Gucci Extends Lease in Trump Tower

In 2017, it was called out for releasing a jacket that looked remarkably like one designed decades before by Dapper Dan, a.k.a. Daniel Day, a Black couturier in Harlem. In response, the brand reached out to him, placing him in an ad for its men’s tailoring and collaborating with him on a luxury boutique.

Soon after, it announced an initiative called Gucci Equilibrium, intended in part to improve diversity and inclusion in the company.

But in 2019, Gucci pulled an $890 sweater criticized for evoking blackface from the market. And its leadership team, along with that of its parent company, Kering, remains dominated by white men (Kering does have one Black board member).

Although the decision by Gucci executives to renew the lease at 725 Fifth Avenue came before protesters with confederate flags stormed the Capitol back in January, Mr. Trump’s associations with white supremacists was hardly unknown in 2020, said Kailee Scales. Ms. Scales is the former managing director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network and a principal at ThinkFree Global Strategies, a boutique company that guides brands such as Amazon and Sprite on marketing strategies involving social justice issues.

“This is a time,” she said, “where brands, organizations and individuals around the world are reckoning with racial equity and working to address and dismantle the systems that led us to witness one of the most horrifying moments in history — the murder of George Floyd.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/fashion/trump-gucci.html