Just when we thought nothing at Milan Fashion Week would top Jennifer Lopez‘s turn on the Versace runway, a model walking the catwalk at Gucci’s Spring 2020 show proved us wrong.
While everyone around the globe tunes into fashion week to learn the latest trends, non-binary musician and artist Ayesha Tan Jones (aka Yaya Bones) saw it as an opportunity to shine a spotlight on mental health. One of the first few models to open the show in outfits featuring straitjacket silhouettes, they raised their hands so everyone could see the phrase “mental health is not fashion” written on them.
We know what you’re thinking: this was clearly staged. But according to a statement from Gucci, the protest wasn’t part of the plan.
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STATEMENT for my protest of the @gucci show MENTAL HEALTH IS NOT FASHION
Need more proof? In a statement posted to Instagram Jones writes: “It is in bad taste for Gucci to use the imagery of straitjackets and outfits alluding to mental patients, while being rolled out on a conveyor belt as if a piece of factory meat. Presenting these struggles as props for selling clothes in today’s capitalist climate is vulgar, unimaginative and offensive to the millions of people around the world affected by these issues.”
Alessandro Michele later went on to explain that the “straitjackets” were meant to symbolize uniforms that are dictated by society restraining any means of self-expression. So we’re guessing the designer wasn’t annoyed that Jones expressed themselves…
