Has This Czech Fashion Group Gone Too Far?

Czech Fashion Council uses photo of drowned Syrian child Alan Kurdi in social media promo

Dave Park

Written by Dave Park Published on 17.03.2016 10:27:42 (updated on 17.03.2016) Reading time: 1 minute

The fashion industry has longthrived in the realm of self-satire. 

But a recent social media post by the local fashion collective Czech Fashion Council might be pushing the limits.

On Facebook and Instagram, the group shared an image contrasting a pair of young fashion-savvy Europeans with the widely-disseminated image of three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi lying dead on a beach in the Mediterranean.

“ITS FASHION BABY,” a speech bubble drawn on the photo attributes to the man.

Image: Instagram / Czech Fashion Council
Image: Instagram / Czech Fashion Council

The Council’s post was first picked up on by Heather O’Brien, a freelance fashion and lifestyle journalist based in Prague, who wrote about it in her blog Prague Fashion Scene.  

“I do not understand. How is this provocative? How does this push any boundaries; other than that of basic decency?” she wrote.

It isn’t exactly clear what the photo, and particularly the speech bubble, is intended to mean. But the sharp contrast between fashionable European youngsters and the dead Syrian child is immediately evident.

The post appears to be self-aware satire, but does it go too far?

The Czech Fashion Council describes itself on Facebook as “a civic association devoted to representing, supporting, and promoting Czech fashion at home and abroad.”

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