ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Battle of Versailles fashion show in 1973 within the context of Black performance. It draws on textual analysis to understand how those who worked closely with the show’s production as well as those in the popular press interpreted the Black models’ performances through a lens of exoticized Blackness. The chapter seeks to interrogate the following: How did the Black models at the Battle of Versailles fashion show use the materiality of their Black female bodies as “canvases of representation” that served the performative desires of American designers? How can their runway performances be read as performances of Blackness?
