BLACKPINK Rosé is said to have been the victim of racial discrimination, sparking outrage among fans.
On the 30th, the official account of ELLE UK uploaded several photos capturing the scene at the Saint Laurent 2026 SS fashion show held in Paris, France.
Rosé attended the fashion show as Saint Laurent's global ambassador. Afterwards she took a group photo with singer Charli XCX, model Hailey Bieber and actress Zoë Kravitz, but ELLE UK uploaded the group photo with only Rosé cropped out, causing controversy. In another subsequent photo, Rosé could not be found either.
Fans poured out protests saying ELLE UK intentionally excluded Rosé. They noted that the photo could have been uploaded without cropping, and among the four people in the photo Rosé was the only Saint Laurent global ambassador, so posting a photo that cut her out is hard to accept.
Not only ELLE UK but Charli XCX, who appeared in the group photo, was also embroiled in racial discrimination controversy. Charli XCX uploaded to her personal account a photo showing Hailey Bieber, Zoë Kravitz and Rosé sitting side by side, and the photo conspicuously had only Rosé darkened with shading.
That day the four were photographed by multiple media outlets from multiple angles. Although there were plenty of options to choose photos that captured all four properly, critics said using a photo where only Rosé was shaded and half cropped appeared to have racial intent.
Rosé's fans who saw the post are voicing strong backlash in the comments. Netizens also expressed anger with comments such as "racist," "blatant racial discrimination," and "they cut out the ambassador?"
Meanwhile, BLACKPINK, of which Rosé is a member, began a series of concerts at the Goyang Sports Complex in July as the first K-pop girl group to do so and is conducting the BLACKPINK world tour across 16 cities and 33 shows. After successfully completing concerts in North America and Europe, they will continue their tour in Asia from October in Kaohsiung, Bangkok, Jakarta, Bulacan, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other cities.
[Photo] OSEN DB, SNS
[OSEN]