In 2018, the luxury fashion brand Gucci released a black balaclava-inspired knit sweater as part of their Fall/Winter runway collection. The sweater features a high turtle neck that covers the bottom half of the face, along with a red-lined cut-out for the mouth. Many online found the design to resemble “blackface”, a practice in which non-Black people paint their faces for mockery and stereotyping of Black people. In response to the public backlash, Gucci apologized and removed the sweater from its website, promising to increase diversity throughout the organization to prevent future mistakes.

discussion

Have you heard of blackface? If so, do you believe the sweater resembles blackface?

Why do you think this sweater was controversial?

Aside from Gucci, other brands such as Prada and H&M have been accused of using offensive representations of Black people in their marketing. Why do you think this is a recurring issue across worldwide fashion brands?

Gucci’s theme for this collection was “Identity Formation.” How could you redesign this sweater to better portray this theme?