Marc Jacobs launched his Spring/Summer 2017 collection at New York Fashion Week with a bang.
The star-studded catwalk featured Gigi and Bella Hadid, Irina Shayk, Karlie Kloss, Stella Maxwell, Kendall Jenner, Jourdan Dunn and Taylor Hill; in pieces that were apparently inspired by steampunk and rave culture. We saw short-shorts, sugary pastel prints, heavy embroidery, and metallic trench coats.
Oh, and those rainbow-coloured dreadlocks.
It’s all anyone can talk about today, fashion folk or otherwise. Silly Marc Jacobs and those dreadlocks.
Almost immediately after pictures from the show went live, the voices of the internet rose from a quiet murmur into a frenzy. People were outraged.
It was “racist”, they shouted, “cultural appropriation at it’s worst”! “Dreadlocks are inexplicably linked to black culture, and putting them on the heads of white models is nothing short of ignorant! Boycott Marc Jacobs!”
Media commentators pulled awkwardly at their collars and wondered what to say. Fashion people looked at political people looked at celebrity people and they all kind of shrugged their shoulders. Damned if you comment, damned if don’t.
But before anyone could approach the topic in a thoughtful and sensitive manner, Marc Jacobs burst forward to make a statement of his own.
Oh boy. Bad idea, mate.
Jacobs took to his personal Instagram page to reply to the growing list of angry comments left underneath one of his images from the show.