When you're the wife of a Russian billionaire, resting your limbs on a conventional chair obviously won't do. But thanks to 32-year-old Dasha Zhukova, we've been offered a glimpse at the questionable furniture choices that can accompany such a lifestyle.

While people celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight for racial equality and civil rights during Monday's MLK holiday, a Russian fashion magazine put in overtime to once again prove that we have some distance to go when it comes to racial sensitivity in the fashion industry. Miroslava Duma’s new online magazine, Buro 24/7, ran an article about Zhukova, a Russian socialite and the editor-in-chief of boutique fashion magazine Garage, reports Fashion Bomb Daily.

But in an ill-timed presentation of the latest in side-eye inducing home ware, the photograph accompanying the article showed Zhukova sitting on a chair fashioned to look like a half-naked black woman.

The chair depicts the woman with her knees pressed against her bare chest as she appears to hold the weight of the serene-looking Zhukova. The dummy wears only black knee-high boots, elbow-length black clubs and underwear. And atop the mannequin, looking totally oblivious to the unsettling message presented by the image, sits a pristinely lit Zhukova.

With the lack of diversity in the fashion industry continuing to be a major issue, many have already expressed their frustration over yet another example of racial insensitivity in a fashion magazine. On Tuesday, Zhukova told the Moscow Times that the image was “published completely out of context” and was actually “a commentary on gender and racial politics.” She added that she apologized for upsetting anyone with the image -- a sign that she will hopefully think twice about any future accent chairs.

Buro 24/7 has also apologized for the image, saying that the publication does not support racism of any kind. "Buro 24/7 is categorically opposed to the idea of racism, oppression or humiliation of people in any form," said a representative of the online magazine, reading from a statement. "We see this chair purely in an artistic context. We apologize to all our readers who were offended by these photographs."

The Guardian reports that the chair is similar to the 1969 artwork of British pop artist Allen Jones, who used a white mannequin to create a seat almost identical in appearance and styling. The photo of Zhukova remains on the site. But the chair has now been cropped out of view.

Racism