Despite season after season of high praise for its revamped and overly opulent designs under Creative Director Alessandro Michele, Gucci has fallen foul of the public after releasing a woolen jumper that critics say "resembles blackface".
The black "balaclava jumper", a thick turtle neck piece with a cowl that covered half the face up to the nose, with a red lip-like cut out around the mouth.
Leaving aside the problematic aspect of a balaclava-inspired jumper for a second, the piece has come under fire for seemingly evoking blackface, a style of makeup used in the past by non-black performers that draws heavily from stereotypical images of African Americans.
The red outline is what makes the connection most clear, as overexaggerated vivid red lips was a feature used in imagery from theatre, propaganda and art of the past to caricature and demean black people.
Gucci issued a statement apologising for the jumper, saying "We consider diversity to be a fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected, and at the forefront of every decision we make" and that this incident would become a "powerful learning moment" for the Gucci team.
Gucci deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper.
— gucci (@gucci) February 7, 2019
We consider diversity to be a fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected, and at the forefront of every decision we make.
Full statement below. pic.twitter.com/P2iXL9uOhs
This comes just one month after a Prada keychain featuring similar designs sparked online fury, before being removed from the brand's Pradamalia collection, which appeared to resemble black monkeys with large red lips.
Meanwhile, in November fashion giants Dolce & Gabbana were fiercely criticised after the ad campaign for their Shanghai fashion show - intended to woo Chinese customers, thus ensuring extreme revenue for the brand - went viral for featuring a Chinese model attempting to eat Italian foods with chopsticks, a concept that was widely viewed as racist.
