costume, African Bantu knots backlash
Last year, Adele made a major fashion faux pas when she wore a bikini top made out of Jamaican flags with a shoulder piece blooming yellow feathers along with Bantu knots while celebrating London’s Notting Hill Carnival during a vacation in Jamaica.
The incident triggered a firestorm of criticism and shouts of ‘cultural appropriation’. Now, fast forward a year later, she is admitting that she regretted the choice she made at that time.
In an interview with British Vogue, published earlier this week, she said candidly: “I didn’t read the f–king room”.
“I totally get why people felt like it was appropriating. I was wearing a hairstyle that is actually to protect Afro hair. Ruined mine, obviously,” the ‘Hello’ singer said.
At the time, she posted the photo on social media with the caption, “Happy what would be Notting Hill Carnival my beloved London.”
The annual celebration had been canceled at the time as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adele said she chose to leave the photo on her page as a reminder for her never to repeat that particular mistake and to shoulder the responsibility of her actions.
“I could see comments being like, ‘the nerve to not take it down,’ which I totally get…If I take it down, it’s me acting like it never happened…And it did,” the 33 year-old Grammy winner explained.
Adele’s feature on Vogue comes ahead of an upcoming single and a new album, her fourth, which is speculated to be titled ’30’ as all her albums have been titled after the age she started working on them.
