Designer Jeremy Scott has found himself at the epicenter of a controversy after his latest illegal alien campaign, according to Cosmopolitan. Earlier this week, Scott, who is the creative director of Moschino, posted a photo on Instagram previewing his Fall 2018 collection, which boasted a painted-blue Gigi Hadid modeling in an orange Jackie-O frock, captioning the photo with “THE ONLY THING ILLEGAL ABOUT THIS IMMIGRANT IS HOW GOOD SHE LOOKS.”
Nylon reports that the collection was based on the conspiracy of former President John F. Kennedy believing in aliens and indulging his conspiracies to Marilyn Monroe. However, the creative aspect of the collection went unnoticed, after Scott received backlash for his ~untimely~ choice of words.
The backlash springs off of the recent immigrant status in the United States. With children being separated from their parents at the Mexico-U.S. border, detention center conditions including sleeping in cages with a sheet of aluminum foil for a blanket and President Trump’s lack of empathy, it’s pretty difficult to see anything creative about that.
Scott later clarified his caption, replying to one user, “THE ENTIRE CONCEPT OF MY AD CAMPAIGN WAS TO BRING ATTENTION TO THE US ADMINISTRATION’S HARSH STANCE TOWARDS ‘ILLEGAL ALIENS’,” according to Hello Giggles. “I PAINTED THE MODELS IN MY SHOW AND THIS CAMPAIGN AS A WAY TO BRING ATTENTION TO THIS AND DISCUSS WHAT EXACTLY IS AN ‘ALIEN’ ARE THEY ORANGE BLUE YELLOW GREEN ? NO THEY ARE OUR FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, CO WORKERS, RELATIVES AND PEOPLE WE LOVE.”
Even though creativity is in the eye of the beholder, using real-life, harsh situations is not the way to go. Scott’s post is still up, which means he’s pretty much sticking to his guns. Hopefully, Moschino will deliver this year’s collection in better taste.