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Prada employees to receive ‘sensitivity training’ following racism controversies
Luxury Italian label required to appoint diversity and inclusion officer
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Your support makes all the difference.Prada employees are to undergo “sensitivity training” following accusations of racism against the Italian fashion house.
In December 2018, the luxury label was criticised for placing “Pradamalia” figurines that resembled monkeys “in blackface” outside its downtown New York City shop.
Prada swiftly withdrew the dolls from display and circulation, issuing a statement apologising for the “imaginary creatures” that it said were “not intended to have any reference to the real world and certainly not blackface”.
On 4 February, Prada signed a deal with the New York City Commission on Human Rights that will see all of its New York employees, including Miuccia Prada herself, receive training designed to educate the company and encourage it to engage in employment outreach with minority communities, the New York Times reports.
As part of the deal, Prada’s progress on diversity and inclusivity will be monitored for the next two years by an external body.
The company will also be required to appoint a diversity and inclusion officer in the next 120 days.
It will be this person’s responsibility to review every single one of Prada’s designs before they are sold in the US to ensure they comply with diversity standards.
The news follows Prada’s establishment of a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council in February 2019 with the aim of closing the “inclusion gap” in the fashion industry and elevating “voices of colour within the company and the fashion industry at-large”.
The council, chaired by director Ava DuVernay and the artist Theaster Gates, was created long before the deal with the New York City Commission on Human Rights.
Prada is not the only luxury label to address accusations of racism in recent years.
In July last year, Gucci appointed a new diversity chief following criticisms over a jumper it released that shoppers accused of “resembling blackface”.
The “balaclava jumper”, which featured a cut-out at the mouth and red lips, was removed from sale and an apologetic statement was released by Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele.
Five months later, the company announced Renée Tirado as its new diversity chief.
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