Burberry Agrees 'Suicide isn't fashion', Apologizes For Parading Lynching Noose Down Runway

Burberry Agrees 'Suicide isn't fashion', Apologizes For Parading Lynching Noose Down Runway

Add another “what were they thinking!!!” designer must-have to your Fall 2019 luxury shopping list. Insisting that the design was inspired by a marine theme that ran throughout the entire collection, Burberry agrees that their noose is easily understood as making both suicide and lynching fashionable. Given everything that’s happening around Gucci and Prada’s wild-side walk with blackface, it’s pretty incredible that these mishaps keep happening.

"We are deeply sorry for the distress caused by one of the products that featured in our A/W 2019 runway collection," Marco Gobbetti, Burberry chief executive officer, said in a statement provided to CNN.

The design was criticized by model Liz Kennedy, who wore it on the runway and claims that her expressed concerns about the noose were dismissed. Even wearing it during the show potentially put Kennedy in her own tough spot with social media. It was Kennedy who posted this message to Burberry on her Instagram:

Gucci Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri Meeting With Dapper Dan Over Blackface Sweater Disaster

Gucci Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri Meeting With Dapper Dan Over Blackface Sweater Disaster

Gucci Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri is planning to meet with Dapper Dan and other African-American leaders during a trip to New York this week to discuss the sweater debacle. “"I am a Black man before I am a brand," he wrote. “Another fashion house has gotten it outrageously wrong,” Dapper Dan said in an Instagram post. “There is no excuse nor apology that can erase this kind of insult.”

The renowned Harlen fashon designer and tailor originally gained fame knocking off Guuci’s logo in the ‘80s and ‘90s, before finding itself in the drivers seat when Alessandro Michele knocked off one of Dapper Dan’s designs in his own 2018 Resort collection. The two men signed a peace treaty with Dapper Dan collaborating with Gucci on a vintage hip-hop-inspired capsule collection. Then Kering stepped in to underwrite Dap’s new studio and atelier in Harlem, while making him the face of a special tailoring campaign. Gucci has also underwritten several art events celebrating black culture in Harlem and around New York.

As the former head of product development and fashion director for Victoria’s Secret, I recommend that Gucci load up a corporate jet with design talent and head for Washington, DC and a trip to the African American Museum of African American History and Culture. This will give them a complete understanding of the sensitivity of black face in America to progressives of every skin color.

Gucci Pulls $900 Balaciava Sweater Labeled Racist Blackface | Spike Lee Launches Gucci-Prada Boycott

Gucci Pulls $900 Balaciava Sweater Labeled Racist Blackface | Spike Lee Launches Gucci-Prada Boycott

Gucci has apologized after social media voices said that its $900 balaclava sweater resembled blackface. The sweater has been removed from Gucci stores and online.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, the brand said it "deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper." It then added to the post:

"We can confirm that the item has been immediately removed from our online store and all physical stores.

"We are fully committed to increasing diversity throughout our organization and turning this incident into a powerful learning moment for the Gucci team and beyond."

Blackface — the act of non-black people wearing makeup to try to look black — is front and center in American politics, with the VA Democratic governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring both admitting to having dressed up to impersonate a black person. Blackfrace has a racist history in the United States. It was used in minstrel shows, movies, and other forms of entertainment that sought to dehumanize African-Americans and exclude them from the entertainment industry. In an extension of the blackface issue, I learned today that US Secretary of Energy and former Governor of Texas Rick Perry’s family ranch is named Niggerhead.

In the 19th century, actors caricatured black slaves, wearing burnt cork or shoe polish on their faces to make themselves look "black." The performances "characterized blacks as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hyper-sexual, and prone to thievery and cowardice," according to the National Museum of African-American History & Culture.

Our liberal American nerves are just fried over this racist nonsense in America. Social media posts arguing that there was no need to put red lips on the Gucci sweater — unless the intention was to create a blackface fashion statement — if one desired — resonate. AOC has a history of pushing back on what we feel is an absurd level of political correctness in our culture and fashion world. But sweaters like the Gucci one or Prada’s red lips, monkey trinket debacle from the Christmas holidays go too far.

Writer Nicole Dennis-Benn Shares Her Brooklyn-Based, Black Beauty Fashion Inspirations

Writer Nicole Dennis-Benn Shares Her Brooklyn-Based, Black Beauty Fashion Inspirations

Nicole Dennis-Benn Finds Her Voice Through Fashion ELLE US

Bern explains that given that “I’ll always be ‘alien’ as a black person in America’, originally from Jamaica, she wears clothes from people who have her back. Literally. Bern bagged dressing to assimilate for years, trading her lower style profile to dressing to be seen in clothes created by black designers.

I have found community in black-owned boutiques. Martine’s Dream, in the heart of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, brings to mind the Caribbean with its island-inspired, bohemian-chic airy cotton dresses and skirts, its kimonos and caftans. TracyChambers Vintage and Indigo Style Vintage, also both Brooklyn-based, sell timeless pieces— from sweaters reminiscent of Denise Huxtable’s wardrobe on The Cosby Show to pleated dresses with shoulder pads and gold buttons that are very Clair Huxtable.

Kim Kardashian Hawks Dolce & Gabbana, Then Pulls Instagram Story As Confused Followers Express Dismay

Kim Kardashian Hawks Dolce & Gabbana, Then Pulls Instagram Story As Confused Followers Express Dismay

Talent mogul Kim Kardashian had the equivalent of a senior moment, rushing to produce an Instagram Story praising Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana’s big box of goodies sent her by the controversial luxury brand. In the short clip, the KKW Beauty mogul pans across several sequinned tuxedo jackets while narrating, “So I come home to these amazing, huge Dolce & Gabbana boxes”.

By now Kardashian knows that her every move is under the microscope, leaving people confused that days after announcing that she and husband Kanye West are expecting a fourth child via IVF, she would use her reputation to advance a brand that advocated against IVF, saying “We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one…. No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed.”

Kardashian pulled her Insta Story within hours, but one wonders exactly what she was thinking. AOC doesn’t disparage Kim Kardashian in any way. We’re not KK haters but admirers of her frankly prodigious business talents and ability to live in the limelight 24/7. But surely Kardashian knows that the Dolce & Gabbana brand is newly-toxic, yet again over its controversial antics and subsequent cancellation of their late fall 2018 Shanghai show.

In reality, the Dolce & Gabbana brand is aligned far closer to the Trumplandia values embraced by her husband Kanye West than her own more progressive ones. One wonders if Kanye told the DG boys to send over the loot, so Kim could hawk it. How much $$$ was it worth to all parties involved.

EYE: Chinyere Ezie Educates Prada On Why Fat Red Lips On Black Bodies Are Not Good Trinkets In America

EYE: Chinyere Ezie Educates Prada On Why Fat Red Lips On Black Bodies Are Not Good Trinkets In America

The best paragraphs in Robin Givhan’s WaPo commentary “Seriously, Prada, what were you thinking?: Why the fashion industry keeps bumbling into racist imagery” isn’t the narrative around Prada’s utter stupidity in their SoHo window display of items from their Pradamalia collection.

AOC readers know that we do not hop on the bandwagon of every alleged act of fashion industry cultural appropriation or racism. But Givhan is correct and we concur: what in goddesses name were you thinking Prada?

Let’s take a different approach here because Givan has done a superb job of also telling the experience of Chinyere Ezie’s reaction upon seeing the Prada store window in Soho. We will quote liberally in a moment, but let’s back up even further and introduce Prada to this woman. From her website:

Chinyere Ezie (Cheen-Yer-Ray Ay-Zee-Ay) is a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer and social justice activist who specializes in constitutional litigation and anti-discrimination work. In 2016, Chinyere was named one of the country's Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40. 

Chinyere is a Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights where she focuses on racial justice, gender justice, and LGBT rights work. Chinyere previously worked as a Staff Attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center LGBT Rights Project, where she was lead counsel for transgender rights activist Ashley Diamond in her suit against the Georgia Department of Corrections. Chinyere also worked as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission where she successfully represented employees who had been subjected to discrimination--securing a $5.1 million dollar trial verdict. 

Chinyere is a William J. Fulbright Scholar and a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, where she served as President of Columbia Outlaws and Editor in Chief of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. 

She also clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and worked as an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton LLP in New York City.

In her free time, Chinyere enjoys photography, graphic design, and spending time with her wife and puppy.

Based on her stellar credentials, Chinyere Ezie more than qualifies as Prada’s target customer, although she is not one. Now, via Robin Givhan’s narrative, we share Ezie’s experience on meeting up with Prada’s SoHo window. Personally, I think all the great African goddesses were her spirit wings in this painful life episode, quietly hopping as invisible spirits on her shoulders when Ezie left DC’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for the return trip to New York.

Life In A Heavy Space

Kendall Jenner In PC Trouble For Her Curly Hair In CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Ad

Kendall Jenner In PC Trouble For Her Curly Hair In CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Ad

The fashion pc police were out in full force this week, and I’m not sure just how many people are offended. All I know is that my first response to seeing Kendall Jenner’s solo photo in the November 2018 issue of American Vogue was that she reminded me of my grandmother — my British grandmother.

I hope that the same people who are accusing Vogue and Kendall Jenner of cultural appropriation make it their business to vote in November. Like PLEASE stand up for the rights of people of color because America is in a terrible mess and you are worrying about Kendall Jenner’s clearly Gibson girl image. This is insane.

Believe it or not, millions of white women worldwide have curly, even frizzy hair. Every curly hairdo is not an attempt to rip off an Afro. Good goddess! Many, many Jewish women have curly hair because — ahem — when early humans migrated out of Africa, guess where they traveled? Into what is now known as the Levant and home to the Jewish people. Those early humans took their beautiful, curly hair with them and as a result, many other cultures ended up with lots of curls and even frizzy hair — NATURALLY. They are not fashion models and they were not ripping off Black women’s hair.

So we’ve got Trump trying to totally divide the country with his white nationalism and we’ve got Vogue magazine and Kendall Jenner once again having the audacity to think they can use Kendall in a Gibson girl look. Can we agree that Kendall’s outfit doesn’t look like it’s ripping off Afro fashion?

With all the pain and suffering on this planet, with Trump and the Republicans trying to take away voting rights for people of color in states all over America, this is the fashion industry crisis. I actually thought the editorial was very cool. Black women are everywhere in magazines right now — as they should be. As someone who tracks this topic every day, let me say that there is an abundance — and if we were counting — probably a statistical over-representation of models of color in fashion editorials right now. To that I say AMEN! It’s about time.

But then I read this kind of crap, that Kendall Jenner is accused of trying to cop an Afro — I can only say P-L-E-A-S-E give me a break.

"The image is meant to be an update of the romantic Edwardian/Gibson Girl hair which suits the period feel of the Brock Collection, and also the big hair of the '60s and the early '70s, that puffed-out, teased-out look of those eras," the Conde Nast publication said in a statement to E! News on Tuesday. "We apologize if it came across differently than intended, and we certainly did not mean to offend anyone by it." 

These two images from the editorial were used in a promotion for the publication’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. And it’s not the first time. Vogues are always in trouble for some offense with the pc crowd. Kendall is also in trouble for the second photo below, where she posed with model Imaan Hammam, who wore a beyond words fabulous afro in another image. So Is Imaan in trouble for her straight hair??? Surely you jest. She’s just doing what models do. The offense in this case is strictly Kendall’s white girl oppression of women of color.

"FOR YEARS WE have been penalized about our looks and especially our hair, It is a slap in the face when non-Blacks try to imitate our look," one Instagram user wrote in a comment on the initial photo.

"I like Kendall but why didn't they use an ethnic model who has hair like that," another wrote of the initial photo.  via The Hollywood Reporter

Will Fashion Hold Tight To Its Embrace Of Black Model Beauty? Here's Hoping

Will Fashion Hold Tight To Its Embrace Of Black Model Beauty? Here's Hoping

Tiya Miles is a professor of American culture and history at the University of Michigan, as a member of the Program in American Culture, Center for Afro-American and African Studies and Native American Studies Program.  In 2011 Miles won a five-year grant MacArthur Fellowship for her intellectual prowess -- which is to say that Tiya Miles knows that's going on in her world.  

When the topic is models, Miles believes that Hollywood, fashion and beauty businesses are responding to the popular public movements demanding change. The changes are worldwide, but when the subject is fashion models, the lens centers on New York, London, Milan and Paris. Striking an ironic note, Miles sees our growing consciousness of the "importance of visibility and voclaity for people of color, particularly black people" as a positive outcome of the threatening rise of white nationalist identity across America and Europe.

“It is no coincidence that this runway model trend and movies like 'Black Panther' "have arrived at the same time," Prof. Miles told the New York Times after the Fall 2018 fashion shows. "The two are interlocked, as both have been incubating in what feels a like a growing crusade with many of the hallmarks of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s. They are part of a pushback against the dominant pressures of European and American white centrality.”

Ebonee Davis & The Virgin Artiste Explore Fashion & Culture's Projections Around Women of Color

Ebonee Davis & The Virgin Artiste Explore Fashion & Culture's Projections Around Women of Color

The relentless killings of African Americans by America's police officers has prompted the fashion industry to speak out about being black and brown in America and viewed through an often tight cultural lens. Calvin Klein model Ebonee Davis issued a specific call to action in an essay for Harper's Bazaar, written the day after Alton Sterling was murdered in Baton Rouge. Davis implored fashion professionals to "neutralize the phobias surrounding black culture" as well as to produce "positive, accurate and inclusive imagery."

"As artists in the fashion industry, we are the embodiment of free speech," she wrote. "We set the tone for society through the stories we tell—fashion, the gatekeeper of cool, decides and dictates what is beautiful and acceptable. And let me tell you, it is no longer acceptable for us to revel in black culture with no regard for the struggles facing the black community," Davis wrote for W Magazine. 

Edward Enninful Names Venetia Scott Fashion Director Of British Vogue

Incoming Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue Edward Enninful announced Wednesday that Venetia Scott will become Fashion Director of British Vogue as of July 10th.  Conde Nast writes:

Venetia began her career at British Vogue as assistant to Grace Coddington, before cementing her status as a stylist working with magazines including British Vogue,Vogue Italia, AnOther Magazine, Self Service, The Face, Arena, i-D and Nova, where she was appointed Fashion Director. In 1997, Venetia began consulting for Marc Jacobs, becoming Creative Director in 2001, responsible for directing the Marc by Marc Jacobs line and associated accessories from launch. A move into photography began in 2005, with commissions from British Vogue, American Vogue, Vogue Paris, W, Self Service, AnOther Magazine, Dazed & Confused, POP, i-D, Document Journal, and Purple.

Venetia Scott will replace Lucinda Chambers, who is leaving the magazine after 36 years with the magazine, lastly as Fashion Director. 

Edward Enninful Becomes Editor-in-Chief Of British Vogue

Edward Enninful has been confirmed as the new editor of British Vogue. Condé Nast International chairman and chief executive Jonathan Newhouse announced Alexandra Shulman's successor this morning, calling Enninful "an influential figure in the communities of fashion, Hollywood and music which shape the cultural zeitgeist", adding that "by virtue of his talent and experience, Edward is supremely prepared to assume the responsibility of British Vogue."

Enninful assumes his new position from one as fashion and creative director at W Magazine, where he's worked since 2011. The Ghanaian-born Enninful will start his new role on August 1. British Vogue writes:

While the fashion industry has long recognised his talent (he was awarded the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator at the 2014 British Fashion Awards, one of many plaudits), the British monarchy has also acknowledged his contribution to fashion, making him OBE - Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - last October. “Today is one of the most special days of my life. It is wonderful to be honoured by my country while surrounded by my family and closest friends,” said Enninful, who brought close friend Naomi Campbell as his companion to the event.

Diversity Gets Major Uplift On US Fashion Magazine Covers Reports Fashionista

Fashionista beat me to the topic of diversity on US magazine covers. I was about to praise Vogue US for featuring women of color three months in a row -- November 2016-January 2017.

Fashionista has tracked diversity on magazine covers in-depth for several years, and finally we are celebrating some progress.

This time last year, we reported a disappointing statistic: That diversity on the covers of 10 leading U.S. fashion publications — Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, InStyle, Nylon, Teen Vogue, Vogue and W — did not improve in 2015 from 2014. In 2015, 27 of 136 covers featured people of color* while the year before, 27 of 137 did. It was an improvement, technically, but only from 19.7 percent to 19.8 percent. 

In 2016, however, there have been sizable lifts in cover star diversity across the board. For consistency's sake, we reviewed the covers from the same titles we looked at in 2015 — all 147 of them. And we found that 53 of 147 covers — or 36 percent — starred people of color*, as compared to 2015's 19.8 percent. That's a 16.9 percent rise.

AOC gives Vogue US a sound round of applause for featuring three inspiring women of color in a row: Lupita Nyong'o, Michelle Obama and 'Loving' star and Golden Globe nominee Ruth Negga. See their editorials, covers and interviews.

Vogue US January 2017: Ruth Negga

Interview and Editorial

Vogue US December 2016: Michelle Obama

Editorial and Anne's commentary about Michelle Obama's mission to educate girls worldwide.

Vogue US November 2016: Lupita Nyong'o

Editorial and Anne's rich rieview of Lupita's trip to Kenya.

Jourdan Dunn Breaks 12-Year Whites Only Vogue UK Cover Ban, Lensed By Patrick Demarchelier For February 2015

Jourdan Dunn’s February 2015 British Vogue cover, lensed by Patrick Demarchelier,  is the first woman of color cover in over 12 years. The last black beauty to front British Vogue was Naomi Campbell in August 2002. Since that date, ALL British Vogue covers have been lily white.

AOC launches the new year committed to renewed candor and honesty, and (once again) deeper dives into Smart Sensuality subjects that matter to readers. In this case, Styleite leaves us at a loss for ‘can you top this’ words, so their quote stands with our admiration:

It’s been proven time and time again that New Year’s resolutions don’t work, so let’s hope Vogue UK’s collective decision to not be a bunch of blatant systematic racists is more of a long-term commitment type thing. Anyway, it’s a great way to kick off 2015.

Jourdan Dunn On Racism In Fashion Industry

Jourdan Dunn on racism in the fashion industry Independent UK

“I find it weird when agents say, ‘You’re the only black girl booked for the show. Isn’t it great?’ Why is that great?

“I don’t know why people applaud designers for having just one ethnic model. It’s not like only one type of woman loves fashion.”

AOC Daily Archive Jourdan Dunn