On the heels of Fendi’s “pussy sweater” and Dolce and Gabbana’s incessant rash of overall offensiveness, it would seem fellow Italian haute couture label Gucci was feeling left out of the action and wanted to release an “unwitting” black face balaclava just in time for Black History Month. While arriving at the height of cold weather season in post-apocalyptic cities like New York, and therefore theoretically “useful,” those overseeing what the prototype looked like on the model might have done well to take note that the “aesthetic” of these “fashion-forward” balaclavas attached to a sweater is decidedly “let’s pay homage to blackface.”
And since we’re all consistently so familiar with that looks like thanks to the bubbling to the surface of tolerated racism in the form of old yearbook photos and Grace Coddington posing with mammy jars in a 2019 photo spread for lifestyle and luxury magazine Les Echos Série limitée (it has been said by Andrew Sean Greer in Less that racism in France, after all, is so much more polite than the kind in America), it’s pretty clear that Gucci just went forward with the release of the garment regardless of knowing what connotations it possessed.
Complete with matching upper mask to cover the entire face (as a balaclava should naturally do without needing to be divided into components for the sake of bleeding more money out of people), it’s now easy as 1, 2, max out my credit card to not bother with the inconvenience and hyper-tactility of black and red paint (for the lips of course, which is how it’s usually been historically done to give that live action Sambo look) in order to re-create a neo-modern approach to “discreetly” parading one’s racism for the sake of haute couture.
For as Melania has taught us, there is nothing “hauter” than supporting discrimination and insensitivity through the visually assaulting language of the sartorial. As a rich person, it’s about the apex of passive aggressive power exertion.
