Alison Roman defends 'Chola' Halloween costume accusations, claiming it was of Amy Winehouse

Food writer says it 'reads as culturally insensitive'

Alison Roman says Halloween costume doesn't show her dressed as 'Chola' (YouTube)

Alison Roman has apologised after a photo resurfaced of her wearing what some believed was a culturally insensitive Halloween costume.

On Monday, writer Yashar Ali shared a photo of Roman wearing a white tank top, hoops and fake tattoos on Twitter, explaining that a source had sent him the photo from 2008.

According to Ali, the photo, taken from MySpace, showed Roman “dressed up as a Chola from a party”.

"Note her hoop earrings, fake tattoo on her chest, and her makeup," Ali wrote.

Cholas refers to a Mexican-American subculture with a distinctive style, according to Insider, which notes that the style is often imitated in racist costumes.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Chola is often used as an offensive term.

In response to Ali’s tweet, which he deleted before reposting, Roman said the photo was actually of a San Francisco-inspired Amy Winehouse costume.

“This incredibly embarrassing picture was taken in 2008, I was 23 and living in SF, this was my ‘SF inspired Amy Winehouse’ costume for Halloween - it reads as culturally insensitive, and I was an idiot child who knew nothing about the world/how this would be perceived and I'm sorry,” Roman tweeted.

After people questioned why she had drawn a fake tattoo on her chest - which Winehouse did not have - Roman defended herself on the basis that she is “historically lazy and bad at costumes”.

“TBH (to be honest) I'd be surprised if I even looked up a picture of Amy to put this together,” Roman wrote. “I am historically lazy and bad at costumes. I'm sure it went something like ‘Someone give me fake tattoos and some eyeliner, this seems fine! Now plz hand me the Bacardi 151!’

“It was/I was VERY DUMB.”

In a separate tweet, Roman said she has donated more than $4,000 over the last 11 days and raised over $22,000 for civil justice organisations amid widespread protests following the death of George Floyd.

The criticism over Roman’s resurfaced costume comes just weeks after she faced public scrutiny over comments she made about Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo during an interview.

Following backlash from Teigen herself, Roman issued an apology in which she said her comments were “stupid, careless and insensitive.”