Contentious ride for fashion design
Fashion has had a rough few months of controversial designs, beginning in December, when Prada pulled its Otto animal charm from stores after customers said its design resembled blackface.
In the short time since, Gucci landed in hot water for a wool jumper that was also seen as racially insensitive, with Burberry just this week apologizing for sending a model down the runway at London Fashion Week wearing a hoodie with a noose around the neck.
High-end houses and fastfashion brands alike have fallen victim to misguided design choices that have incensed social media and raised questions about how such imagery was approved in the first place. Examples:
Zara
The fast-fashion chain is the biggest offender when it comes to releasing clothes that go viral for offensive imagery. Two recent examples invoked the Holocaust – a $78 handbag that Zara withdrew from stores when shoppers pointed out the embroidery featured four swastikas, and a striped children’s shirt with a yellow star that was also pulled for its resemblance to a prisoner’s uniform.
“We honestly apologize. The T-shirt was inspired by the sheriff’s stars from the Classic Western films and is no longer in our stores,” Zara tweeted about the controversial shirt.
The same month that the striped shirt went viral, Zara also apologized for another Tshirt design featuring the text “White is the new black,” with black letters on white fabric.
In 2016, the Spanish retailer pulled a shirt reading “Are You Gluten Free?” following customers’ outcry, with an online petition that claimed it was insensitive to people with Celiac disease.
H&M
The international retail giant ignited a firestorm with an ad in the U.K. that featured a black child modeling a hoodie printed with the phrase “coolest monkey in the jungle.” Social media blew up, and several celebrities who had partnered with the brand, including The Weeknd and G-Eazy, severed ties. VIPs including Diddy and LeBron James condemned the ad as racist.
Prada
The Italian luxury fashion house pulled its Otto character from the Pradamalia collection after images of the black animal with oversize red lips exploded on social media. In a viral Facebook post, Chinyere Ezie, a staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, condemned the design.
Gucci
The Italian brand led by designer Alessandro Michele included a black turtleneck in its fall/winter 2018 runway show with a red-lined cutout for customers’ mouths. Gucci said the $890 item was inspired by “vintage ski masks,” but some buyers thought otherwise, pointing out that it was reminiscent of blackface. Gucci apologized on Twitter: “We consider diversity to be a fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected, and at the forefront of every decision we make.”
The Katy Perry Collections
Perry apologized after her shoe label pulled two potentially problematic pairs from its website last month. The Katy Perry Collections label no longer features either the Rue Face slip-on loafer or the Ora Face block-heel sandal. The shoes featured metal appliques imitating eyes and nose plus exaggerated red lips on the vamp, the upper part of the shoes. Perry appeared remorseful in a statement to USA TODAY; the statement, which also came from Global Brands Group, said the shoes were envisioned as “a nod to modern art and surrealism.”
“I was saddened when it was brought to my attention that it was being compared to painful images reminiscent of blackface. Our intention was never to inflict any pain,” the statement said.