Moschino designer Jeremy Scott insists he was trying to start a meaningful discussion about immigration with his new fashion campaign, but his sincere message was lost on fans due to some dubious wording.
The designer debuted his campaign for Moschino’s Fall 2018 collection on Monday, posting several images on Instagram of models including Gigi Hadid and Kaia Gerber dressed up in the brand — and wearing make-up that made their skin appear red and blue.
Though the effect was supposed to make them look like aliens from outer space, Scott’s caption appeared to make light of ‘illegal aliens’ entering the US, which quickly drew ire and offense from followers.
New snaps! Moschino designer Jeremy Scott debuted images from the Fall 2018 campaign on Instagram this week, including this one of Gigi Hadid
Outer space: He painted models like Kaia Gerber to look like aliens from other planets
Yikes… Captioning and tweeting about Gigi’s image, he quipped: ‘The only thing illegal about this alien is how good she looks!’
Gigi’s campaign image features the model wearing a yellow zip-up dress and pillbox hat, with her hair styled in a Jackie O-inspired coif.
While the look is distinctly ’60s, Scott added another element, having her face, neck, and hands painted blue to make her look like a character from another planet in a sci-fi movie.
‘The only thing illegal about this alien is how good she looks!’ he captioned the image, crediting photographer Steven Meisel. He tweeted the caption, too, along with a link to the image.
While some fans of the brand swooned over the picture of Gigi — as well as another one of Kaia, wearing robin’s egg blue coat and matching pillbox hat, with her skin painted a reddish-orange — others pounced on the caption.
‘Hey this caption ain’t cute,’ wrote one. ‘[With] all that’s happening [right now] this clickbait is in terrible taste,’ wrote another.
Not the best wording… Social media users were not thrilled with the joke, which they found to be ‘in terrible taste’
Insensitive? Some immediately got his point about criticizer the idea of the ‘illegal alien’ but found his wording problematic
Rewrite time! Quite a few people urged him to reconsider the caption
‘What a tone deaf caption,’ wrote one critic
Unimpressed: Another called his caption ‘disgusting’
‘Please consider phrasing,’ someone else wrote on Twitter. ‘I physically gagged,’ tweeted another.
‘That caption is disgusting. You’re profiting on the suffering of people escaping persecution, poverty, and death,’ wrote an Instagrammer. Another chastised: ‘What a tone deaf caption.’
‘Eeeek. I see what you meant by the caption, but you have to know some people are going to completely miss the point you’re trying to make and take this the wrong way, man!’ wrote a slightly more understanding commenter. ‘I mean maybe just wording it a little differently would make a tremendous difference.’
It wasn’t long before Scott noticed the comments, and replied to one critic to explain his thinking. He soon updated the Instagram caption for Gigi’s image, though the message still remains on Twitter.
His new caption explained the thought process behind the campaign, and what he intended when he used the phrase ‘illegal alien.’
Space-bound: He also shared this image of Vittoria Ceretti from the campaign
Wait! Since reading the criticism, Scott has changed his Instagram caption to explain that the campaign was meant to bring attention to Trump’s ‘harsh stance toward “illegal aliens”‘
‘What is an “alien?”‘ he wrote, replacing the original message. ‘The concept of my ad campaign is to bring attention to the US administration’s harsh stance towards “illegal aliens.”
Different take: With the new framing, fans have applauded the campaign
Fan: Some have said they ‘love the meaning’
‘I painted models in my show and this campaign as a way to open a discussion on what exactly an “alien” is — are they orange, blue, yellow, green? Does this matter? They are our friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives, and people we love.’
Several models in his show back in February did, in fact, have their skin painted different colors. Gigi and Kaia weren’t among the painted ladies at the time, but Hannah Elyse, Oslo Grace, Veronika Vilim, Soo Joo Park, and others sported the alien make-up look.
Scott said at the time, too, that he was aiming for a statement about immigration policies. He told Dazed: ‘I was thinking about immigration and illegal immigrants, or illegal “aliens” when I was designing the collection.
Background: It’s clear from the change in reaction that the original caption was not the best one, and the campaign requires context
All along: Scott first discussed the meaning for the concept back in February
Still not into it: However, a few commenters didn’t think his explanation was enough
‘I wanted to play with the idea of what an alien actually looks like. People in my country — some who have lived there since they were children, who have children of their own and are giving back to their communities, are getting evicted from the USA amidst fake news and hysteria.
‘So I thought okay, I’m going to play a little on what an “alien” supposedly looks like,’ he said.
Unfortunately for Scott, that message was lost with his caption. Since he has updated Instagram with a more in-depth explanation, however, some commenters seem more on-board with the campaign.
‘Love the meaning of this,’ wrote one. ‘Brilliant! Love it. Go you for using your platform to take a stand and gain attention using the art form of fashion,’ wrote another.
‘I absolutely LOVE this whole concept!’ another Instagrammer said. ‘What better way to show US administration that we are all EQUAL, we all bleed one color, we are all born one way and we all die! No one is superior to the next.
Showing it off: Meanwhile, Gigi Hadid has shared the campaign on social media
Flashback: She also posted some behind-the-scenes shots from the May 9 photoshoot
Fashion show: Models at the Moschino show in Milan on February 21 also got in on the alien theme
Feeling yellow: A few women who walked had their skin painted different colors
‘I wanted to play with the idea of what an alien actually looks like,’ Scott said
Some critics continued to call out his original caption and weren’t impressed by his explanation. One wrote that despite wanting to ‘start a discussion,’ the campaign was still exploitative and fell short of being ‘revolutionary.’
Regardless of the controversy, the models in the campaign continue to promote it, and Scott posted a new picture on Tuesday morning of Vittoria Ceretti with orange skin.
Gigi has uploaded several photos from the May 9 shoot to her Instagram Stories, including one of her posing with Kaia.
‘When aliens took over the White House,’ she captioned one, adding a picture of the White House with a UFO over it.