Some of fashion’s most controversial moments

Let’s be honest, we all love a bit of controversy.  Russell Brand, love him or hate him, never fails to deliver an impressive, controversial headline moment! At the recent GQ awards he took to the stage to disparage the award he had been presented, and then went on to taunt the event’s sponsor Hugo Boss: “If any of you know a little bit about history and fashion, you’ll know Hugo Boss made the uniforms for the Nazis,” the roguish comedian quipped before goose-stepping off the stage. This wasn’t Russell’s first-ever controversial moment and we hope it won’t be his last.

The fashion industry in particular seems to generate a fascinating array of controversies. Let’s take a look at some of these scandalous incidents.

First up is Vogue. The magazine has caused quite a stir over the years, but when the January 2011 French edition of Vogue hit the shelves, a worldwide outrage was unleashed. The issue featured a photo-spread with ten-year-old model Thylene Lena-Rose Blondeau striking provocative poses. The child was dressed in women’s clothing, high heels and adorned in expensive jewellery. Along with her heavily made-up face, the images were branded as “wrong” and “over-sexualised”. Vogue defended the images stating they were just portraying young girls’ fantasies of dressing like their mothers. Really?

Who could forget Mike Jefferies, CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch’s foolish statement from 2006 being revealed earlier this year. Jefferies was noted saying: “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong, and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”  The remark, along with A&F’s refusal to offer larger sizes, induced incredible backlash. It may work as a very good marketing tactic to cater for an exclusive sector, but it certainly wasn’t clever to announce it with pride, was it Mike?

Who knew Harvey Nichols had such a good sense of humour? Well clearly not its target audience as they were “disgusted” by HN’s sale campaign, which depicted a woman who wet her pants from sheer excitement. The slogan which read: “Try to contain your excitement” was definitely ballsy, brash, and eye-catching − albeit a controversial campaign. Still, we are sure the shocking campaign left some people wetting themselves.

Next up is Urban Outfitters. The brand, which isn’t one to shy away from controversy, has been forced to pull an abundance of clothing from their line as they were deemed offensive. T-shirts stamped with slogans such as Eat Less, I Drink You’re Cute, Everybody loves a Jewish Girl (this one emblazoned with dollar signs and shopping bags), and Kiss me, I’m Drunk or Irish or Whatever stirred up a lot of anger.

These are just some of the fashion moments that have caused a great deal of controversy. But we are sure there are many more to come…watch this space.

Michelle McGill