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Burberry is the latest brand of fashion designers to be criticized for using racist and offensive images in its new collection. The company moved away from its quintessential control pattern and launched a hoodie at London Fashion Week on Sunday, in which cords that usually hang from a hood were swapped for a knotted rope in a knot flowing. Burberry has been widely criticized for mentioning racial terror through lynching, as well as suicide.
In response to the hoodie, model Liz Kennedy wrote on Instagram: "Suicide is not a fad," she said. "Riccardo Tisci and everyone at Burberry, I do not understand how you could leave an air that looks like a noose on the catwalk.How could we ignore that and think that it would be good to do it, especially in a line dedicated to young girls and young people.Printable youth.Not to mention the rising suicide rates in the world.Do not forget either the horrific history of the lynching. "
Burberry has issued several apologetic statements, saying that they had removed the sweatshirt from the line. "Although the design was inspired by the marine theme of the collection, it was insensitive and we made a mistake," said CEO Marco Gobbetti. The creative director, Riccardo Tisci, issued a similar statement, saying the sweatshirt was "inspired by a nautical theme", but that he now saw it "insensitive".
But Kennedy added in his Instagram post that with hundreds of ways to tie a rope, one should not "forget" that Burberry had landed on it. Sharing her personal experience with the designer brand, she continued:
"I left my fit extremely excited after seeing this look (even though I did not have it myself) .I felt like I was back in the place where I was when I was living a suicidal experience in my family … briefly hanging on the ceiling (trying to understand the knot) and laughing in the locker room.I had asked to talk to someone about it but the only one The thing that was asked of me was to write a letter, a brief conversation with someone, but all that that involved was "it's fashion." Nobody cares about what's going on in your personal life, so keep it to yourself "Well, I'm sorry, but it's a bigger problem than me."
Gobbetti also said in his statement that "the experiment described by Ms. Kennedy does not reflect" Burberry's values. "We will reflect on this, learn from it and put in place all the necessary actions so that it does not happen again."
Burberry is not the only brand to make headlines. Earlier this month, the Gucci designer brand was at the center of the controversy after unveiling a blackface-style sweater. Images of the black turtleneck, placed over the mouth of a mannequin and adorned with a mouth cut highlighted by wide, bright red lips, have gone around, while real cases of blackface were in the forefront in political news after Virginia Gov's doctor. Ralph Northam school yearbook was dug up. Like Burberry, Gucci apologized and said he was ending the sweater, adding, "We are fully committed to increasing diversity in our organization and making this happen. incident a powerful learning moment for the Gucci team and beyond ".
Yet just a few months ago, Prada was criticized for its window displays praising its line Pradamalia, which also evoked racist images. Prada's SoHo Manhattan storefront featured baubles that looked like a monkey and stained black, with oversized red lips. After the ensuing backlash, Prada apologized and pulled the shop windows off. "These are imaginary creatures that are supposed to make no reference to the real world and certainly not to blackface," the company said in a statement. "The Prada group has never intended to offend anyone and we abhor all forms of racist and racist images."
The fashion industry struggling with diversity and inclusion (and that is faltering) is not new. As writes Robin Givhan, fashion critic at The Washington Post, "Chanel drew a Koranic verse on the bodice of an appropriate dress and headdresses of Native Americans." The Dutch brand Viktor & Rolf was covering white patterns Black painted on the body and face, creating an even American designer, Marc Jacobs, caused a sensation by incorporating fake dreadlocks on white models in a parade in New York.
But the new merchandise from Prada, Gucci and now Burberry stands out for its timing – the latter two launching these designs over a busy month of black history – and more generally by their particularly egregious feeling at a time when brands should know better than "inadvertently" selling clothing using racist images or insensitivity to mental health. Even Northam's meager defense of maintaining his governorship – though questionable and controversial – centered on his claim that several decades had passed since he had darkened his skin for a long time. Michael Jackson's dance contest. But in 2019, who, from the age of 20, does not immediately recognize the painful racist images of blackface and lynching? (Well, other than Megyn Kelly?)
In response to public protests, some brands have either reinforced their declared commitment to diversity, or promised to increase it – suggesting that the lack of diversity within the company is to blame . Although diversity continues to be a major problem in fashion, acting as if no one was speaking in advance about the message on clothing was, at least in Burberry's case, contradictory with the description given by Kennedy of what had happened.
As she said in her Instagram post, "The problem is not that I am upset, there is a broader view of what fashion turns a blind eye or does to advertise. A look so ignorant and a situation so badly treated. I am ashamed to have been apart from the show. #burberry. "
Others on social media have had a similar reaction. "This shit is attention," Dani Kwateng-Clark, culture manager at Broadly, tweeted. "There is no unfathomable way for fashion to draw on art and culture, while being completely unaware of the triggering of symbols, when will this mess come to an end?"
"At this point, they are watching us" tweeted Shelby Ivey Christie, which animates the podcast "Girl at the bamboo ear loop", on black and fashion.
While we can not be certain about the underlying motives, the fact that these fashion brands, with their creative divisions and robust advertising machines, all make similar mistakes and follow the same formula of attempted recourse raises a question troubling: do designer brands manipulate the consumer? and influencer disgust and dismay at traumatic images as a marketing strategy?
Amanda Marcotte, of Salon, and the author of "Troll Nation" have said: "The old adage that says there is no bad publicity" seems to be reminiscent of these companies. Of course, they are rejected and criticized when they commit odiously racist acts, but they also take their name in the news cycle and remind consumers that they exist. "
She fears that these luxury fashion brands are also more strategic in controversies, beyond simple trolling. "Even more disturbing, I fear that these controversies can not improve their image with certain types of consumers," added Marcotte. "Brands are now even more associated with the elite and whiteness, qualities that always appeal to wealthy clients that they seek to obtain. Plus, they now have a reputation for being" politically "As Trump's success with the wealthy donors can tell you that this is exactly the kind of thing that opens the wallets of the wealthy elite, always very white and always very conservative."
Following the publication of Gucci's jersey, celebrities and former consumers, who called for a boycott of the company, made concerted efforts. Rapper 50 Cent posted a video on Instagram where he burned a Gucci shirt in protest and said, "I do not support their brand anymore."
If luxury brands are looking for advertising and profit, or worse, how should the public engage with them? Are the boycotts and the social media scandal giving businesses the advertising they are already looking for?
"One of the reasons that trolling is so frighteningly effective is that there is no good way to react," he said. Marcotte. "Outrage feeds the trolls, but ignoring them allows their fanaticism to spread unchecked."
To empower brands, she said, it's important to name racist trolling for what it is. "With these brands, for example, it may not be enough to be outraged by racism," added Marcotte. "Instead, it may be more useful to point out that repeated racist" mistakes "look less and less like errors, and that people who buy their products are not rebellious politically incorrect, but exploited cynically. for money. "
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