Fashion conflicts and anxieties: brands are caught in a "culturally insensitive" controversy

Another brand is caught in a controversy related to "cultural insensitivity."

As part of the Nike AIR MAX 270 sole Logo print looks like the Allah in Arabic, the British netizen Saiqa Noreen issued a petition on change.org on January 27th asking Nike to recall the shoe worldwide.

He said in the petition: "Nike's act of printing God's name on the sole is outrageous and terrible. This is not only a disrespect for Muslims and Islam, but also a shame."

Nike then responded in an official statement to the media: "The purpose of designing this logo is to present the Nike AIR MAX trademark in a stylized way. It is only intended to refer to the AIR MAX brand. Other interpretations or symbolic meanings are not Our intentions."

Nike did not say that it would recall the shoes. According to CEO Mark Parker last June, the Air Max 270 is one of the top three shoes to drive sales growth in the past year.

As of the evening of February 3, the number of people who joined the petition has exceeded 31,000, close to the target number of 35,000.

The last time Nike experienced a similar incident was in 1997. At the time, the brand designed a flame-shaped logo at the back of a sneaker, much like the Arabic version of Allah. According to the Associated Press's report at the time, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) subsequently reviewed it. Nike finally apologized, donated 50,000 US dollars to build a sports field in an Islamic primary school in the United States, and recalled 38,000 pairs of shoes worldwide.

This time, CAIR did not intervene in the incident. “Obviously some people think that this is a bit of a fuss. But no matter what the facts are, some people’s ideas are hard to change,” CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said in an interview with CBS. “We need to first investigate this type of incident. Classified into one of three categories: intentional offense, unintentional offense or controversial offense. I am not sure how to divide this incident, but I think they are definitely not intentional."

In the past two years, disputes about “cultural insensitivity” have become more frequent.

In May 2017, Chanel was accused of “cultural appropriation” by selling a black boomerang with a brand name and a price of $1,350. In August, in the big show of Marc Jacobs, some white models appeared in a colorful and dirty shape. Criticized for misappropriating dirty culture.

In January last year, H&M released a new season of Lookbook, in which a black boy wore a sweater with the words "coolest monkey in the jungle" on his chest, considered racist; February, Gucci In the show, the white model wearing a headscarf as a fashion accessory was criticized for being disrespectful to Sikhism, because "the headscarf is a symbol of faith in Sikhism, not just accessories." At the end of the year, Prada listed a black-faced, red-lip monkey doll that was accused of racism.

In fact, one of the important ways of fashion evolution is to draw inspiration from different cultures. BoF fashion critic Liroy Choufan once pointed out: “Novoty is the main trait of fashion for fashion. It has always been generated by citing products from other regions and other cultures. Designers need to keep looking forward to it. 'Looking for inspiration, and the farther this 'other' is, the more fascinating it is."

But now, globalization and localization are experiencing more and more frequent hedging. Bain Consulting pointed out in the "2018 Global Luxury Industry Research Report" released on November 15 last year that the globalization of large companies has entered a new stage. As emerging markets become the main driving force for growth, fashion brands will rely more on them. In-depth understanding of local culture and market, deepen interaction and connection with local consumers.

More importantly, the digitalization of social media and information and consumption channels has drawn the distance of all “others”, making the digestion, re-creation and consumption of culture more fast-food, but also making people understand and respect culture. The requirements are becoming more immediate and rigorous. It's hard to imagine how a designer can fully consider and digest the minutiae of inspiration in the speed of creating a new series of 4-6 seasons a year, to be truly innovative, and to present it in a decent way. But consumers can find problems and express their opinions faster.

“There may be more than 100 different customs and cultures in a country. How can you understand the details of each culture so clearly?” When commenting on the “Black Monkey Doll Event”, Miuccia Prada expressed this to WWD. Kind of confusion and anxiety.

In the words of Liroy Choufan: “On the one hand, the world is more open source than the original; on the other hand, many things cannot be used for free. Whether in form, business, logic or industry, fashion is a kind of That is, the modern Western creation method based on 'take-and-use, or take-and-abuse.' Now it needs to squeeze itself into the post-modern globalization state of mind, but this state has more variables. Also under a more rigorous review."

At present, there is no best solution to this problem. Prada apologized twice and said that he would remove the "black monkey." H&M said after the “boys sweater incident” that it will increase the diversity of employee backgrounds in order to find problems in a more timely manner. But in fact, no brand can guarantee that people of different cultural backgrounds will carefully inspect each product. Conflicts and anxieties about cultural inspiration, fashion creation and expression will continue for a long time.