French fashion house Givenchy has come under fire for displaying a stranglehold necklace at the Spring / Summer 2022 show in Paris.
The metal buttonhole is part of the debut collection of Givenchy creative director Matthew Williams, who joined the brand last summer. Users of social networks and fashion critics immediately drew attention to the decoration of an unusual shape.
“It would seem that the fashion industry should finally realize that it is not worth showing things that resemble a loop, as was the case with the Burberry collection in 2019,” says Diet Prada on Instagram (a fashion account that criticizes brands for lack of inclusiveness and cultural appropriation) “But history seems to be going round and round.”
Two years ago, British fashion house Burberry had to apologize for a hanger-knot sweatshirt presented at a fashion show in London. Critics saw the clothing as a hint of suicide and a reference to the practice of lynching.
This time around, the choke necklace also caused discontent among social media users.
“How could it go through the hands of several people before the show and everyone thought it was okay? And why doesn’t that surprise me?” – Asks activist Kim Saira on her Instagram.
Supporters of the new collection’s design noted that the piece is not so intimidating and that the art is created to shock people.
“Honestly, in what universe is a stranglehold on a girl’s neck considered fashion?” User Abhik Choudhury writes on Twitter. “Try to do something better, Matthew (meaning creative director of the brand Matthew Williams), how for this world and for the brand. Young guys and girls should not see such things in our time, and even more so at Paris Fashion Week. “
Supporters of the new collection’s design noted that the piece is not so intimidating and that the art is created to shock people.
Slave Sandals and Pizza Chopsticks
Over the past few years, luxury brands have been repeatedly condemned for their unethical or politically incorrect, in the opinion of critics, collections.
In 2019, the Gucci brand removed from sales a wool sweater, the collar of which reminded some of the face of a black man.
The sweater released by the Gucci brand has been criticized for resembling a “blackface” – black make-up of white actors portraying African Americans
China called for a boycott of the Dolce & Gabanna collection after a controversial advertising campaign in which a Chinese model struggles to eat traditional Italian food – pasta and pizza with chopsticks (the people of the PRC considered this an outrage against the country’s culture).
Another marketing setback befell the company in 2016, when Dolce & Gabbana described one of the shoe models in its summer collection as “slave sandals.”
