Chanel and Russophobia
Since the start of the military special operation in Ukraine, the Russian market has been flooded with a wave of high-profile withdrawals from Western companies. The largest holdings – from Inditex and H&M Group, ending with LVMH and Kering – announced the alternate suspension of activities in the Russian Federation. At the same time, some brands have left for good (at least for now), while others have already returned under new names or promised to do so in the near future.
The Russians took the news in different ways, mostly with apprehension and fear. Sharp dissatisfaction was due only to the position of the giant LVMH, controlled by Bernard Arnault – in foreign boutiques of its brands, Russians were refused to purchase goods on the grounds of economic sanctions. But most went to Chanel. The fashion house even recalled the cooperation of its founder Gabrielle Chanel with the Third Reich during the Second World War – stickers with the image of Adolf Hitler appeared on the facades of the brand’s stores in Paris.
“The former rulers of the Great Coco decided to join the anti-Russian campaign to “cancel Russia”. The Chanel house can return to normal and support Nazism as its creator.
– commented Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
A flash mob in which Russian women cut Chanel bags in front of the camera went viral on social networks. “If the House of Chanel does not respect its customers, why should we respect the House of Chanel?” – Victoria Bonya, who participated in the protest action, spoke.
Olga Buzova turned to Chanel with a request to return to her the money spent on the boutiques of the “Nazi” brand; Ksenia Borodina swore that she would “not provide her own money” to the fashion house, and Yana Rudkovskaya expressed hope that her beloved brand will apologize to the Russians, whom she “really and unfairly offended”.
Dress worn by Kim Kardashian and Marilyn Monroe
2022 has been very successful for Kim Kardashian, both personally and professionally. Despite not marrying reality TV star Pete Davidson, she ended her divorce with Kanye West by deducting $200,000 in child support from the rapper. Gabbana and Domenico Dolce described his family as “the cheapest people in the world”. world.” With his underwear brand Skims, he received the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) award and became perhaps the most talked about outerwear brand.
This is a real Marilyn Monroe dress. She wore it in 1962 to celebrate the 45th anniversary of US President John F. Kennedy: 60 years have passed – and Kardashian appeared at the Met Gala Costume Institute’s annual ball. This debut cost her a lot of money and effort: she lost 7 pounds in three weeks to fit into a dress she rented for $5 million from the Ripley Museum.
“Everything is to lose weight, dye hair for 30 hours, leave the hotel in a bathrobe, get there, change on the red carpet, walk on the red carpet, then wear the same dress again, because I couldn’t” t take risks and eat .. All this for the sake of 10 minutes of my life ”,
– Kardashian complained in one of the episodes of the reality show.
On the one hand, Kim’s efforts were justified: she wanted to be talked about – she succeeded. Another thing is that there is more trolling and hate than compliments. She was ridiculed for videos of Kardashian having trouble putting on her dress, running down the stairs of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, leaning on four people, including her then comedian boyfriend, to avoid falling, and finally posing to cover her unbuttoned hips. fur.
Accusations of damaging the legendary thing rained down on Kim – allegedly the product came apart at the seams, peeled off, the crystals partially peeled off. But representatives of the Ripley Museum, which stores the outfit, made sure that the dress was originally in this form.
Bob McKee, author of the dress sketch, criticized Kardashian, saying that she only created this thing for “crazy goddess” Monroe and only she could wear it. By the way, many stylists noticed that the dress really suits the actress more – because Kim was darker, the idea of u200bu200bthe “naked” outfit failed.
Balenciaga and the sexualization of children
The outgoing year has been solid for fashion houses. Valentino was found guilty of shooting nude models, accusing him of sexually objectifying women and imposing pornography. Dior and Gucci supported Russia’s military special operation in Ukraine: “Russian traces” in the brand’s advertising campaigns are to blame – a snow-covered birch grove, models dressed in the style of Soviet citizens, hats reminiscent of the Yakut national decoration bastyngu .
However, the “culture of cancellation” affected Balenciaga the most – and it turns out that Russia had nothing to do with it. The scandal around the brand was caused by an advertisement in which children held teddy bears in leather harnesses as if they were from BDSM. The fashion house was accused of sexualizing minors. Photographer Gabriel Galimberti, who carried out the attack, received death threats on social networks.
Balenciaga’s creative director, Demna Gvasalia, personally apologized for the “wrong artistic concept choice”, but that didn’t stop the flywheel from being “cancelled”. Kim Kardashian turned down the brand for further collaboration. “As a mother of many children, I was shocked by these disturbing footage. There should be no room for any attempt to normalize child abuse in our society—the point is,” she said on social networks.
Bella Hadid deleted from her Instagram page (the owner of the Meta company is recognized as an extremist and is banned in Russia), from the latest Balenciaga campaign in which she starred with Isabelle Huppert and Nicole Kidman, and the star of the series “Euphoria” Alexa Demy deleted all photos of the brand wearing it.
Russian stars also participated in the boycott. Anastasia Reshetova said Balenciaga “behaved unacceptable and upholds relevant values”, while Olga Buzova described it as “a brand for pedophiles” and said she “hit bottom” to Demna Gvasalia, who had offended her in the past.
Only Philip Kirkorov and Kanye West took an unpopular position. The king of the Russian stage supported Demna Gvasalia, explaining that she did this with “all her friends in trouble.”
Kanye West commented, “I support Balenciaga, I condemn all witch hunts, and I cancel the culture of cancellation.” Ironically, the rapper opposed the “cancellation” of the brand after the brand “canceled” him. Following Kanye West’s anti-Semitic statements, Balenciaga removed photos of the last show in Paris and also removed items from its joint collection with the Yeezy brand from sale.
Kanye West and racism
Speaking of Kanye West. Last year, she managed to literally piss everyone off: Kim Kardashian with derogatory remarks about her mother and sisters, threats against Pete Davidson, and the scandalous antics she has to protect her ordinary children; Donald Trump, who plans to run for President of the United States in 2024, is Elon Musk, who tweets. At a secret fashion show organized by the Yeezy brand during Paris Fashion Week, she angered the Jewish people by declaring her sympathy for Adolf Hitler and offended blacks by wearing a long-sleeved shirt with the slogan White Lives Matter (“White Lives Matter”).
In an interview with journalists, he said that the idea for such a design arose because of “inner instinct, connection with God and simply genius.” The answer to the question of why I wrote White Lives Matter in long sleeves is that it is. It’s obvious,” he said.
“Everyone knows Black Lives Matter is a hoax. Now it’s over. don’t thank me”
Kanye West shared it on social media.
This “performance” caused, as expected, a flurry of negativity. Vogue editor Gabriella Carefa-Johnson, who attended the show, publicly denounced Ye, who said she was “not trendy”. Gigi Hadid and Hailey Baldwin came to the journalist’s defense – and they got that from the rapper, too: “Born with a silver spoon in her mouth” she called Gigi “the privileged Karen” and laughed at Hailey’s rhinoplasty. she also asks the wife of model Justin Bieber to “shut the fuck up”. In response to the provocation, Justin appeared in public wearing a sweatshirt that read “Racism is bad”.
Oil was added to the fire with Kanye West’s words that African American George Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer, actually died from an overdose of fentanyl, but later apologized for this.
Brands led by Balenciaga and adidas broke down their partnership with him and lost a lot of money as a result. In the American media, the rapper became undesirable – Anna Wintour made it clear that she is no longer wanted, at least at Vogue events.