• Esperanza Spalding, the woman whose Grammy win incited angry shrieks from a billion indignant teenage girls, covers this month’s T magazine. Catch the issue this weekend in the New York Times Sunday edition. (WWD)
• What’s up with these mega-retailers’ suppliers? If you thought Forever 21‘s ripoff-happy suppliers were bad, they don’t hold a candle to Zara‘s! The “designer-inspired” fast fashion chain has been charged with 52 violations by Brazil’s Ministry of Labor and Employment after discovering the terrible working conditions at their suppliers’ factory. Investigations found employees forced to work 16-hour shifts for significantly less than minimum wage, as well as “15 foreign workers from Bolivia and Peru, including a 14-year-old girl, working under slave-like conditions”. Workers were forbidden to leave the factory. The investigation does not end there, as the Ministry of Labor suspects 30 more factories operate under similar conditions! (Coco Perez)
• Here’s Beyoncé‘s commercial for her newest fragrance, Pulse. In it, she instructs us to “feel the power,” like we don’t already. That slinky, high heeled, heavy-footed stride is enough instruction, thank you very much! (Beauty is Diverse)
• Stylelist takes us behind the scenes of W Magazine‘s highly anticipated September issue, styled by editor-at-large Lori Goldstein. I suppose this is meant to hold me over as I impatiently wait for the issue to arrive in my mailbox. (Stylelist)
• Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War, A new book on the life of Coco Chanel by Hal Vaughan, claims she was extremely anti-semitic and acted as a Nazi spy during World War II. The design house holding her namesake, Chanel, says these accusations are erroneous: “Such insinuations cannot go unchallenged. She would hardly have formed a relationship with the family of the owners or counted Jewish people among her close friends and professional partners such as the Rothschild family, the photographer Irving Penn or the well-known French writer Joseph Kessel had these really been her views. It is unlikely. We also know that she and Churchill were close friends for a long time. She apparently approached him about acting as an intermediary between the Allies and the Germans for a peace settlement known as Operation Modelhut. No one knows for sure exactly what happened or what her role was to be.” And there’s the phrase that pays, right before our eyes: “No one knows for sure exactly what happened.” At this point, do you think it would matter if she were indeed a Nazi sympathizer? (Vogue UK)
~Jihan
August 19, 2011 10:51 am
Ummm yeah…it matters if she were a Nazi sympathizer….
August 19, 2011 11:01 am
yup…I think it would matter.
August 19, 2011 11:24 am
It would significantly dampen my enthusiasm for spending $3600 on the 1.55 the way I originally intended. I can’t do business like that. For similar reasons, I don’t eat Lindt chocolate or purchase Volkswagons. Hitler is a no-go for me.
August 19, 2011 11:30 am
Ummm, Walt Disney was an anti-Semite and people steady going to Disneyland, riding the damn teacups. So, no I don’t think it would matter for a lot of people.
August 19, 2011 11:35 am
Coco was an anti semite, Karl doesn’t put black women in his shows..And that Esperanza cover?? I’d put that on my wall..
August 19, 2011 12:12 pm
Shame on Zara and I love that store! smh
August 19, 2011 12:58 pm
The Chanel Fashion House has proven time and time again they do not like minorities. Karl L. doesn’t want anything to do with black models in his show. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Coco had been Anti-Semitic. It was very common in her era to be outwardly racist. At that point in time, being outwardly racist didn’t affect people’s bottom lines. I would never buy anything by Chanel (but Marc Jacobs or Jason Wu can get a splurge every now and then…)
August 19, 2011 2:34 pm
this Zara thing is beyond a disappointment! smh and kmt!
although i am not in the market for Chanel priced garments. i think this would prevent me from buying that brand.
we just can not get in the habit of supporting things and people that support oppression, negativity and exclusion of Races. (coco and you too Karl) being a “genuis” doesnt give you the right…
i am a conscious person in general and i won’t falter in my beliefs for a jacket or some boots.
whats really important folks?
August 19, 2011 3:34 pm
Face it. All of the Mega Multi-Corps are have slave labor, child labor and every other wicked thing going on you can think of. The ads are a whitewash to pacify us while we shop their stores.
It’s called Slavery 2.0.
August 21, 2011 10:45 am
really, i already knew. and who are the main people who fall victim to brand names that dont like them, blacks.
August 21, 2011 6:24 pm
it does matter its a shame that question should even be asked.
Zara smh i love that store damn you lol…
and fyi american corps like aetna and ny life insurance directly profited from slavery but no one cares or thinks slavery or the holocaust is of importance which is a shame, and what makes it even worse is that people (black ppl) who are still affected by what happened even 150+ yrs ago act as if its not that big of a deal and that we should just get over it…i just cant sometimes… ill never wear chanel again though!
August 23, 2011 8:31 am
[...] While Esperanza Spalding covers T Magazine’s Fall 2011 issue, Solange Knowles, Corrine Bailey Rae, June Temple and Helene & Celia Faussart of Les Nubians [...]
February 25, 2012 6:56 am
I find it amazing that so many Americans are happy to boycott European companies (Volkswagen, seriously?, they are a completely different company now) when they are – most likely – living on land which was stolen from the Native Americans who were then exterminated and the survivors “allowed” to live in “reservations”. The US of A was founded on genocide and greed. And this is how it still carries on. At least the vast majority of Germans look at their past and are horrified by what happened. It gets taught in schools to every single child as it should so history does not repeat itself and Germans are deeply ashamed of what happened. Can you say the same about Americans? Or the English with their “Empire” (euphemism for exploitation and slavery)? Or the Australians and the Maori?