Fashion nowadays is more than the person's lifestyle, the luxurious clothing, the comfortable footwear, the eye-captivating accessories, the color-popping makeup, and the glamorous body. It is more like art to most people, where everyone is invited to express themselves.
Unfortunately, with the freedom of expression everyone has, some luxury fashion designers have recently gone beyond the line, which provoked outrage by creating masterpieces with racist designs.
The luxury fashion designer was forced to apologize publicly after the company offered the market "a black wool balaclava sweater with an oversized collar that pulls over the chin and nose", as described by the Washington Post. The fashion wear was made complete with a cut-out just right in the mouth, with a border design that looks like a giant red lip.
Aside from its weird-looking yet unique design, people can't help but notice that the US 890 dollars or 6,033.76 Chinese Yuan worth sweater resembles that of "blackface". This realization made people on the internet react negatively towards their recent design. Furious, it even made some people call to boycott of their product.
Gucci Company released an apology on February 6 on their Twitter account that says, "Gucci deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper. We consider diversity to be a fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected, and at the forefront of every decision we make."
The company further claims that as a sign of their sincere request for forgiveness, the recent designs were immediately removed from all their stores, according to CBS News.
Aside from Gucci, other luxury brands such as Prada and Dolce & Gabbana have also designed a masterpiece, which has offended their market that left them to withdraw their recent product and issue an apology to clear the issue.
Qing Wang, a professor of marketing at Warwick Business School, said that with what the luxury brands are offering their market now, it is obvious that the era where fashion is considered an expression of creativeness and boldness is now gone. He added, "What used to be considered 'creativity' has now turned into 'bad taste' or even 'racist'".
Another critic an Italian sociologist Michele Sorice of Rome's Luiss University claims how these luxury designers recent scandal is "a mixture of good faith and ignorance".
To Sorice, it is still unsure if these designers are really aware that they are already becoming racists through their designs. Since they are from the other part of the world, their culture isn't the same as the others. So basically many people still don't know. "It is a cultural issue", Sorice explains.
