Media Criticizes a Fashion Brand’s presentation of Women on Runway
Written by olucapri on February 6, 2019
The Danish brand at the recent Copenhagen Fashion Week showcased their latest collection which was centered around ‘The global Ganni girl’.
As models glided down the runway in various expensive garments, the background screen continued to flash the images of marginalized women in developing countries – and the internet has a lot to say about it
At Copenhagen Fashion Week, Danish “Fashion Girl”-approved brand Ganni presented their highly anticipated autumn/winter 2019 collection, which set out to highlight sustainability and what they refer to as ‘the global Ganni girl’. These loose themes were translated in both the clothing design, and more notably, the set of the show. As models walked the runway, showcasing the fashion house’s shiny new collection featuring animal print skirts and glitzy gowns, images taken by National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale were projected around the room, showing impoverished women and children in developing countries.
Fashion writer and blogger Anaa Nadim Saber, also known as @OurSecondSkin, attended the show and was one of the first to speak out on Instagram to express her extreme disappointment in the brand.
“It is exactly women like the ones in these pictures that are worst affected by our industry: poor wages and terrible working conditions in sweatshops that manufacture clothing for many western brands,” she wrote. “This treatment of women of colour is particularly painful given how ‘progressive’ the fashion industry claims to be. Stop being tone deaf and blind to your own internalized colonial mentality. Do better.”
Criticism of the show has been widespread on the internet, although the issue has been cited as much bigger than a one-off mistake by a single brand. As Saber noted on Instagram, it’s representative of the current state of the industry, falsifying inclusivity by using women of colour as props instead of autonomous people with stories and identities of their own.
After all of the blowback on social media, the brand made a statement to The Independent, saying: “While well intentioned, we now understand the sensitivities we’ve broached by showing our collection within the context of these images. We sincerely apologise for this, as it was never our intention. We will learn from this mistake and we promise to turn your invaluable insight into action so that we can do better in the future.”
source: hapaarsbazzar
“It is exactly women like the ones in these pictures that are worst affected by our industry: poor wages and terrible working conditions in sweatshops that manufacture clothing for many western brands,” she wrote. “This treatment of women of colour is particularly painful given how ‘progressive’ the fashion industry claims to be. Stop being tone deaf and blind to your own internalized colonial mentality. Do better.”
Criticism of the show has been widespread on the internet, although the issue has been cited as much bigger than a one-off mistake by a single brand. As Saber noted on Instagram, it’s representative of the current state of the industry, falsifying inclusivity by using women of colour as props instead of autonomous people with stories and identities of their own.
After all of the blowback on social media, the brand made a statement to The Independent, saying: “While well intentioned, we now understand the sensitivities we’ve broached by showing our collection within the context of these images. We sincerely apologise for this, as it was never our intention. We will learn from this mistake and we promise to turn your invaluable insight into action so that we can do better in the future.”
source: hapaarsbazzar
