What is Katy Perry Blackface Shoes Controversy?

It is the February 2019 backlash against two Katy Perry shoe designs, the "Rue Face Slip On Loafers" and "Ora Face Block Heel Sandal," whose black colorway featured red lips, bulging eyes, and a nose that critics said looked like blackface.

Where did Katy Perry Blackface Shoes Controversy come from?

It started on Twitter on February 9, 2019, when user @daniellovesyooh posted a photo of the shoes on sale and asked "blackface on a SHOE?"

What does Katy Perry Blackface Shoes Controversy mean?

The term refers to the specific pair of Katy Perry shoes and the wider February 2019 conversation lumping them together with Gucci, Prada, and Moncler as "blackface fashion".

How do you use Katy Perry Blackface Shoes Controversy?

It is not a meme template but an event, referenced in threads and articles about racist fashion missteps alongside the Gucci balaclava case.

Is Katy Perry Blackface Shoes Controversy still popular?

No, the news cycle wrapped once Perry and Global Brands Group pulled the shoes on February 12, 2019, though it is still cited in retrospectives of 2019 fashion controversies.

Katy Perry Blackface Shoes Controversy

2019eventdead

Published September 3, 2026

In February 2019, pop singer Katy Perry pulled two shoe designs from Dillard's and Walmart after Twitter users pointed out that the "Rue Face Slip On Loafers" and "Ora Face Block Heel Sandal" looked like blackface caricatures. The backlash arrived days after a similar Gucci balaclava incident and became one of that season's defining fashion pile-ons.

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Overview

The Katy Perry Blackface Shoes Controversy centers on two designs from Perry's Global Brands Group footwear line. Both shoes featured oversized red lips, blue bulging eyes, and a triangular nose stamped across the toe, and on the solid black colorway they read as minstrel caricature to a wide portion of Twitter3.

The story ran alongside similar accusations aimed at Gucci, Prada, and Moncler in the same window, and it was grouped with them under a "blackface fashion" tag rather than treated as a standalone incident4. Coverage focused on the pattern of large fashion houses shipping racially loaded imagery in the same season rather than on any single design.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Date

2019

Perry launched her first shoe line with Global Brands Group on February 16, 2017, a 40-piece collection running from $59 to $299 with longtime stylist Johnny Wujek installed as creative director1. The "Rue Face Slip On Loafers" and "Ora Face Block Heel Sandal" arrived in summer 2018 as part of that catalog3.

Backlash landed on February 9, 2019, when Twitter user @daniellovesyooh posted a screenshot of the shoes on sale with the caption "katyperry are you actually serious right now?! blackface on a SHOE?? what is WRONG with you"2.

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How It Spread

On February 10, 2019, @ThatGyrlKieren shared a collage grouping the shoes with recent Gucci, Prada, and Moncler cases and the caption "Ignorance is Never A fashion statement! Apology NOT accepted," pulling 796 retweets and 2,139 likes over two days4. The next day, @TiaHasTime added "if you have to second guess whether a design is blackface/racist…it probably is," which drew 129 retweets and 846 likes in a day5.

By February 12, 2019, sources close to Perry told TMZ the shoes were being pulled and were "never intended to be offensive," and Perry and Global Brands Group issued a matching statement to Insider that same day3. The Pew Research Center added context on February 11 by tweeting a survey finding that 34% of Americans said blackface in a Halloween costume was acceptable at least sometimes3.

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