(Slightly NSFW) Fashion Label Avavav Has The Crowd Throw Trash And Sauce At The Models To Mock Online Trolls? Pardon?
Marco M. Mantovani. Getty Images.
Justin Shin. Getty Images.
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Justin Shin. Getty Images.Over the weekend, the fashion label Avavav had their very own Derelicte campaign at the end of Milan fashion week:
WWD- Avavav’s fall 2024 fashion show on Feb. 25 during Milan Fashion Week — which saw models pelted with drinks, food wrappers and other waste — parodied the brand’s online critics. “Hate comments and internet trolls have become a part of modern culture,” read an Instagram post from the label. “The show is an experiment where this verbal brutality is translated into a physical space, and hopefully shows that it isn’t necessarily a reflection of reality.”
Audience members were handed pails of trash, as well as a pair of white gloves with which to gather the trash to then hurl at the beautiful models. It was all part of the vision of Avavav's creative director, Beate Karlsson, who apparently has quite an eye for humor and irony. Or so they would have us believe.
At the end, Karlsson came out and took the Nate treatment—a pie to the face—as troll comments about her work scrolled on the wall behind her.
Now look: I'm all for throwing trash at women dressed in provocative clothing. By covering them in foul waste, we teach them the lesson of modesty. Would I let my daughter walk out of the house dressed in a transparent, form-fitting bedsheet? Absolutely not, unless I could dump coffee rinds and drape a few spent contraceptives over her shoulders. In other words, protect her like the good father I am.
But soiling high-end models with real trash and juice as a metaphor for the online hate the designer receives feels like some art world equivalent of a hiring a whipping boy. Sure, she took the pie to the face in the end. But that's goofy, expected, and delicious. Meanwhile, you've got your beautiful models taking mustard dollops and coffee slosh to the breast for all to enjoy. The metaphor doesn't quite land for me.
What do I know. I wear L.L. Bean.