Burberry's Noose Hoodie and Millennial Mental Health

Editor’s Advisory: This article contains sensitive subject matter, explicit language, and graphic imagery. Please continue with care.

Editor’s Note: While the focus of this article is the impact of the Burberry hoodie on millennial and Gen Z mental health, the author acknowledges with deep compassion the pain caused by the imagery associated with the history of lynching of African Americans. Please see this article for a deeper understanding of that point of view.

When I saw the picture of Burberry’s noose hoodie, I could not breathe. I could barely move. And as my breath was trapped inside my stomach, my chest tightening, my head beginning to pound, I saw Kate Spade - hanging. I saw Anthony Bourdain - hanging. Alexander McQueen in his guest bedroom closet - hanging. I saw Avicii, Chris Cornell, Robin Williams, Kurt Cobain. I thought about Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf. Images of their bodies flashed and raced through my mind one after the other, then blending together, all of these brilliant, beloved figures who have died by suicide. I thought of the boy I knew in my early twenties, a brilliant artist in his own right, who hung himself, whose mother found him hanging from the ceiling in their garage. It was only a few minutes before I was back down deep in the darkness of intense passive suicidal ideation stemming from clinical depression that has plagued me throughout my life. Triggers are real.

via Instagram

Before the show, Burberry’s Creative Director Riccardo Tisci posted on Instagram, “I dedicate this show to the youth of today, to them having the courage to scream for what they believe in, for them to find the beauty in expressing their voice…” Do designers just say whatever to sound cool and in touch with a target market? Does Tisci actually know anything about the youth of today? About the rising rates of adolescent anxiety, depression, and suicide in the US and in England? About how pop culture imagery, fashion, and social media impact the lives of millennials and Gen Z? How does a hoodie with a noose hanging around the neck empower today’s youth to have courage, to use their voices for what they believe in? If there was a message in this design, I did not get it.

Some feel Burberry and similarly-situated fashion brands have a responsibility to avoid designing clothes that could trigger people’s pain. As an artist and a fan of fashion as an artistic medium, I’m not able to take that position; I can’t get behind creative censorship. If artists avoided creating anything that might offend, we’d have nothing truly evocative to look at, nothing poignant to read, nothing thought-provoking to watch, and nothing legitimately groundbreaking on the runway. What I do advocate is awareness, intelligence, mindfulness, and love. I’m not seeing any of those intentions in this hoodie, despite Tisci’s completely irrelevant “apology,” in which all he really does is egotistically defend himself for having “always fought for diversity, for sexuality, for people of colour, for women’s rights, for all genders, and for inclusivity,” and tout himself for being “a world citizen...raised in a loving family who taught [him] how to love and respect everyone...” What does any of that have to do with the issue at hand?

via Instagram

Mr. Tisci, why aren’t you saying anything about the noose hoodie? Your reiteration that this was “unintentional” is making your apology sound disingenuous and showing your unwillingness to take responsibility for your decision. You are still not demonstrating any actual awareness or understanding of the very real impact your noose hoodie has had. Please allow a 21-year-old girl to enlighten you. She spoke to me about how she experienced your noose hoodie. Here’s what she had to say:

She was culturally aware enough to say the sweatshirt “promotes the idea of suicide” and shows Burberry’s “ignorance and lack of care about mental health issues.”

She was empathic enough to consider how runway models might have experienced the piece: “I start thinking about how the model feels presenting this piece...a lot of models struggle with body image and mental health issues associated with their career…”

She was socially in-tune enough to imagine how others her age might experience the piece: “It could seriously affect those who are struggling...those who have [experience with] suicide or mental health can be reminded of it through this [design].”

via CNN

She was smart enough to think about how younger kids might be impacted: “...[they] might be even more affected as fashion and trends are so easily accessible since their entire world revolves around social media. They may look at a piece like this one and think about times they have felt suicidal...since a famous company is marketing a piece such as this, suicide can seem like a successful trend.”

I asked about her own emotional response. She was self-aware enough to say, “It makes me feel very uncomfortable and makes my mind start racing. It makes me think about those I have lost to suicide and the pain associated with it. It makes me think about my own pain and how I have struggled with mental health.”

Perhaps Burberry’s new diversity and inclusivity initiatives should involve adding a few millennial and Gen Z kids to its executive staff.

via Fashionista

I’m all for fashion making a statement. I believe in freedom of expression, in harnessing the power of art to challenge social constructs, in a collection of clothes making commentary on historical events and cultural climate. There is not enough emotional exploration in fashion. McQueen was master of this endeavor. He shocked and sometimes appalled with his highly emotive, deeply autobiographical work. His collections could be polarizing; but, regardless of personal taste, I don’t think anyone could accuse him of creating without consciousness. My favorite artists in music and in fashion are the ones who have made me feel. As frightening as feeling can be, it’s the only impetus that moves me. If you can shock me with that rare combination of refined skill, genuine creativity, and purposeful brazen self-expression, you’ll have a fan for life.

But if you make something merely shocking, or only offensive without the genius and weight of purpose, I am not impressed. Reckless disregard is ugly and unsophisticated. If you design a garment sure to be a trigger, and send it down the runway to be seen across the globe, I’d like to see intention. If you’re called to the carpet for causing people pain, I’d like to see you be brave enough to own your intention. And if you genuinely feel bad and want to make an apology, do it right. Listen to the people you harmed. Try to understand their perspective and their experience. Validate their feelings. Admit where you went wrong, and ask how you can do better. Don’t get infantile and defensive and whine self-absorbedly about how you “didn’t mean to,” waahhh. It wasn’t my intention just isn’t enough, and it begs the question: what was your intention? Did you have any intention at all? Were you even thinking? FYI, no one’s buying the “nautical theme” song and dance, so you can give that up.

I am not against pain per se. It’s okay with me if you present pain in your art - so do I. Give me your pain. I can handle it. And if I can’t, I’ll look the other way and figure my shit out later. If your creative purpose is to process your life experience, to connect with humanity, to touch someone’s heart, to move people or make us feel, to make a statement of some kind, then as a fellow artist I can abide, whether I like your design or not. Those are righteous purposes - self-indulgence is not. That’s called sadism. Neither is sales - there’s a word for that, too: greed. And if you’re a highly visible and deeply influential global luxury fashion house with more than 150 years to your name, and you truly didn’t know what kinds of responses a noose dangling from the neck of a young model walking down the runway might evoke - if this was truly unintentional - that’s just plain stupid.

Ricardo Tisci via Evening Standard

So, which is it, Burberry? Are you sadistic: Did you know this would trigger pain and decide to do it anyway? Are you greedy: Were you thinking about the publicity and the money you might make? Are you stupid: Did you really have no idea this could trigger distress related to mental health? Is there another explanation I’m failing to consider? Was this artistic commentary I’m just not comprehending?

In Tisci’s “apology,” he said, “I realize that it was insensitive.” Did he realize this before the show? And if so, why did he proceed with the piece? Or, did he realize this only after Liz Kennedy courageously called him out? And if that’s the case, how is it possible that this level of ignorance exists in the upper echelons of fashion?

Any way you slice this, the hoodie still boils down to signal disturbing systemic deficiencies in the industry.

As a millennial consumer who has purchased Burberry product, I feel discarded, disregarded, trivialized. I feel like my suffering with mental health has been commercialized. I want a reason to keep the fabulous hot pink silk doodle dress I invested in last season, but I’m afraid if I wear it again, it might trigger me or someone who sees it on the street. I used to feel amazing in that dress. I got so many compliments every time I wore it.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, or if you have been impacted by suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.

Cover image via SBS News