The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show costs $12 million. Preparations for it begin a year in advance. The creative team starts working on costumes and show themes in January or February, even though the show doesn't tape until November. This is a huge, expensive, news-making fashion show — probably the most viewed in the world — that is planned over many, many hours, spanning many months. Even with all that planning and thinking and discussing of things before the show, young supermodel Karlie Kloss made it down the runway blowing kisses in a gigantic, floor-grazing Native American headdress. That costume, within a few days after the photos coming out, became controversial enough for Victoria's Secret to apologize for its inclusion and to announce the look would be edited out of the the show when it airs on CBS on December 4.

Many compared the gaffe to No Doubt's Native American–inspired video, which also had to quickly be pulled down and apologized for after similar backlash. But the Victoria's Secret incident felt symptomatic of the racial insensitivity on many runways and in many fashion photo shoots, whose long planning periods don't seem to prevent serious missteps. Let's review.