Balenciaga, accused of cultural appropriation and racism for selling sagging pants with stitched boxers for $1,200
- elEconomista.es
Every fan of The Wire series will remember its protagonists with these characteristic dropped pants. Although it is not known with total certainty, it is said that its origin is in the US prison system. Prisoners' uniforms were several sizes larger and, furthermore, they were not issued any belts, in an attempt to prevent them from committing suicide in their cells. As a result of this, the prisoners wore their pants dropped, showing their underpants. When leaving prison, many continued to wear the pants in this way and ended up becoming a cultural element.
Since then, this style of pants has been banned in several counties, including Ocala, Florida, Wildwood, New Jersey, and Shreveport, Louisiana, leading to discriminatory practices. In the latter county, for example, Anthony Childs, a 31-year-old black man, died during a confrontation with a police officer who wanted to arrest him for wearing his pants sagging and showing his underpants. According to Fortune, the death was ruled a suicide. Soon after, the law banning sagging pants was repealed.
Who would have thought that one of the first things I'd master in graduate school is how to produce 1 to 1.5 ml of… https://t.co/QA83ZQDq9T
— Jack Shireman Fri Jan 29 22:25:22 +0000 2021
Social networks have not been slow to react to the use made by Balenciaga, owned by the French luxury giant Kering, of an element for which young blacks "have been vilified, discriminated against and murdered", pointed out a user in TikTok and collects Business Insider.According to Teresa Sádaba, director of ISEM Fashion Business School, for Fashion & Business Report, the problem is that this cultural appropriation can be offensive, reinforces stereotypes and, in many cases, oversimplifies the essence of a culture< /b>, in addition to having economic consequences for it.
It does not learn from its mistakes
The fashion and luxury industry seems not to learn from its mistakes, as there are numerous examples, some of them very recent, of large firms that have been accused of insensitivity racial.
Balenciaga's new season collection has been criticized for the already mentioned controversial sagging pants and for a bag, for about $2,090, extremely similar to a common accessory in many homes of African immigrants in the United Kingdom, according to Fortune.
Along with Balenciaga's cultural appropriation, Gucci, which had to apologize after launching $790 Sikh turbans, stands out. For their part, Prada or Marc Jacobs have had to face criticism for the design of a product or the aesthetics of a parade. Also Isabel Marant, who even received a letter from the Mexican Minister of Culture, Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, in which she accused the French designer of using without consent traditional motifs from the cultural heritage of native Mexicans and of profiting from his work.
Although the fashion industry set out to be more inclusive after the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, only four of the nearly 70 haute couture designers and executives are black, according to the report published by The New York Times in March 2021.
