Blake Lively under fire for ‘slavery-themed’ fashion shoot on lifestyle site Preserve

A post on Blake Lively’s website has made some question the fashion star’s grasp of US history. Source: Getty Images

ACTOR, model and fledgling lifestyle guru Blake Lively has landed in hot water with a fashion shoot on her website that some claim glamorises America’s dark, pre-Civil War slavery past.

The post on Lively’s Preserve lifestyle website (Gwyneth’s much-derided GOOP site has a lot to answer for) is titled ‘Allure of Antebellum’, and pairs a fashion shoot with some particularly flowery prose about Lively’s Southern inspirations.
“The term ‘Southern Belle’ came to fruition during the Antebellum period (prior to the Civil War), acknowledging women with an inherent social distinction who set the standards for style and appearance,” the post says.
“These women epitomised Southern hospitality with a cultivation of beauty and grace, but even more with a captivating and magnetic sensibility. While at times depicted as coy, these belles of the ball, in actuality could command attention with the ease of a hummingbird relishing a pastoral bloom.”
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But some have accused the post of being tone deaf to the wider issue affecting the South pre-Civil War: African American slavery.
Lively’s evocation of the ‘grace’ and ‘hospitality’ of the white ‘Southern Belles’ who lived at the time has raised the ire of some fans: