Spanish retail clothing chain, Zara, is currently under fire by pro-Palestine supporters due to its most recent advertorial.
Launched on Dec. 7, the brand’s latest commercial campaign dubbed “The Jacket” faced intense backlash after online users noticed several sinister similarities between the promotional material and the distressing images currently coming out of the Gaza Strip. Highlighting the newest range of outerwear by the high-street fashion giant, the artistic direction taken to depict the upcoming line struck an unsettling chord with many social media users, who took to their keyboards to express their discontent towards the campaign for what they perceived as “mocking deaths in Gaza.”
The visuals posted on the label’s social media accounts feature American model Kristen McMenamy donning Zara’s new range of jackets against the backdrop of shattered walls or posing inside a dusty, wooden box, alongside dismembered mannequins wrapped in a white cloth, as well as fragments of plywood arranged to resemble the map of Palestine.
According to some netizens, the campaign draws an unsettling parallel with the aftermath of the occupying force’s carpet-bombing of Gaza, painting a disconcerting scene where human victims of Israel’s ethnic cleansing are treated akin to inanimate objects, are trivialized, and appear to be commodified for aesthetic reasons.
Don’t tell me this is a coincidence @ZARA pic.twitter.com/RcSaHpSgSB
— Abu Hafsah (@AbuHafsah1) December 10, 2023
Prompting intense criticism from Palestine supporters, the calls for accountability eventually compelled the removal of the campaign from Zara’s official website. In response to the surge of disparaging comments, the brand claimed that the promotional shoot was planned in July and lensed in September. The brand suggested that there could be no connection between the images and the ongoing atrocities in Gaza as the project was thought-of and conceived before the events of Oct. 7.
With that said, the defense only exacerbated a deep wound as the brand’s explanation was deemed as insubstantial by many and failed to alleviate the perceived sense of apathy. It would have adamantly been wiser to reconsider, or cancel, the entire project rather than risk offending a significant portion of its customer base, while appearing to mock those who tragically lost their lives.
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As it happens, this is not the first time that the Spanish label was called out for appearing to have an anti-Palestine stance. In 2021, Zara’s head designer, Vanessa Perilman, came under fire for sending xenophobic messages to Palestinian model Qaher Harshash. An alleged screenshot of their exchange showed Perilman stating that “Maybe if your people were educated then they wouldn’t blow up the hospitals and schools that Israel helped to pay for in Gaza,” adding that, “Israelis don’t teach children to hate nor throw stones at soldiers as your people do.”
Emerging as another contentious episode in the recent history of fashion, the industry once again finds itself at the forefront of discourse probing the responsibilities brands bear in navigating their freedom of sartorial expression. Zara’s recent controversy serves as a stark reminder that we still have a long way to go.
