Racism in fashion
Fashion has had a rough few months of controversial designs, beginning in December, when Prada pulled its Otto animal charm from stores after customers claimed 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 fast-fashion brands alike have fallen victim to misguided design choices that have incensed social media and raised questions about how such offensive imagery was approved in the first place. Read on for more examples of retailers that were forced to apologize for racially insensitive or otherwise problematic clothing.
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 T-shirt 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 circulating that claimed it was insensitive to people with Celiac disease.
The company attracted controversy again in 2017, when customers noticed an online listing for a denim shirt printed with several frogs, featuring imagery similar to Pepe the Frog, an online meme that has been adopted by white supremacists as a hate symbol.
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 over the photo, 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, sparking comparisons to blackface.
In a viral Facebook post, Chinyere Ezie, a staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, condemned the design.
"Today after returning to NYC after a very emotional visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture including an exhibit on blackface, I walked past Prada’s Soho storefront only to be confronted with the very same racist and denigrating #blackface imagery," she wrote.
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. While Gucci said the $890 item was inspired by "vintage ski masks," buyers thought otherwise, pointing out that it was reminiscent of blackface.
After removing the item from its stores, Gucci later announced that the company would be increasing its diversity hiring, and would add a new global director for diversity and inclusion, as well as five new designers for its Rome office.