4 - Nike
Now I know I said I was only doing High fashion brands for this project, however I just couldn't do an expose and mock all these brands without having Nike amongst the bunch, Nike is to quite simply put it a disgusting corporation with a disgusting rapport, what with their history with sweatshops, and the deaths that have occurred, I got to the point with this one keeping the check mark logo as it is with just the small addition of dripping blood illustrations, representing the blood of the people it costed to make the shoes. For the sound I went for a disturbing slashing sound effect, for I wanted the audience to truly understand the severity of the brand's dark side on it's workers. I used a gradient of different values of the red color, making sure to replicate human's hue with the dark hue and the bright one to also represent the freshness of it all
5 - Jordan's
For this series, I wasn't even really thinking about including Jordan's, however I happened to run into this heartbreaking story I just couldn't ignore and got the brand into the cut. The story revolves around 17 year old James Anthony Smith, who'd just gotten the $250 pair of red-and-white Nike Air Jordan's. Prosecuters say that a hooded teen pulled up at the Frederick Douglass Community Center in Southeast Washington basketball court, pulling out a gun and pointing it at James telling him "give me those shoes". The two fought briefly and then James took off running, his friends tell the authorities later they heard gunshots, and found James two streets over shot twice in the back, lying in his own blood, with his shoes gone, left in socks only. What really broke my heart about this entire case was D.C. prosecutor Ella Glad man's opening statement: These shoes are important,” D.C. prosecutor Ella Gladman told Okun during her opening statements as she recounted details of the shooting from her witnesses. “These shoes are the reason James was killed.” The mother heartbreakingly told The Washington Post He only enjoyed the shoes for four days before his body was found without the bright red Jordan's.
"Approximately 1,200 people die annually over sneakers, according to GQ."
This edit really touched me the most for the story behind it is both based on a true story, and horrifying. For a teen to have been killed because of the capitalistic approach the brand chose to take. Whenever Jordans makes a drop they limit the number of shoes in ratio to their consumers, so the shoes become super limited and sought after, so much that someone's been murdered over them. The approach is lethal since the brand creates a crave.
Alexander, K. (2018) Trial of 16-year-old charged with killing teen over Nike Air Jordan sneakers begins, The Washington post, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/trial-of-16-year-old-charged-with-killing-teen-over-air-jordan-sneakers-begins/2018/07/13/f689c6f4-8699-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html>
While creating my icons I wanted to focus on the tragic aspect of the story and while illustrating I picked very bright colors foe the first icon: light sky blue going into yellow almost like the sun is rising symbolizing a happy good energy James was feeling having worn the shoes he got for Christmas. And then as we moving to the second I made sure to do my research on the most colors used to represent death and found that muted greens and violets worked best, I then went on to illustrate blood on the socks to symbolize what the shoes left behind, and plastered the jordans logo to make it the culprit and demoralize it in a way. For the sound I researched old Jordans ads looking for the perfect voice over and got this:
6 - Gucci
For Gucci there was a lot I experimented with for the brand has truly become irrelevant amongst the bunch I chose for this project, they lost their value what with all the many overdone tacky copies, and songs like "Gucci Gang" which made the brand seem quite " ratchet. However, I wanted to take on a more serious note on of the biggest controversies they went through with their Milan Fashion Week fashion show. Before Gucci brought out patterns and lace and loud colors at Milan Fashion Week, the blank slate and bland clothing were meant to represent “the most extreme version of a uniform dictated by society and those who control it,” according to Gucci. However with the straitjacket styled pieces and the models making an entrance on a conveyor built, wearing prison like sandals, that was not the impression the entrance left on the audience, and especially not model and activist Ayesha Tan-Jones “MENTAL HEALTH,” Tan-Jones’s palms read in black marker, “IS NOT FASHION.”
"Straight Jackets 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.
It is in bad taste for Gucci to use the imagery of straight jackets 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."
Ayesha Tan-Jones“Many of the other Gucci models who were in the show felt just as strongly as I did about this depiction of straitjackets, and without their support I would not have had the courage to walk out and peacefully protest,” Tan-Jones said, adding that they had joined other models in donating a portion of their show payments to mental health charities.
Mettler, K (2019) Gucci’s straitjackets draw a model’s silent protest on the runway: ‘Mental health is not fashion’ <https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/09/23/guccis-straitjackets-draw-models-silent-protest-runway-mental-health-is-not-fashion/>
For the illustration I chose to do to take on the topic, I wanted to highlight Ayesha's hands since they were the real protestors in the show, with the writing that was on her hands, and for the background I chose a gradient of pastel colors that make you calm. And for the sound I wanted something holy in a way, to give off