Never ones to brush anything under the rug, the designers behind Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana are playing into the cries of their critics,
urging them to boycott the company. In the new protest mode of choice in the
fashion industry, Dolce & Gabbana is selling expensive t-shirts that read
#BOYCOTT DOLCE & GABBANA.
The $245 shirts are currently available on Dolce & Gabbana’s website, alongside a short film of Italian protesters wearing the shirts during a
demonstration against the company. The company’s founders and creative
directors, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, are among the protesters depicted
in the video.
The shirts come on the heels of Instagram posts from Gabbana in support of First Lady Melania Trump. Last month, in particular, Gabbana took to Instagram
to highlight Trump’s Dolce & Gabbana outfits during her recent overseas
trip, which caused no shortage of controversy amongst Instagram users. In one of
his posts, Gabbana called out “haters,” urging them to boycott the brand – by
buying a t-shirt, in what appears to be fashion’s latest attempt to profit from
the state of the Trump presidency.
(If you are unsure how eager people are to profit from the political status of the U.S., in particular, consider how many people have rushed to trademark
offices across the world to register "Covfefe" in order to have a monopoly over
the Trump-tweeted-word).
D&G’s boycott tees may be a new product for the Italian mega-brand but they are just the latest political/activism-leaning wares to join a whole slew
of other products in the tokenism that surrounds fashion’s other favorite
causes, including feminism, human rights, unity, and the general message of
protest/resistance. All of these causes have been given the fashion treatment
(aka embodied on expensive garments - such as $710 Dior "We Should All Be
Feminists" tees and $90 "Protest" tanks tops from Opening Ceremony - and sold)
in recent seasons.
This movement in general – whether intentionally opportunistic or not – is questionable for a number of reasons, including but certainly not limited to the
fact that true protest or “action” does not consist of buying a designer
sweatshirt and calling it a day, despite what Opening Ceremony, Christian Dior,
and co., would like you to believe.
The funny thing surrounding the push for politically-motivated garments and accessories is that many brands - while initially aiming to profit from the
products - do not stand to earn much from them at all, as public cries of
opportunism and poor taste have forced many brands to change their stance. Both
Dior and Opening Ceremony, for instance, have gone back on their initial
messaging in connection with their wares, announcing - after the fact - that
they will donate the proceeds of such sales to charity.
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