Gucci’s SS20 runway show at Milan Fashion Week has been marred by controversy after model Ayesha Tan-Jones protested the show’s use of straitjackets inside a runway space reminiscent of a hospital waiting room.
Tan-Jones, AKA YaYa Bones, had the words “mental health is not fashion” written on their hands as they were transported down the runway on a conveyor belt with the other models. The runway space was surrounded by stark, bright lighting, waiting room-style chairs and an overwhelming sea of white.
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“As an artist and model who has experienced my own struggles with mental health, as well as (having) family members and loved ones who have been affected by depression, anxiety, bipolar, and schizophrenia, it is hurtful and insensitive for a major fashion house such as Gucci to use this imagery as a concept for a fleeting fashion moment,” they later commented on Instagram.
“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.”
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In response to claims about the insensitive glamorisation of mental illness, Gucci defended the straitjackets in the name of story-telling.
“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.”
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When considering themes of mental illness in a creative space, it’s important to think about who’s doing the talking – like, is it someone who has experienced mental illness themself, or is it a large corporation glamorising and subsequently profiting off others’ hardships under the guise of creative license and story-telling?
At the end the of the day, the models can take their straitjackets off and Gucci can pat itself on the back with a fat cheque, but those with mental illness will continue to find stigmatisation on the daily. This is the issue.
No matter which way you put it, the show’s directors and designers obviously appropriated the straitjacket – historically associated with restraining those with mental illness – onto the main stages of Milan Fashion Week with makeup, stage lights and rounds of applause. That’s glamorisation, period.
Tan-Jones has donated their earnings from the show to mental health charities.
