Photo courtesy of Gucci
It’s been two weeks since Twitter went after a Gucci balaclava sweater that resembled blackface — celebrities burned their Gucci merchandise, boycotts were call for and the sweater was removed from all stores. Today, Alessandro Michele showed his aw 19 collection, opening with a black spiked mask, among other facial covers, and it seems as though the storm has passed. Is fashion’s memory so short or did the brand’s efforts measure up to social media’s call-out culture atonement standards?
Everyday seems to bring a new scandal of insensitivity, or all-out prejudice, brought to light by social media accounts that watch brand behaviour. Less than 24 hours after Gucci apologised for its “blackface sweater”, it was Adidas’ turn. The athletic brand had released an all white, cotton sneaker to celebrate Black History Month, which they had to pull from shelves. Next, Katy Perry’s shoes sparked outrage, which brings us to two days ago when Burberry’s “noose hoodie” forced the brand to apologise and remove the item from their collection. With all of the hashtags, boycotts and outrage it is difficult to keep track of everyone we are supposed to be shaming. There are certain triggers for provoking online backlash, like use of blackface, slurs or sexism, but the guidelines for winning back the public aren’t so clear-cut.
Photos courtesy of Gucci
Gucci handled the situation by apologising, discontinuing the sale of the sweater, having the CEO Marco Bizzarri fly to Harlem to have a sit down with Dapper Dan, who is a living legend in the black fashion community. The company then announced that it would be making diversity a focus in their hiring process to prevent these types of incidents and that it would be committing money to help more people of colour enter the fashion industry. Some say that this constitutes a concerted effort, while others are skeptical of Gucci’s sincerity. Rapper, TI, has been vocal against the brand saying, “APOLOGY NOT ACCEPTED” on Instagram. In either case, Michele took his bow to applause in Milan today. There were no major protests outside the show and twitter seemed relatively quiet, but the true indicator of whether or not a brand has been forgiven is sales.
Some scandals have left brands unscathed, but Dolce & Gabbana’s advertisements for its Chinese fashion show have still left a bad taste in the mouths of the country’s consumers – one of the world’s most lucrative luxury markets – who remain unwilling to support the Italian label. Between the video of a Chinese woman struggling to eat a cannoli with chopsticks, while being asked, “is it too big?” and the alleged Instagram hack of Stefano Gabbana’s account, during which racist statements, like “China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia” were seen by the public as coming from the designer, the public had had enough.
It’s only recently that fashion brands are being held accountable for being insensitive, but the corporate structures have been slow to catch up to a world that can kill profits with a tweet. For some scandals there may be redemption, but brands should watch themselves as the public may decide not to give you another chance after some mistakes.
Check out more of the masked looks bellow:
Photos courtesy of Gucci