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The execs at Gucci just haven’t seemed to learn their lesson. Mere months after the abovementioned blackface debacle, the brand debuted its new runway collection, featuring literal straitjackets, per The New York Times. At the closing show for Milan Fashion Week in 2019, the brand showcased straitjacket anoraks, coveralls, and smocks.
A huge backlash ensued, with model Ayesha Tan-Jones staging a silent protest, as they appeared on the catwalk with “Mental health is not fashion” written on the palms of their hands, according to BBC News. On Instagram, Tan-Jones called out the company for allegedly glamorizing mental illness, noting that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to experience mental health struggles, and the harm that designs like the Gucci straitjacket may cause vulnerable individuals. “It is in bad taste for Gucci to use the imagery of straitjackets and outfits alluding to mental patients, while being rolled out on a conveyor belt as if a piece of factory meat,” they wrote in part. “Presenting these struggles as props for selling clothes in today’s capitalist climate is vulgar, unimaginative and offensive to the millions of people around the world affected by these issues.”
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But it seemed creative director Alessandro Michele didn’t quite understand the uproar, telling The New York Times that the show was intended as a metaphor for how society suppresses individuality, with Gucci serving as “the antidote” to such conformity. “Uniforms, utilitarian clothes, such straitjackets, were included in the fashion show as the most extreme version of restriction imposed by society and those who control it,” Michele explained.
If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.