Maybe riding the Django wave , the Spanish ready-to-wear brand Mango, sparked controversy by releasing a range of jewelry called "slaves". A term in bad taste around which Internet users and personalities are unleashed.
Mango, fashion victim
Last week, the women's ready-to-wear brand Mango put on sale on its site a range of bracelets and necklaces with large links. If the collection has something to seduce more than one fashionista, the name of these jewels, qualified as "slave style", immediately made personalities, Internet users and unleashed the wrath of associations against racism.
This weekend, the ex-miss France Sonia Rolland, the actress Aïssa Maiga and the columnist Rokhaya Diallo launched a petition for the withdrawal of the sale of the jewels and call for a boycott of the brand. "By reducing this crime against humanity to a decorative ornament, Mango seriously fails in the ethics that such a brand should carry. Slavery is not a "style" for fashionistas in search of strong feelings , nor a commercial niche. It is a drama whose seriousness must be respected" , can we read in particular. The petition currently has nearly 5,000 signatures from Internet users, most of whom are offended on Twitter:"After Mango's slave style necklace, you'll like the deported style pajamas and the battered woman's ripped-chic jeans" ironically, for example @DavidAbiker on his account.
Big buzz or translation bug?
Faced with an onslaught of criticism, Mango on Monday withdrew the name "slave" to describe the jewelry. Above all, the brand apologized on Twitter, citing a translation error:"We regret the translation error. The corresponding services have been notified and will make the correction immediately" , we read on the official account. Indeed, in Spanish, the term "esclava" can be translated as "slave" of course, but also designates a bracelet or a chain. This qualifier is also used in the middle of jewelry, and has been for decades without it ever appealing to anyone.
But among the insurgents, the pill does not pass. Some have established the resemblance between the real slave collars and the accessories that the Spanish brand has just marketed, and shout at the bogus excuse. Still, a clumsy translation or voluntary designation of dubious taste, Mango and its bracelets have been everywhere on the web since this morning. An outcry, not necessarily missed...
