Gucci sold a $890 'balaclava' with red lips — during Black History Month

In early February 2019, Gucci put a $890 'Balaclava Knit Top' on sale — a black wool turtleneck that pulled up over the lower half of the face, with a cut-out and oversized red lips around the mouth. On February 6, Keisha Ka'oir tweeted: 'Today Gucci released their Balaclava Knit Top. Sigh. Really @Gucci? Really?' The backlash ran from exasperation to outrage — and it landed in Black History Month, weeks after Prada withdrew blackface-imagery keychains from a Manhattan storefront, and in the same week Virginia's governor was answering for a blackface yearbook photograph.

Gucci moved in a day. On February 7 the brand tweeted: 'Gucci deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper. We consider diversity to be a fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected, and at the forefront of every decision we make.' It confirmed the item had been 'immediately removed from our online store and all physical stores' and said it was 'fully committed to increasing diversity throughout our organization and turning this incident into a powerful learning moment for the Gucci team and beyond.'

The reckoning kept going. On February 13, creative director Alessandro Michele wrote to Gucci's 18,000 employees that the sweater had been a tribute to performance artist Leigh Bowery, but added: 'The fact that, contrarily to my intentions, that turtle-neck jumper evoked a racist imagery causes me the greatest grief. It is therefore necessary taking full accountability.' Gucci's chief executive agreed to fly from Italy to Harlem to meet Daniel 'Dapper Dan' Day, while Michele promised 'a series of immediate actions across the world' on inclusivity and cultural awareness.