Are High Fashion Brands Offensive and Racist on Purpose?

February is known to be Black History Month and its purpose is to honor the contributions from African-Americans to the United States’ history. High fashion brands such as Gucci have offended many people with their recent release. In February of 2019, Gucci released the “Balaclava knit top” which was a turtle neck that covered the bottom half of the face and a cutout mouth with large red lips. This brand’s product has suffered major backlash as it resembles blackface.

Due to the public’s enraged response to this product, Gucci apologized through Twitter on February 7th, stating how, “[They] consider diversity to be a fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected and at the forefront of every decision [they] make.” They assured the public that the item had been immediately removed from both their online website and all of their physical stores.

There are still a large number of people who didn’t consider Gucci’s apology as honest. Responses such as, “It’s 2019 and you’re telling me fashion designers don’t know if something looks like a racist ornament? #gucci knew what they were doing. They all do. GET BLACK DESIGNERS WORKING FOR YOU if you don’t can’t recognize things like this. And stop apologizing cause clearly you guys ain’t sorry” from Twitter by 2TUNN have emerged. Both Prada and Dolce & Gabbana have experienced similar backlash for their ‘racist’ products.

In November of 2018, Dolce and Gabbana had to postpone their fashion show in Shanghai after they were accused of racism through the release of their promotional video consisting of a Chinese model eating Italian food with chopsticks. Prada had to withdraw several of their products in December 2018 because these products were accused of resembling blackface as well. Their keychains looked like black monkeys with dramatic red lips.

Recently, the brand Burberry also released an apology through Twitter for their release of a hoodie that include a noose hanging around the neck. Burberry has mentioned how “the design was inspired by the marine theme that ran throughout the collection” and they swore that it was a huge mistake which wouldn’t happen again. Once again, the reactions and responses weren’t positive. Comments such as, “suicide is not fashion” from Liz Kennedy, a model from one of the British fashion houses, were released.

She continued by criticizing the Italian fashion designer Riccardo Tisci and said, “Riccardo Tisci and everyone at Burberry it is beyond me how you could let a look resembling a noose hanging from a neck out on the runway. How could anyone overlook this and think it would be okay to do this especially in a line dedicated to young girls and youth.”

Even though Burberry has removed this product from their collection, people aren’t content with the outcome as high fashion labels continue to release insensitive items. This sends the wrong message to vulnerable audiences such as teenagers.

Incidents such as these one from high fashion labels are recurring, with them continuously apologizing. Is this a technique implemented in the fashion industry to attract attention from the audience or are they really just simple accidents?