Found this article & I just had to share with you guys. The article’s a little old, it’s from July. Perhaps some of you have already seen it or something related to the story, but for those who haven’t thought it only right to diffuse it. Sorry for being tardy, but I hadn’t visited the website which I found it on in a while and so I missed it when if first came out. Weird, it’s such an important story, can’t believe I never ran into it anywhere else. The article is from AboutFace.com a site dedicated to fighting and changing a “toxic media environment” for everyone, but especially focusing on being a source of empowerment for : girls, young ladies, and women everywhere. They wrote an article about how MAC (the make up brand) thought it’d be so ingenious,colorful and becoming to turn the: suffering , hardships, and terror of the people of Juarez into a lucrative opportunity. “Art is controversial, it imitates life” Yes, very true! And perhaps this would have been acceptable from someone with a noble cause who sincerely wanted to make an impact for the right reasons. However, these people clearly had only one thing on their minds “Shock factor sells”. Human dignity, social consciousness ….. Not part of their product’s “color scheme”. The creators visited Jurez and gained “inspiration”, they gave night-workers the “edgy/artsy” nickname “sleepwalkers” and gave their make up shades names like: “Factory,” “Juarez,” “Ghost Town,” “del Norte,” and “Quinceanera.” An ad for the cosmetic line shows a model wearing the make up, painted up like a zombie. What do you think , artistic or tasteless?
To me this is just another example of how Mexicans and Mexican lives are seen as less. Our way of life & culture is just something amusing to be turned into a tacky gimmick and marketed. I’ve never been a person who’s been totally brand absorbed. I love fashion & if I had money to study fashion, I would in a heartbeat. It’d be my dream come true. However, my vision of what fashion & art are, totally differs from what big names sell. But, what can you say, they’re like that. They think : a girl in a bathing suit being physically subdued by a group of shirtless men in sexy, to them black face in magazines spreads is artistic…. Big names turn me off to “high fashion”. To me small businesses and underground designers is where the real art’s at.
READ THE ARTICLE AT THE FOLLOWING LINK
“Had MAC and Rodarte intended to draw attention to the horrific crimes in Juarez and raise money for the people living there, I’d be all for it. But it wasn’t until bloggers caused an uproar that MACpromised to donate “a portion of the proceeds from the collection to help those in need in Juarez.” – http://about-face.org/blog/archives/3597#more-3597
★MeGaSuPer Chido y + 