Prada sold 'fantasy' monkey charms with red lips — until a visitor walked past

Pradamalia was Prada's line of accessories characters — dark, monkey-like figures with oversized red lips, sold as a $280 leather card holder, a $550 keychain and a $750 mini-bag, with larger display versions staged through the SoHo store's windows. On December 13, 2018, Chinyere Ezie passed the storefront and posted on Facebook: 'I walked past Prada's Soho storefront only to be confronted with the very same racist and denigrating #blackface imagery' — she had just visited the Smithsonian's exhibit on blackface. Her post, calling for a boycott, drew thousands of reactions.

Prada's answer came the next day: 'Prada Group abhors racist imagery. The Pradamalia are fantasy charms composed of elements of the Prada oeuvre. They are imaginary creatures not intended to have any reference to the real world and certainly not blackface. We abhor all forms of racism and racist imagery. We will withdraw all of the characters in question from display and circulation.' The items came down from stores and the website. 'History cannot continue to repeat itself,' Ezie had written. 'Black America deserves better. And we demand better.'

What made the episode resonate was the gap between the two readings: a design studio's imaginary creatures, and a street-level image with a century of specific meaning behind it. The year had already brought H&M's 'coolest monkey in the jungle' hoodie; next came Gucci's balaclava sweater and Burberry's noose — Prada's withdrawal was the first of a season of pulled products, each one closed with an apology and a promise of internal change.