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GUCCI HAS APOLOGISED for a wool jumper after complaints that it resembled blackface makeup and said the item had been pulled from its online and physical stores.
It was the latest case of an Italian fashion house having to apologise for cultural or racial insensitivity.
In a statement posted on Twitter yesterday, Gucci said it was committed to diversity and considered it a “fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected and at the forefront of every decision we make.”
It added that it was “turning this incident into a powerful learning moment” for Gucci.
The turtleneck black wool balaclava jumper covers the nose and includes a red cut-out for the mouth.
It was ridiculed on social media as insensitive and racist, at a time when the US is grappling with cases of old photos of politicians with their faces blackened.
In December, Prada said it was no longer selling a line of accessories that featured a character with brown skin and exaggerated red lips after complaints they resembled blackface.
And last year, Dolce & Gabbana canceled a Shanghai runway show and apologised after complaints that an advertising campaign featuring a Chinese model trying to eat pizza, spaghetti and a cannoli with chopsticks was culturally insensitive.
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Congratulations, Paul, well deserved.
Congratulations, Paul
It’s a haunting book about ordinary people enveloped in tyrannical terror and their desperate attempts to seek sanctuary. Paul Lynch delivered a well worded acceptance speech.
Very thought provoking on how a far left produces a far right and the consequences.
@thomas molloy: same as a far right producing a far left and the consequences…
@Alanna: True that can happen also.
Now I’m no award winning author in the English language but is “audience” the right word to describe a readership?
Congratulations on the incredible achievement Paul!
@Sean: I wouldn’t use it like that, but one of the Oxford Dictionaries’ definitions is ‘The readership of a newspaper, magazine, or book’.
@Brendan O’Brien: Readers/readership are probably appropriate words. When reacting poetically to the death of W.B.Yeats in 1939, W.H.Auden says “he became his readers.” A living writer craves active readers, although many writers must survive on day jobs in education, media and the civil service.
@Brendan O’Brien: Ah I see. Thank you
Well done Paul. Is a sequel possible?
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