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Nude is the fashion colour du jour. But its only nude if youre white， not if youre black. Michelle Obama must be used to causing a stir with her frocks. But she could not have known when she chose a floorlength gown in a lovely shade ofwell， lets just pass over that for the momentto meet the Indian prime minister last November， the furore that would follow. The dress was described by its designer Naeem Khan as a sterling-silver sequin， abstract floral， nude strapless gown。 Associated Press said it was flesh-coloured， the colour of Obamas own flesh notwithstanding. Now AP appears to have revised that description to champagne， an act that has triggered debate about fashions use of the word nude。 Nude? For whom? asks Jezebel magazine. To anyone who reads fashion magazines these terms will be familiar. Nude shades are everywhere this season， having dominated the spring/summer 2010 catwalks， from off-white through pale rose to gold (nude in fashion terms does not refer to anything more exciting than these rather muted colours， not even with nude bras)。 InStyle magazine goes as far as to say that nude is the new black： just about the surest way to exclude black-skinned women from adopting the trend， since its apparently not acceptable to wear black as black， nor black as nude. Over at Elle magazine， where the May issue sees the word nude repeated nine times on a single page， nude is the colour for spring/summer。 Editor Lorraine Candy says there is nothing wrong with this. Nude is a defined colour. Its white nude， not black nude， but its not the colour of my skin either. Im see-through white. With someone as powerful and amazing as Michelle Obama， I think its the wrong thing to get worked up about. | 
