Fashion brand Diesel is facing criticism for selling a £350 bomber jacket covered in a homophobic slur. The ‘satin bomber jacket with all-over print’ features the word ‘faggot’ stitched on the front pocket area and painted all over the back. The product description lists the jacket as part of the label’s ‘the more hate you wear, the less you care’ Ha(u)te Couture collection, which includes hoodies, T-shirts, and jackets emblazoned with hateful comments people have received. The line includes jackets with ‘not cool’ and ‘imposter’, T-shirts that read ‘slut’ and ‘the bad guy’, and hoodies covered in ‘Diesel is dead’. The idea behind the collection is that by wearing hateful comments, you can take away their power to hurt. The campaign reads: ‘Haters gonna hate? Ok. We got haters. You got haters. Everybody does.
But some argue that a homophobic slur is not the kind of ‘hate’ that should be reclaimed and commercialised. On Twitter people have described the jacket as ‘disgusting’, ‘horrific’, and ‘homophobic’.
This is disgusting from @DIESEL. Are offensive words fashion now? #homophobia this can’t be allowed pic.twitter.com/29Z6TnNJaU — Danny (@r2danny2) November 7, 2018
Seriously? I don’t need to waste £350 to increase my risk of getting queer bashed, thanks @DIESEL. People experience that for free every single day. Also, did I miss the memo about the gays reclaiming that word? No, I did not. https://t.co/NbU72ZgYna — Matt Bagwell (@BaggersBites) November 7, 2018
Please tell me this is a joke. I get the message you’re trying to convey but as a gay and a long time customer of Diesel, I’m appalled at this! @DIESEL https://t.co/JGx7BsSv5S — D@vey (@da_stone) November 7, 2018
Imagine the arrogance of a fashion brand that thinks it can change the meaning of a hate word that is still used against the LGBT+ community without their permission https://t.co/mVBrEHrrG3 — Poorna Bell (@poornabell) November 7, 2018