Louis Vuitton'S Safety Card: Erase All Traces Of Michael Jackson.

Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury brand, has chosen to erase all traces of the popular idol Michael Jackson, and will not sell the 2019 autumn and winter series of products that are inspired by Michael Jackson.

The men's clothing series of autumn winter 2019, which was created by Virgil Abloh, the creative director of men's clothing, has won great acclaim recently.

At that time, the brand Michael Jackson classic white gloves as a show invitation letter was considered a smart move by many guests.

But no one expected that in just a few months, the wind had completely changed.

HBO's documentary about leaving Neverland has aroused heated debate in western culture.

Two people in the documentary accused Michael Jackson of pedophile, which shook the latter's long established reputation.

In fact, as early as Michael Jackson, he was acquitted in the 2005 obscene boy charges.

But "leaving Neverland" documentary again triggered public sentiment and was fermented by the new round of public awareness brought about by the #metoo feminist movement.

After the release of the documentary, Michael Jackson, the king of pop music, the king of metamorphosis, also caused polarization in public opinion. On the one hand, readers could not accept the blasphemy of the most important figures in the history of pop culture by the readers. Especially after ten years after their passing away, they protested the article, but on the other hand, the social circles were more cautious about sensitive topics, and tended to respect a few voices.

As the article said, documentary director Reed said he was very contradictory. "Do I have to launch a campaign to remove the name of Michael Jackson from the classroom and let the shopping center take off his statue?"

So at this time, to praise him as a good man is a good example for you to follow. Is it right? Maybe not.

This "re tune" for the heavyweight dead idol can be said to be very rare, completely unpredictable, but it happened just after the Louis Vuitton 2019 autumn and winter series, and the brand did not know the existence of the film when it was released in Paris fashion week. With the ferment of social media, this Louis Vuitton was at a loss.

At first, Virgil Abloh didn't seem to be troubled by this. When he accepted the interview with The New Yorker recently, he also said that he had not heard of the documentary, and only wanted to focus on the "Michael Jackson, which is generally accepted by me, the good side, the humanitarian one."

But Virgil Abloh, a familiar social media, apparently underestimated the power of emotions.

This is not the first time that he has shown a lack of sensitivity to such issues.

Last June, Virgil Abloh invited rappers and singer Ian Connor to sit in the position of her first show in Louis Vuitton, which was controversial. Ian Connor was accused of rape by 21 women.

The move has been criticized for many times. Refinery 29 commented that Virgil Abloh conveys a dual message of diversity and solidarity in the first show of Louis Vuitton.

But for 21 women, it was obvious that the show ignored them.

Virgil Abloh did not see them, nor did they believe them.

If the Ian Connor incident does not cause distress to Virgil Abloh, and the latter's attitude does not respond successfully to calm down the incident and make the sensitive event blur, then the Michael Jackson event breaks the balance.

Virgil Abloh and Louis Vuitton behind him soon discovered that the brand in the vortex of public opinion needs to be more active.

Virgil Abloh subsequently responded in a statement that he condemned any form of child abuse, violence or violation of any human rights.

This unexpected event apparently stirred the head of the group. Louis Vuitton parent company LVMH (thematic reading) CEO Bernard Arnault also publicly stated that child safety and welfare are of great importance to the group, and stressed that no product that would be directly inspired by Michael Jackson elements would be produced.

Faced with this dilemma, Louis Vuitton obviously chose a safety card.

Some analysts point out that LVMH's move highlights the growing pressure on luxury brands to face public opinion in the social media age, and the global luxury business is at risk.

For Louis Vuitton, abandoning the production of some products is not a difficult choice. Brand reputation is the most valuable asset of luxury brands compared to those with less contribution to sales, and the consequences of reputation damage can not be estimated.

Bernard Arnault emphasized earlier that with the success of LVMH jumped the first ranking group in the French stock market, its luxury brands have attracted much attention from the media and the public, especially the social media. Therefore, the communication with the industry and the building of brand image will face greater challenges.

Last June, LVMH appointed Antoine Arnault, the eldest son of Bernard Arnault, as the head of publicity and image of the group, supervising the Propaganda Department of the luxury brands of the group.

Only by being more careful can we avoid the risk from time to time. This is the consensus reached by the luxury fashion brand.

Following the LVMH's announcement of the Michael Jackson incident, the latest announcement of the Gieves&Hawkes, a custom tailored suit brand, removed the replica of the military jacket worn by Michael Jackson in the 1988 "Bad" tour.

The brand said, "in view of the disturbing allegations in the documentary, a few weeks ago, the recycled clothing has been removed."

Luxury brands now need to deal with "failures" and "accidents" from all sides, because the young consumers with more mature consciousness, the changing social trend and the social media with the amplifier function are standing in front of them, which speeds up the dissemination of information and magnify emotions.

Last month's Gucci racism incident just passed.

A black sweater, "Balaclava", designed by Alessandro Michele, the brand creative director, is considered to be a nugget in the outer net due to the black background and red lips of her sweater. She is suspected of racial discrimination.

This is a rare criticism of the luxury brand that continues to gain a high reputation among young audiences in social media through innovative forms of creativity.

Although Gucci immediately issued an apology statement, it failed to reverse the trend of public opinion.

Actor Spike Lee and rapper T.I subsequently launched a boycott of Gucci in social media.

Dapper Dan, a black designer who launched a series of cooperation with Gucci earlier, publicly criticized the brand and vowed to let executives be responsible for this disgusting mistake.

Marco Bizzarri and his team members flew from Italy to New York to meet Harlem for this purpose.

Two months ago, Prada just started to stir up the same problem.

At that time, American netizens exposed an exaggerated red lip human hanging pendant on the Prada window, which was suspected of alluding and vilified blacks.

Long term emotional accumulation finally triggered the public's dissatisfaction with luxury brands' knowingly and repeatedly making mistakes.

Last month, Burberry also designed a rope like lasso for the neckline of a hooded sweater in the autumn and winter series in 2019. It was criticized by the model Liz Kennedy on Instagram account, suggesting that the design was suggestive of suicide.

Subsequently, the brand CEO Marco Gobbetti and the brand chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci apologized, indicating that the design of the sweater was inspired by the sailor rope, which is consistent with the "storm" theme of the show.

To prevent further fermentation of public opinion, the product has been removed from the series.

It is worth noting that the whole world seems to have ushered in a real era of "missed lessons".

Any carelessness or even historical mistakes may be criticized.

A few months ago, the US Justice Brett Kavanaugh took part in the hearing on charges of sexual assault, which shook the western world 36 years ago.

Almost simultaneously with the Gucci incident, the US governor Virginia Northam Ralph and attorney general Mark R. Herring made a public apology for a black face in the 1980s photo.

Later, it was discovered that there was a black face doll on a bookshelf in a household photo taken by Grace Coddington, the famous fashion editor of Vogue.

Last year, Jacob Bernstein, Matthew Schneierh and Vanessa Friedman reported in the New York Times, a fashion photographer, Bruce Weber and Mario Testino, and used a similar angle of investigation to interview more than a dozen models.

Although it is not possible to verify whether there are memory biases in the events that occurred many years ago and whether the details are reliable, people are more inclined to sympathize with such incidents.

The cultural circle's re examination of Michael Jackson's life events is another example of this macro trend.

It is not hard to predict that if Virgil Abloh is again caught up in the public opinion crisis in the future, the earlier Ian Connor incident may be revival again.

With the increasingly uncertain public opinion crisis, luxury brands are looking for solutions from the organization itself.

Some analysts also believe that if the brand wants to avoid risks and achieve localization better, it is essential to reassess the working procedures and organizational structure for the specific market to launch marketing measures that conform to local culture.

After the release of the statement on Michael Jackson, LVMH announced in March 15th that it plans to nominate Iris Knobloch and Yann Arthus-Bertrand as members of the board, of which Iris Knobloch is female to help enhance the group's sensitivity and vigilance to environmental and social issues.

Iris Knobloch served as Time Warner executive of the US media group. Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a designer and director who is known for calling for public awareness of the ecological environment.

In addition, LVMH began to emphasize female employment opportunities 2 years ago. At present, the proportion of female executives has increased from 23% to 42%. LVMH has set a clear goal again, that is, the proportion of female executives increased to 50% in 2020.

Earlier this year, the group invited Bernard Arnault's eldest daughter, Delphine Arnault, to join the board.

Gucci also announced immediately after the racial discrimination incident that it will rectify and take a number of initiatives to promote corporate cultural diversity and enhance employee awareness.

Brand commitment will employ diversified talents, including creative teams, in key functional departments and leadership positions, and has released four latest initiatives.

Prada announced the establishment of a multicultural and inclusive Advisory Committee, and invited African American behavioral artist Theaster Gates and African American women writer, director and producer Ava DuVernay as co chairs to enhance the cultural diversity of the company and the fashion industry.

In addition, the Prada group and the Advisory Committee will work with some universities and institutions to develop internship and apprenticeship training programs in minority groups to narrow the gap between the racial and cultural industries in the fashion industry.

However, many commentators expressed concern about this.

Angelo Flaccavento, a fashion critic, recently rewrote the comment she wrote a year ago at Instagram. "What I am accusing is that people become paranoid in order to show" right ". This behavior is like pure censorship.

In this way, one day people will make a list of fashion behaviors that are allowed and prohibited, so that designers will not be impolite and avoid being humiliated by the public.

When creativity is limited, the industry is going backwards. "

Such worries are not without foundation.

We can at least predict that when Louis Vuitton uses Michael Jackson as the source of inspiration, "unexpected accidents", more luxury brands may be more cautious in the direction of creativity, especially in the choice of sources of inspiration.

A fact that is not willing to be recognized is that fashion design is no longer the designer's creative imagination. The inspiration from the show is no longer the real motivation of the creative director, but a product of strict scrutiny and careful consideration. It may be foolproof, but also lacks attraction.