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A crisis happens when things don’t go as planned. In our world, there are crises of all kinds: from economic crises where unemployment surges and interest rates skyrocket, to public relations crises, where the entire legacy of a public figure is at stake after an unpleasant event was caught on camera, or a comment or remark was not received well by the general public.
In fashion, crises surge in all of the forms mentioned above –almost as if they were trends, they evolve with time as the gravity of the crisis is hard to predict.
This summer brought us a series of interesting cases to analyze the current state of fashion —cases where it is undeniable that the way fashion is communicated is almost as important as the product itself. In times of polarization, where social media users seek a reason to debate, whether that is if the dress is blue and black or white and gold, or if suits and sneakers are an acceptable combo, brands must be prepared to be a subject of today’s debate. But what happens when things didn’t go the way they were planned and suddenly, reputation is at stake? It’s not just a healthy debate about whether the fashion suits you or not. It is a fashion crisis. It is about a challenge that the fashion corporations need to address head-on, with the clock ticking by the minute as topics start trending and comments are being posted on social media.
Let’s take a look at three cases of fashion in times of crisis that happened this summer and how each of the brands handled its case.
Willy Chavarria for Adidas
Adidas has a long history of collaborating with everyone from established brands like Gucci, to artists like Bad Bunny, and Jeremy Scott, and emerging artists who the three-striped company wants to uplift with collaborative limited-edition collections. This summer, fashion designer Willy Chavarria and Adidas announced a collaboration. Chavarria is a Mexican-American designer whose work has been recognized by Time Magazine and CFDA. But when the design came out, it immediately caused rage on social media. The design of the shoe is called Oaxaca slip-on. (Oaxaca is one of the 31 states of Mexico, and the name of the state was un-authorized by the federal and state government of Mexico). Furthermore, The Oaxaca Slip-on uses a weaving technique that has been used to produce huaraches in Villa Hidalgo Yalálag for over 100 years.
The government of Oaxaca quickly stated that the design represented a violation of intellectual property, that Adidas must take the shoes off their shelves and website, and work on repairing the harm that the communities working on these huaraches had suffered from this cultural appropriation. President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, supported the State’s statement and emphasized that Adidas must follow the rules to protect and defend the heritage of the huarache.
Fashion designer Willy Chavarria stated that “he is sorry that the design had appropriated the name and wasn’t developed in direct association with Oaxaca’s community”.
But if the designer is sorry that the design had appropriated the name and wasn’t developed in direct association with Oaxaca’s community, did he even try to make a collaboration happen? Political Fashion reached out to Willy Chavarria’s team, asking if he sought communication with the communities of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag to partner up for this design. Chavarria’s team did not respond to the request for comment.
Chavarria’s actions were limited to written statements to news outlets, but Adidas took further action by speaking with the government of Mexico. A few weeks after the launch of the design, members of Adidas visited the communities of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag to publicly apologize for the harm the cultural appropriation of the Oaxaca-slip on caused.
The Mexican government stated that a public apology was needed and that the shoes were to be taken off the shelves and off the online store.
In a written statement to Political Fashion, adidas reiterated its public apology and commitment to collaboration:
”adidas recognizes and values the cultural richness of Mexico’s Indigenous communities and the meaning of their artisanal heritage. The “Oaxaca Slip-On” was inspired by a design from Oaxaca, rooted in the tradition of Villa Hidalgo Yalálag. We offer a public apology and reaffirm our commitment to collaborate with Yalálag in a respectful dialogue that honors their cultural legacy.”
This is not the first time that underrepresented communities from Mexico have faced cultural appropriation from European or American fashion brands. Yet it is not that true authentic collaborations are impossible. Dior was able to blend the splendid tailoring, French craftsmanship, and couture techniques with Mexican embroideries, color stories, and motifs. This Fall, H&M will launch a global collaboration with Mexican designer Lorena Saravia to make her talent and creative vision available in a global platform that only H&M can provide.
It seems as though adidas provided the platform, resources, and trust for Mexican-American designer Willy Chavarria to present a design that would respectfully his talent to a global platform. Yet somewhere in the process of designing, Willy Chavarria took the design of the huarache from Villa Hidalgo Yalálag, jeopardizing the artisanal heritage and economic stability that this design represents for these indigenous communities.
E.l.f.
For background, Elf is an affordable makeup brand that, amidst the federal pressure to end DEI efforts, continues to pursue actions on diversity, equity, and inclusion for their mass-produced makeup and skincare line. This is important because they support and uplift talent from historically underrepresented communities in different positions, from retail to senior-level positions, to help make important decisions about their products, strategies, etc.
Over the summer, e.l.f. released a minute-long ad featuring drag queen Heidi N Closet and comedian Matt Rife playing the role of lawyers and attempting to do a parody of ironic commercials from 1990s and early 2000s of law firms with the goal of “advocating for affordable beauty products”. The controversy wasn’t on the ad itself but on the cast decision. Matt Rife is known to have made unfortunate comments in the name of comedy about domestic violence in a Netflix special —an episode that sparked outrage and made a lot of women and domestic violence advocates extremely furious.
In this case, it’s not that there is no space for comedy in the world of beauty and fashion. But the spokesperson is often as important as the message one is trying to convey —should this comedian have been someone with an appeal for the consumer of e.l.f. (largely young women and LGBTQ+ individuals), the message would have been different.
But the makeup brand owned the mistake and apologized promptly with a statement that reads:
“You know us, we’re always listening, and we’ve heard you. This campaign aimed to humorously spotlight beauty injustice. We understand we missed the mark with people we care about in our e.l.f. Community.
While e.l.f.ino & schmarnes closes today, we’ll continue to make the case against overprices today.
As Hannah Montana once said. “Everybody makes mistakes and everybody has those days”. But what businesses do after making those mistakes is critical and determines the success or downfall of the business.
American Eagle + Sydney Sweeney
As previously discussed here in Political Fashion, the case of American Eagle’s campaign ad featuring Sydney Sweeney with the slogan “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” is not an innocent pun that was misinterpreted. Based on the social context we are facing, and most importantly, based on the reactions of far-right figures celebrating this ad and its message, it is crystal clear that the ad was meant to spark controversy, division, rage, and attention.
In a hypervisual world where we not only can take photos and post them online but we can also generate them with AI in order to get people’s attention, it is hard to compete for people’s attention. Attention is money, attention is currency, and attention is a port of entry to any kind of business.
American Eagle wanted attention at whatever cost, and they received the attention. Although their stock increased in value when the marketing campaign launched, the sales have slightly decreased in the last quarter.
American Eagle doubled down in its campaign with the following statement:
For years, we have spoken about what performative advocacy looks like and how it involves claiming to do an act of advocacy while doing the bare minimum for the sake of attention. American Eagle released campaigns in 2019 that featured a diverse range of models: diversity of sizes, women of color, models with purple hair, shaved head, and a variety of hairstyles. But we cannot confuse trends with values. Trends do change with socioeconomic, cultural and political context, they are interpreted by designers and through their values and principles they create their designs for the public. Values don’t change from one season to the other for the sake of attention. Gabrielle Coco Chanel believed that women deserve to be comfortable and wear elegant clothes that allow them to move without the pain of carrying corsets and painful structures around the woman’s body. Although she did design corset-like attire sporadically, she stood behind that principle throughout her career because that is what she believed in.
Let this denim strategy be a lesson for consumers to learn how to read and study marketing strategies of their favorite fashion brands as the pendulum continues to move right and left, and as trends continue to come and go.
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