Jackets Without a Good Fit

Zara has removed this controversial advertising campaign from the front page of its website after pro-Palestine activists called for an international boycott of the retailer.

Update 12/11/23: As I requested last night, Zara executives have now removed all imagery of the campaign. AOC’s post will not go down, however.

Inditex, the company that owns Zara, said on Monday that the change was part of a normal process of refreshing content and that the photos were taken in September 2023, before the current war between Hamas and Israel.

Right.

Images on social media have been modified [cropped or changed out entirely] to contain the damage done by them among members of the pro-Palestinian community.

In AOC’s experience, it would be impossible that an important Holiday 2023 delivery from Zara’s marketing group would have been shot after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel’s Kfa Aza kibbutz and the Re'im music festival — followed by Israel’s seemingly unchecked retribution on Palestinian territory and Palestinian civilians in its pursuit of members of Hamas.

Like Balenciaga, Did Anyone Think About Today’s World Months After Campaign Was Shot?

As someone who was part of a Victoria’s Secret executive team decision to reprint an entire holiday marketing campaign — including all the printed materials for then 500 store windows across America — the week before Thanksgiving, we must always be alert to how our visuals are being perceived.

In that case, the man and woman in our Victoria’s Secret marketing were not wearing wedding rings, but appeared in family imagery. We always set 20 stores early — just in case there was a problem. Sure enough, today’s Trump evangelical voters in Iowa noticed that ring issue and we got an earful that only spread in select other pre-setup locations.

Not New York; not Miami; not LA. Probably 15-20% of our sales volume locations, but it was clear that we had to stop the presses, so to speak. We paid a fortune having rings retouched onto the fingers of the couple, ran the presses 24/7 and Fed Ex did the rest — in probably 2 days total.

The bill was astronomical, but we had a great Christmas.

Weeping for Both Israel and Palestine, Anne Did Not Make the Connection

We are living in a post-Balenciaga debacle world and should be on high alert for uber-creative ad campaigns gone wrong. Personally I am living Israel-Palestine by the hour, weeping almost as badly as I did with the murder of George Floyd.

However alert to perceptions gone wrong, I myself was in the process of writing about my night at the Louvre in Paris 20 years ago, marveling over the jazz-evening setup with the statuary in seeming disarray, strewn like these images but with blue strobe lights for extra effect.

I couldn’t believe the creative experience at such a prestigious museum. Never forgetting the crazy statues evening, my love of Paris only grew in stature. That was my mental connection with these images and the story trajectory I was writing before going to Zara’s IG and seeing Palestinian hate mail everywhere.

It NEVER occurred to me that the dummies look like dead Palestinians and that the torn cardboard shape is meant to signal a map of Palestine. But then I’m not a conspiracy theorist; and once the fire is lit, there’s little time for explanations of original intentions.

Of course, I understand people deeply involved on the pro-Palestinian side of our collective international nightmare seeing this imagery and not thinking for one moment of a night of Jazz at the Louvre in Paris. The images just did not impact me the same way, and no one has ever accused me of being an insensitive white person. They’ve attacked my blond hair but not being a Karen.

Because the current campaign against Zara is being led by prominent Muslim bloggers, creatives and artists, it doesn’t matter what the intention of the campaign was. I know the creative team on this campaign, and my concern is that events like this one light big fires.

In order not to further endanger models, photographers, hairdressers, makeup artists and all staff part of this Zara effort, we will not include any specific connection to real people behind the Zara campaign. Other media is not being as responsible unfortunately, in reporting out this major problem and perceived affront to Arab people.

That includes Zara. IMO, they should get rid of all images with the model’s face — although it’s probably too late.

Tolerance is always in short supply in our world. But I’ve not seen the situation this volatile in decades. Frankly, never in my life. And I’ve not led a sheltered life when the focus is activism.

The campaign, named The Jacket, is part of Zara’s Atelier series, which it describes as "a limited-edition collection from the house celebrating our commitment to craftsmanship and passion for artistic expression".

It’s been an enormously successful campaign as Zara prioritizes selling fewer units but better clothes to meet its sustainability goals. If you’ve been in ateliers, this set is not a stretch. And that includes covered dress forms to keep them in pristine condition.

For understandable reasons, other people — primarily Arab intellectuals/creatives — saw something very different from my night of Paris jazz.

Melanie Elturk, chief executive of fashion brand Haute Hijab, who we’ve covered on AOC, was furious when she saw the new campaign.

"This is sick. What kind of sick, twisted and sadistic images am I looking at?"

Ms. Elturk probably would have been put straight through to a highest-echelon office at Zara or Inditex with her complaints, but she has no obligation to do that in today’s volatile, violent world.

Palestinian artist Hazem Harb also commented on the campaign and called for a boycott of Zara.

"Using death and destruction as a backdrop for fashion is beyond sinister. It's complicity and should outrage us as consumers. Boycott Zara," Harb wrote on Instagram.

AOC has not been on Harb’s IG but press reports are that he shared footage of his 2008 video installation ‘Burned Bodies’, which was shown at the Citta dell'Altra Economia, Rome.

The artist has also insinuated that the Zara campaign creative team ripped him off.

Besides shooting an atelier campaign with abundant atelier references, we have multiple fashion stories from this highly-credentialed photographer. I would share them — if I wasn’t afraid of repercussions for this individual.

Those images have many atelier scenes — which is probably why s[he] got the atelier assignment in the first place. I do intend to review them tonight, because I can see specific images in my inner mind.

Is the campaign ‘twisted’ in terms of an atelier. YES! Ateliers only have quiet energy. This is not Women’s Home Companion 1948.

In fact, I can make the argument that Zara is blitzing the very concept of an atelier, bringing wonderful clothes with an atelier design attitude to the closets of non-couture customers.

Some who have made accusations around intent might be embarassed by these past design references I can document. This is a different issue than releasing the images months later, when monster events have happened in our world — without another look.

Instagram influencers Dr Noor Amra and Dr Hina Cheema, shared images of the Zara campaign in a joint post, writing:

"We have all seen the devastating images of shrouded bodies coming out of Gaza ... It’s clearly a deliberate mock to Palestinians. They know exactly what they are doing.”

There Is Personal Bad Blood in This Mess

Apparently, there has been bad blood between Israeli Vanessa Perilman, head designer at Zara women’s and Palestinian model Qaher Harhash on Instagram. He doesn’t have a large portfolio but his credentials are sterling in terms of luxury brand connections.

We will not resurrect a fight from 2021 — but it was very aggressive and very public — and it’s back in the news. With this history of bad blood from 2021 — and other past factoids emerging, it’s possible that there was more behind-the-scenes provocation with this campaign than I understand. It’s called projection.

However, you cannot convince me that the model or photographer was part of an agenda. And living in the US where way too many insults are settled with gunfire, I stand firm on not using names or faces.

Stalked by an Anti-Abortion Fanatic

I’ve been in police protection for a year over Planned Parenthood and abortion rights. It was a very serious situation where my stalker was always in the shadows — at my home during the night, calling me at work.

He eventually confronted me one night, flying across my car windshield as I backed out of a parking space at work. It was a terrible confrontation, and I didn’t care if I killed him.

AOC Comments Shut Down By Muslim Intellectuals

The reason there are no comments on AOC is because in 2009/2010 I was very involved at the request of the Sudanese press in the flogging of women in Khartoum. I was recruited specifically by local activists, and we created total havoc with authorities and had great success in the fight against flogging.

However, I was descended on for about 72 hours non-stop by 90% Arab men. It was a hideous, wrenching experience, and someone finally got a highly-respected imam to intervene in the situation.

He admonished everyone and said: “Why are you doing this to her? She’s a friend to us. Stop this right now!” Of course, it ended on the spot, and I was really grateful to him. We communicated extensively after that about the state of our world.

All Global Fuses Are Really Short Right Now and We Have So Little Shared Respect of Each Other

People are swept up in the explosive anger of the moment, and this is why I will not discuss the names of creative people involved in this Zara controversy. In 2010 I wrote an essay that I stand by today and have been updating it in a new draft.

I was very involved with the Greens in Iran 2010, as well as Khartoum. The title will not be updated, however, as it resonates even more deeply now: “From Israel to Gaza to Tehran to Texas: Men Will Kill Us All.”

Erase that. The new title will be “From Israel to Gaza to Tehran to Texas: Men Will Kill Us All — in the Name of God.” ~ Anne