It’s funny how little the world of high fashion touches the vast majority of us — I mean, who can afford to wear this stuff anyway? — and yet it still manages to grab our attention. Sometimes they make headlines for beautiful designs, but more often it’s about pushing the envelope or for making things that look more ridiculous than fashionable.
Either way, the big European fashion houses have been making news for all the wrong reasons lately. They might be trying to stay relevant and push that envelope even more, but wow are they ever missing the mark.
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Burberry is the latest European fashion house to get itself into trouble with one of its designs.
It its case, somebody thought it was a good idea to send a hoodie featuring a noose around the neck down the runway at London Fashion Week. The reaction has been predictably fierce.
In a blistering Instagram post, Liz Kennedy, one of the show’s models, took the designer and the house to task.
“Suicide is not fashion,” she wrote . “It it not glamorous or edgy and since this show is dedicated to the youth expressing their voice, here I go. 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. The impressionable youth. Not to mention the rising suicide rates world wide.”
And the concerns about suicide are only half the story.
“Let’s not forget about the horrifying history of lynching either,” Kennedy continued. “There are hundreds of ways to tie a rope and they chose to tie it like a noose completely ignoring the fact that it was hanging around a neck. A massive brand like Burberry who is typically considered commercial and classy should not have overlooked such an obvious resemblance.”
Kennedy said that she had concerns right from the moment she saw the piece and brought them up to her superiors, only to be given a brush off.
“I left my fitting extremely triggered after seeing this look (even though I did not wear it myself) … I had asked to speak to someone about it but the only thing I was told to do was to write a letter. I had a brief conversation with someone but all that it entailed was “it’s fashion. Nobody cares about what’s going on in your personal life so just keep it to yourself” well I’m sorry but this is an issue bigger than myself.”
The design was roundly criticized on social media as well.
Even fans of Burberry couldn’t stand behind the house on this one, with one writing “I’ve been such a Burberry fan for years, but this is just embarrassing and horribly distasteful.”
Others had history lessons for Burberry.
It didn’t take long for Burberry to come forward with an apology.
“We are deeply sorry for the distress caused by one of the products that featured in our A/W 2019 runway collection,” said Burberry’s CEO, Marco Gobbetti, in a statement, according to [CNN'(https://www.cnn.com/style/article/burberry-noose-hoodie-scli-gbr-intl/index.html). “Though the design was inspired by the marine theme that ran throughout the collection, it was insensitive and we made a mistake.”
The designer, Riccardo Tisci, also issued an apology.
“I am so deeply sorry for the distress that has been caused as a result of one of the pieces in my show on Sunday,” he said. “While the design was inspired by a nautical theme, I realize that it was insensitive. It was never my intention to upset anyone. It does not reflect my values nor Burberry’s and we have removed it from the collection. I will make sure that this does not happen again.”
People weren’t buying the whole “marine theme” thing as an excuse, however.
There are all kinds of knots associated with nautical themes that aren’t nooses and don’t have their history, as many folks pointed out. So it seems that another big fashion house will have to do some serious damage control for an easily prevented self-inflicted wound.
