A US fashion label has come under intense criticism for a series of sweat shirts debuted at New York Fashion Week.
Rising Atlanta brand Bstroy made international headlines for showcasing garments featuring bullet-like holes and names of schools that had experienced mass shootings.
Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Columbine were emblazoned by the brand across hoodies in their Spring 2020 collection “Samsara” - a Sanskrit word that roughly translates to rebirth.
"Sometimes life can be painfully ironic. Like the irony of dying violently in a place you consider to be a safe, controlled environment, like school," designer Brick Owens said.
But critics have slammed the hoodies as ‘disrespectful’ and ‘tasteless’.
Comments under the brand’s social posts were less than welcoming of the designs.
Some called the hoodies “garbage”, others said Bstroy was “creating conversation,”
Delaney Tarr - who on Valentine’s Day last year hid in a cupboard in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida while a former student murdered 17 of her peers -- did not feel as philosophical about Bstroy’s collection.
And many more followed suit tweeting their distaste with the label:
anyone rockin w those bstroy bullet hole hoodies is a clown
Some believed that shock value was the whole point.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety - an independent organisation working to reduce gun violence in the US - there have been at least 66 incidents of gunfire on school grounds already this year.
In a statement sent to MTV, Bstroy co-founder Dieter Grams defended the designs.
He said the garments were designed to make a comment on gun violence, and the need for ‘preventative’ action.
“.. while also empowering the survivors of tragedy through storytelling in the clothes.”
Grams also added that the brand never intended to sell the hoodies - they would just include them in the show.
Bstroy has previously been featured in an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians working alongside Kanye West and they held a past NYFW show in a funeral home called “Will You Bury Me.”
“We are making violent statements,” Du said to media earlier this year. “That’s for you to know who we are, so we can have a voice in the market. But eventually that voice will say things that everyone can wear.”
The designers stated that they are designing for the “neo-native” era. This is a time in the future they believe will happen after the apocalypse, when “those who have survived will begin building things anew”.
This is not the first political statement to be made at this year’s NYFW.
Indya Moore, star of the widely acclaimed show Pose about the Ballroom scene in New York in the nineties, was applauded last week for their earrings honouring the 16 (now 17) black trans women who had been murdered in the US so far this year.
"This year, sixteen known women were taken from us," Indya Moore said in a speech at the annual Fashion Media Awards where they were awarded Cover of the Year for Elle Magazine’s June Issue.
"On this day that I'm celebrated and awarded for being visible, I decided to bring them with me, I'm wearing them on my ears as earrings," they said.
"I accept this award in honour of the truth, the best award and the award that we all deserve is to be able to get home safe,"
