Fashion's Most Controversial Moments

Today's post is all about fashion's most talked about moments from controversial ads to questionable clothing and accessories designs. Many of these controversies have angered a good number of people across the globe and in some cases, the individuals responsible for these altercations were punished and revoked of their positions. Fashion is a completely unique and individual thing these days, an indication of someon's personality or wealth and even beliefs. Many years ago, the most inappropraiate thing was when women showed their ankles on television. Actresses like Audrey Hepburn were expected to wear skirts and dresses that covered the entire length of their legs and if an ankle was shown, you were considered vulgar. Obviously, that rule has changed as now on certain films and tv shows, actors and actresses will be shown completely nude. Fashion is always evolving and as time goes on, people become more accepting of things like that and people are able to assert their independence more and not worry about being told that they are not allowed to wear that. These fashion moments on the other hand, are more offensive than they are asserting independence and individuality. While some are not nearly as bad as others, they all are quite controversial.

1. The Prada smoking lips shoes- The main reason people didn't like this design was because of the implication that smoking is cool and smoking is fashionable. It also, for some reason, got people guessing whether the designer had added sexual references to it. I think the shoes are cute, although I'm not a fan of smoking, I would probably wear these; they make a statement, they give something people to look at.

2. The Offensive Heart Dress- This dress, from a quick glance, looks super adorable with it's pastel candy hearts, but if you look closer youll' see that in these hearts a written little sayings like, "Blow Me", "Drink Poison", "Eat Shit", "Please Drown", and "Choke". Now perhaps if this were a woman over 18 wearing this dress it wouldn't be as offensive but this is a TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRL. The girl in the dress is Iris Frost, the daughter of Sadie Frost (ex-wife of Jude Law). Sadie later apologized on twitter saying neither of them had any intention to offend anyone. Right. Well, not to tell this woman how to parent her daughter, but to let your 12 year old daughter go out wearing a dress that says "blow me", how is that okay? What kind of message does she think that sends to others?

3. The Sex Shoes- These Christian Louboutin 'sex shoes' caused a bit of controversy. Katy Perry wears them in the image above and unless you are up in person looking at her feet, you wouldn't be able to see that when the shoes are together, it spells 'sex'. I think this is pretty mild compared to some other stuff I've seen, but it still makes the list.

4. Zazzle's Pro-Ana Shirts- A long time ago model Kate Moss came up with the famous pro-skinny slogan "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels!" Zazzle began designing and selling these shirts on their website. TO CHILDREN. So, it's pretty much promoting eating disorders in young girls. As if girls and women dont' already feel enough pressure to have the "perfect body", this just kind of takes it too far. The company was immediately told to put down the images and to stop the selling of the products.

5. American Apparel Ad Girls- There are so many things that are wrong with this picture. This ad was made by Chief executive of American Apparel, Dov Charney, who was later fired. He allegedly posed with a topless model simulating oral sex and then having a woman fake an orgasm in photo in order to sell. Not only is this ad offensive but racist as well. "Made in Bangladesh". This angered many people causing them to wonder, do we really live in a world where young girls are so desparate to be somebody that they will agree to photoshoots like this?

6. Contain your Excitement- In 2012, this Harvey Nichols ad caused many people to feel quite uncomfortable. People were debatnig whether they were implying sexual arousal or just urination. Either way, pretty nasty; no thanks.

7. "Black Face" - In 2009, Vogue Paris featured a 14-page editorial spread starring the Dutch supermodel Lara Stone. In photos it's said that the model is wearing 'a black face'. While France and Australia both lack the racism of the American past, the act of painting a white woman to appear as a black woman is enough to cause people in all countries some distress.

8. Abercrombie and Fitch - Earlier in an interview with the CEO of the company, he happily admitted that he refuses to sell clothes over size 10 with people over the world outraged, saying that it will encourage bullying by rejecting the diversity of young children. I am not totally sure what the CEO's thought process on this was but he might have been making an attempt to encourage children to lose weight to be healthy and thin enough to wear their clothing. Whatever his idea was, whether it was meant to be offensive or not, it's not right to deny anybody the right of shopping for their own size at a store.

9. The Meat Dress - Lady Gaga made headlines when she wore the famous meat dress to the 2012 VMA's. TIME magazine named this interesting choice of outfit the biggest fashion statement of the decade. Gaga told Ellen Degeneres, who is a vegan herself, in a post-show interview, "It's certainly no disrespect to anyone that's vegan or vegetarian. As you know, I'm the most judgement-free human being on the Earth. It has many interpretations, but for me this evening it's, "if we don't stand up for what we believe in, if we dont' fight for our rights, pretty soon, we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones." She went on to explain that the dress was tied to her protest against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and was a statement against the governmental restrictions placed on the rights of gay soldiers.

Well, it certainly was a statement. While I applaud Gaga standing up for what she believes in and encourages others to do the same, she probably could have just said that without wearing a smelly dress made of meat.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and check back tomorrow for more fashion news here on Feathers and Chains. =)

-Haley xx