Last week in fashion: Marni under fire for racist campaign, Converse questioned over ethics, Beyonce releases visual album filled with fashion
By: Bianca O'Neill
Tags: Beyonce, Business, Style, Fashion, Racism

Last week in fashion: Marni under fire for racist campaign, Converse questioned over ethics, Beyonce releases visual album filled with fashion Bianca O'Neill Follow Aug 4, 2020 · 3 min read

Your past week in fashion, condensed into point form. Here’s to another week… Happy Tuesday!

The pandemic rages on — and so does the controversy in the fashion industry. The past week has seen yet another allegation of racism, this time for Marni, as well as some ethical questions for Converse over their JW Anderson collab. For the biggest stories in fashion from the past week, read on.

Beyonce taps Black designers in her visual album and fashion film Black Is King

Released on Disney+ this week, Beyonce’s visual accompaniment to her album The Lion King: The Gift was nothing short of a gift to anyone craving an injection of high fashion following the Corona-drain on the fashion industry’s regular creative output.

Sure, the big names were there — Balmain, Valentino, Burberry — but the most important aspect of Black Is King was seen in Bey’s ongoing championship of the Black fashion industry. The Cut created a comprehensive run through of some of the visually striking pieces featured, including rope dresses from Déviant La Vie, a black ‘queen chess piece’ look from Simon Hartman and jewellery pieces from L’Enchanteur.

Marni under fire for racist ‘Jungle Mood’ campaign

Why does this keep happening? Italian brand Marni appear to live under a rock — their creative team surely must have read about literally hundreds of cautionary tales of this nature by now.

It transcends belief that no one in the entire creative process, from concept to delivery, stopped to think that ‘Jungle Mood’ themed imagery, featuring Black models with ‘tribal’ accessories and even chains surrounding their feet, could come across racist.

Diet Prada delivered a scathing run down, saying:

“The images begin alluding to racist, colonial stereotypes of Black people as primitive, uncivilized, and unmodern people. One model is even painted in clay, evoking tribal bodypaint. In another image that’s since been deleted from the brand’s Instagram account, a link of chains near the model’s feet resulted in some terrible shackle-like optics.”

“…the damage was done when the marketing team decided on those words. These stereotypes are just some of the ways the institution of white supremacy has oppressed, dehumanized, and deprived Black people of their human rights. For yet another fashion brand to reflect these tropes further proves the work that needs to be done to dismantle the pervasive racism throughout the world.”

Converse questioned over ethics after ditching JW Anderson and using the designs from their collab to create a new line

Collabs can be tricky business. What happens when a brand like Converse collaborates with a smaller designer like JW Anderson to create a successful product — and then cuts that designer out of the next collection based on the same designs?

It’s something that industry insiders are asking this week after Diet Prada called out Converse for some questionable ethics surrounding a new collection of the Run Star Hike shoe.

According to DP, the designer wrote a pointed comment on their Instagram feed, saying: “What is sad is when a massive company removes you form (sic) a collaboration when it starts to work.”

It’s hard to imagine that this decision was based in anything other than the economics of removing the designer, and their (well-deserved) royalties. As DP points out, it may have been legal according to their contract, but it certainly doesn’t feel ethical.