Barely two months have passed since Virgil Abloh was the target of backlash for statements he made in The New Yorker about his Michael Jackson-inspired Fall 2019 menswear collection for Louis Vuitton; the runway show coincided with the wide release of "Leaving Neverland," a documentary that divulged explicit details surrounding the child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson.
Now, the CEO of Off-White is back in hot water for images and videos he shared Tuesday on his Instagram Stories of a Christmas party he threw for over 100 Off-White staffers. Instagram users were quick to point out that they didn't spot one person of color — and more specifically, one Black person — on the Milan-based team.
Users used the comments section of Abloh's most recent post to express their frustration, with one user saying, "So you clearly don't believe in diversity."
Another user called for Black people to boycott Off-White under the same post, saying, "Black people please learn not [to] support labels and businesses [that] don't support us. 136 members [at the Christmas party] and not one person of color, he clearly sees no value in the creatives that look like him."
Abloh's Off-White is now among a number of fashion houses that have been called out for their lack of diversity and cultural missteps in recent months, including Prada for its racially insensitive monkey trinkets, Gucci for its "blackface" balaclava scandal (which ultimately required that house collaborator Dapper Dan get involved) and Burberry's "noose" hoodie controversy. As a result of the customer- and fan-driven feedback they've received, all three luxury labels have established diversity initiatives to reassure consumers of their intention to change.
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