Burberry apologized profusely for sending a model down the runway at London Fashion Week, wearing a hoodie that featured a drawstring fashioned into a noose. The model, Liz Kennedy, objected to wearing “suicide fashion” backstage before the show. According to Fortune.com, her objections were ignored.
After the show, Kennedy vented her frustration and anger in an Instagram post.
“Suicide is not fashion,” she wrote.
“It is not glamorous nor edgy. Riccardo Tisci and everyone at Burberry it is beyond me how you could let a look resembling a noose hanging from a neck out on the runway. How could anyone overlook this and think it would be okay to do this especially in a line dedicated to young girls and youth.?”
Burberry apologized after rapper T.I. “Tip” Harris added the fashion house to his list of banned high-end designers on his Instagram page.
“These aren’t coincidences,” he wrote along with the hashtags #Gucci, #Prada, and #Moncler, who have all incorporated forms of racism into their collections.
“We are deeply sorry for the distress caused by one of the products that featured in our A/W 2019 runway collection Tempest,” said Burberrry CEO Marco Gobbetti in a statement provided to Fortune. “I called Ms. Kennedy to apologize as soon as I became aware of this on Monday and we immediately removed the product and all images that featured it. Though the design was inspired by the marine theme that ran throughout the collection, it was insensitive and we made a mistake. The experience Ms. Kennedy describes does not reflect who we are and our values. We will reflect on this, learn from it and put in place all necessary actions to ensure it does not happen again.”
Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET
