Another year, another offensive fashion week statement – but this time around, the models are fighting back.
Credit: Giphy
During Gucci’s Milan Fashion Week show over the weekend, 26-year-old nonbinary model, artist and musician Ayesha Tan-Jones staged a runway protest against the luxury fashion label’s use of “offensive” straightjackets in a collection.
Tan-Jones held up their hands on the catwalk to display the message, “mental health is not fashion.”
In an Instagram post, the model explained, “as an artist and model who has experienced my own struggles with mental health, as well as family members and loved ones who have been affected by depression, anxiety, bipolar and schizophrenia, it is hurtful and insensitive for a major fashion houses such as Gucci to use this imagery as a concept for a fleeting fashion moment.”
“It is in bad taste for Gucci to use the imagery of straight jackets and outfits alluding to mental patients while being rolled out on a conveyor belt as if a piece of factory meat,” they added.
Tan-Jones told Buzzfeed News they made the decision to protest against Gucci after a fellow model “walked off the job” because he was “disgusted by the clothes.”
“For me, I chose to use the platform to highlight the issue,” they said. Tan-Jones also vowed to donate 100% of their fee from appearing in the show to mental health charities.
Gucci appeared to respond to the backlash in an Instagram post, writing, “uniforms, utilitarian clothes, normative dress, including straitjackets, were included in the #GucciSS20 fashion show as the most extreme version of a uniform dictated by society and those who control it.”
“These clothes were a statement for the fashion show and will not be sold,” the brand captioned an image from the show.
Sadly, it’s not the first time Gucci has been accused of flogging controversial fashion items. Earlier this year, the brand was criticised for sending balaclava knits resembling blackface down the runway.
They later removed the item from shelves and apologised, saying, “We consider diversity to be a fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected, and at the forefront of every decision we make.”
Gucci – if you’re having to defend, explain and apologise for every item you design, perhaps there are bigger issues at hand.