Philippine Fashion Week under fire for #BlackLivesMatter collection

Filipinos have loudly criticized the Philippine Fashion Week (PFW) for its recent use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in its collection—believing that its producers were capitalizing on the movement, and complaining that the country had more pressing social issues at hand.

The 24-year-old bi-annual show kicked off earlier this week with their new quarantine collection taking inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew traction after the the horrific killing of African-American George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck. The incident spurred a conversation on racial injustice not just in the U.S. but also in neighboring Asian countries.

The country’s longest-running fashion show produced several photos of a black model sporting clothing bearing the text #BlackLivesMatter and “I Can’t Breathe,” a line Floyd had uttered before he died.

“Philippine Fashion Week supports #BlackLivesMatter, a movement in protest of police brutality, racial violence, racial injustice, and economic inequality against African-American people. #BLM,” its organizers wrote on Instagram.

Pinoys on PFW’s Instagram expressed distaste on the use of the advocacy in the fashion campaign, but comments have since been turned off.

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On Twitter, the same sentiment was echoed by @marineldizon, who wrote “This is DISGUSTING. If the organizers of Philippine Fashion Week truly wanted to make a statement, they’d focus on the problems we are facing locally, such as the war on drugs and extrajudicial killings. The Black Lives Movement is not something to be monetized.”

While there were fewer public conversations about racial injustice happening in the Philippines, Floyd’s killing had earlier spurred Filipinos to draw comparisons to police brutality in the country, citing the case of teenager Kian de los Santos who was shot dead by Caloocan cops in 2017, after the 17-year-old was suspected of peddling illegal drugs. De Los Santos was heard on CCTV pleading with police officers saying “Please, stop.”

Read: Manila police say they shot a 17-year-old out of self-defense, CCTV shows otherwise

Users like @Sining_ni_Gelo, meanwhile questioned questioned how far PFW is supporting the movement, “Are they going to give a portion of the money to the affected community?…Did they speak up for the oppressed before this? No, they really said fuck them I’m gonna capitalize on the movement.”

Philippine Fashion Week could not be reached for comments, and has yet to issue a statement on the issue.

But in an apparent attempt to appease the collection’s critics, its executive producer Tina Herrera said in a series of posts on PFW’s Facebook yesterday that she “grew up exposed to the strong influence of the black community” and has frequently “hired black creatives.”

“I grew up in Long Beach California and went to Long Beach Polytechnic High School (same high school as Snoop Dogg and Cameron Diaz) and I will always be wearing a heart of Green & Gold 💚💛. We grew up exposed to the strong influence of the Black Community therefore we were naturally drawn to their work and have been a supporter of black artists for many decades,” she said.

Herrera added that she’s also worked with many black designers on New York and Paris’ fashion runways including Kanye West and Off-White clothing’s Virgil Abloh.

 

 

 

 



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