Gucci just had its SS20 runway show at Milan Fashion Week, and it’s made headlines… but probably not for the reason Gucci wanted thanks to runway model Ayesha Tan-Jones.
The model held a peaceful protest while walking the show, with their hands in the air: “Mental health is not fashion” written on their palms.
The model felt the need to do so because the clothing line was glamourising what was once worn for mental patients when mental illness wasn’t understood the way it is today. Inside the show was set up like a hospital waiting room as well.
“Straight Jackets,” they continued, “are a symbol of a cruel time in medicine when mental illness was not understood, and people’s rights and liberties were taken away from them, while they were abused and tortured in the institution.”
Gucci has defended the straitjackets, claiming they were using them for story telling purposes.
“Uniforms, utilitarian clothes, normative dress, including straitjackets, were included in the #GucciSS20 fashion show as the most extreme version of a uniform dictated by society and those who control it. These clothes were a statement for the fashion show and will not be sold. @alessandro_michele designed these blank-styled clothes to represent how through fashion, power is exercised over life, to eliminate self-expression. This power prescribes social norms, classifying and curbing identity.”
While one can appreciate the message the creative industry may be trying to send with using themes of mental illness for fashion, it’s important to remember that these are not people suffering from mental illnesses that are telling the story.
It’s a major fashion house profiting from it. The models can remove those Straitjackets after the show and go about their day, a luxury a lot of people didn’t once have in relation to those uniforms.
Tan-Jones has since donated their earnings mental health charities.
Need help? Call Lifeline on 131 114, visit www.lifeline.org.au/get-help/get-help-home, or call beyondblue on 1300 224 636.
If you would like to talk to someone about mental health, you can call the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or Headspace on 1800 650 890.
WATCH: R U OK Day: Home And Away stars talk mental health
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